HK
The plane:
17-hour direct flight. Over the north. Hi-tech experiences with flight attendants feeding you endlessly every hour or so, coming around with drinks, snacks, rice/veggies/pork, ice cream, more drinks, sandwiches, instant noodles, even more drinks and snacks, mini-dim sum and again more drinks. If I was consuming alcohol every time they offered us a drink, I’d be passed out for the entire 17hours.
Touch-screens on the back of every head rest provided enough entertainment for the trip. With international movies, television shows, games and an interactive satellite view of the entire flight with stats, I wouldn’t mind being trapped in a cramped vessel for a day more often. Watching episodes off the BBC, to animated shorts from Australia, to avant-garde films from South America, it was like buffet of global culture and a breathe of fresh air from mono-perspective of North America.
My favorite part of the international airplane cultural experience was the film “Drink, Drank, Drunk” a Chinese romantic comedy about a girl who cannot get drunk no matter how much she drinks. The film touches upon issues of inner beauty vs superficiality, pressure to marry as one ages, pressure to be beautiful/youthful and settling down. The film provides a Chinese view of Western culture. In the movie there is a French-Chinese pretty-boy aspiring to own his own restaurant. All the girls fawned over him wondering if he has abs like Brad Pitt or is promiscuous and into casual sex like Western-washed boys are. It was also amusing to see Chinese actors grimace at the sight of gourmet French food like blue cheese and commenting on the strange textures of the food, similar to when some Westerners encounter foreign foods. It was nice for once to get the reverse perspective. I was starting to suffocate continually getting a uni-directional dialogue in North America (which is partially why I hated “Lost In Translations” – simply Westerners alienated by a culture they don’t understand – deeming the East foreign and unknown, strange and weird). This time it was the East talking back. The Western and French inclusion in the film rang to me of Montreal. It spoke to me on a number of levels. Hilarious and fun - it is the best romantic comedy I’ve seen in a long time.
Asia is modernizing at hyper-speed. It is no longer a foreign and traditional third-world country. So late to modernize, China is newer than the new, despite the civilization is amongst the oldest in the world. Though Communist rule has slowed and stifled industrial development it is now accelerating beyond control. The culture is now more open to Western influence and the newer generation is increasingly developing a style and contemporary view of their own separate from heavy Chinese tradition.
Stepping off the plane, the humidity hits you in the face. The island is beautiful with lush green foliage and sub-tropical weather similar to that of Florida. The air is different and much heavier. Even from the plane the Hong Kong skyline is filled with hundred and hundreds of 40 story high apartment buildings, identical and scattered throughout the mountain along the water. Huge, highly stylized skyscrapers decorate the downtown core. The architecture is immense, extremely modern and hi-tech like in Metropolis minus the flying cars. The city feels like a newer/cleaner Asian New York with giant Prada ads and brand new ultra-modern malls like the IFC mall. The city is booming – it makes New York look like a rusty rig. The subways are brand new and immaculate. Large glass doors slide open and shut as the subways arrive. The windows block people from the tracks entirely, only sliding open when the train arrives. The subways ring Cantonese, Mandarin and English (British with an strong accent) translations on the PA. Getting by with English in Hong Kong is like English in Montreal. The British influence makes HK feel even more like a hybrid city. I feel rather comfortable and strangely at home. Perhaps I am accustomed to being in an environment where I don’t entirely understand everything that is being spoken.
China Inc.: How the rise of the next superpower challenges America and the world by Ted C Fishman, was a gift from my father. A book on the rise of the Chinese economy and the threat it poses to the American economy (which tends to be the main concern of books like this). The note on the inside cover says:
To: Tiffany and Ashley,
Read this book and understand how China is influencing the world.
- Dad 2005
A book on business and economy (typical of my Dad) it is a thoughtful and relevant gift I can no doubt divulge something from.
The book essentially talks about how through-the-floor production costs, working wages and work standards is attracting US manufactures (taking away jobs from the States). Since corporations don’t have to spend much on wages, money can now go to improving quality of the materials. With the communist rule loosening up on the private market, millions of mainlanders are flooding into the cities to make money for their family on the farms. They are dead broke and willing to work for pennies. The west is realizing the potential and investing in the country. Workers now have money to start their own businesses, which are increasingly competitive as Chinese business owners are learning from foreign investors. They are able to make cheaper and increasingly better quality knockoffs - original marketers cannot compete. They are able to make things at low costs with better materials and they have a growing market (the population that’s migrating to the cities and making more money) to tap. There is also a growing number of high-educated young people ready and eager to work. With such leniency to economic rules, China's market (with so much power with the large population,) can indeed redefine the rules for the world. The country is building up at high speed. Nice cars, investing in new architecture, and the highest technologies. It is developing its own critical edge on the Western urban way of life. Next once the financial state and economy is fully bloomed, I believe culture and the arts will begin to develop and blossom further.
Strength in numbers.
First impressions : very new, hi-tech, modern, not foreign, booming, clean, little poverty (in the main city). Kowloon (on shore from HK island) has beautiful markets with tons of cheap knockoff goods. They have streets dedicated to types of goods – for example flower street for flowers, sports street for sporting goods. This is the market setting up shop for the day. Insanely cheap fake everything. More to come.
Article from Tiny Mix Tapes
More on art/music/less urbanized discoveries to come....
British Presence / Western presence
Filipino nanny culture / sundays
Happy Valley - the HK Beverley Hills
Chinese New Year
clothes,music,art,food,culture
17-hour direct flight. Over the north. Hi-tech experiences with flight attendants feeding you endlessly every hour or so, coming around with drinks, snacks, rice/veggies/pork, ice cream, more drinks, sandwiches, instant noodles, even more drinks and snacks, mini-dim sum and again more drinks. If I was consuming alcohol every time they offered us a drink, I’d be passed out for the entire 17hours.
Touch-screens on the back of every head rest provided enough entertainment for the trip. With international movies, television shows, games and an interactive satellite view of the entire flight with stats, I wouldn’t mind being trapped in a cramped vessel for a day more often. Watching episodes off the BBC, to animated shorts from Australia, to avant-garde films from South America, it was like buffet of global culture and a breathe of fresh air from mono-perspective of North America.
My favorite part of the international airplane cultural experience was the film “Drink, Drank, Drunk” a Chinese romantic comedy about a girl who cannot get drunk no matter how much she drinks. The film touches upon issues of inner beauty vs superficiality, pressure to marry as one ages, pressure to be beautiful/youthful and settling down. The film provides a Chinese view of Western culture. In the movie there is a French-Chinese pretty-boy aspiring to own his own restaurant. All the girls fawned over him wondering if he has abs like Brad Pitt or is promiscuous and into casual sex like Western-washed boys are. It was also amusing to see Chinese actors grimace at the sight of gourmet French food like blue cheese and commenting on the strange textures of the food, similar to when some Westerners encounter foreign foods. It was nice for once to get the reverse perspective. I was starting to suffocate continually getting a uni-directional dialogue in North America (which is partially why I hated “Lost In Translations” – simply Westerners alienated by a culture they don’t understand – deeming the East foreign and unknown, strange and weird). This time it was the East talking back. The Western and French inclusion in the film rang to me of Montreal. It spoke to me on a number of levels. Hilarious and fun - it is the best romantic comedy I’ve seen in a long time.
Asia is modernizing at hyper-speed. It is no longer a foreign and traditional third-world country. So late to modernize, China is newer than the new, despite the civilization is amongst the oldest in the world. Though Communist rule has slowed and stifled industrial development it is now accelerating beyond control. The culture is now more open to Western influence and the newer generation is increasingly developing a style and contemporary view of their own separate from heavy Chinese tradition.
Stepping off the plane, the humidity hits you in the face. The island is beautiful with lush green foliage and sub-tropical weather similar to that of Florida. The air is different and much heavier. Even from the plane the Hong Kong skyline is filled with hundred and hundreds of 40 story high apartment buildings, identical and scattered throughout the mountain along the water. Huge, highly stylized skyscrapers decorate the downtown core. The architecture is immense, extremely modern and hi-tech like in Metropolis minus the flying cars. The city feels like a newer/cleaner Asian New York with giant Prada ads and brand new ultra-modern malls like the IFC mall. The city is booming – it makes New York look like a rusty rig. The subways are brand new and immaculate. Large glass doors slide open and shut as the subways arrive. The windows block people from the tracks entirely, only sliding open when the train arrives. The subways ring Cantonese, Mandarin and English (British with an strong accent) translations on the PA. Getting by with English in Hong Kong is like English in Montreal. The British influence makes HK feel even more like a hybrid city. I feel rather comfortable and strangely at home. Perhaps I am accustomed to being in an environment where I don’t entirely understand everything that is being spoken.
China Inc.: How the rise of the next superpower challenges America and the world by Ted C Fishman, was a gift from my father. A book on the rise of the Chinese economy and the threat it poses to the American economy (which tends to be the main concern of books like this). The note on the inside cover says:
To: Tiffany and Ashley,
Read this book and understand how China is influencing the world.
- Dad 2005
A book on business and economy (typical of my Dad) it is a thoughtful and relevant gift I can no doubt divulge something from.
The book essentially talks about how through-the-floor production costs, working wages and work standards is attracting US manufactures (taking away jobs from the States). Since corporations don’t have to spend much on wages, money can now go to improving quality of the materials. With the communist rule loosening up on the private market, millions of mainlanders are flooding into the cities to make money for their family on the farms. They are dead broke and willing to work for pennies. The west is realizing the potential and investing in the country. Workers now have money to start their own businesses, which are increasingly competitive as Chinese business owners are learning from foreign investors. They are able to make cheaper and increasingly better quality knockoffs - original marketers cannot compete. They are able to make things at low costs with better materials and they have a growing market (the population that’s migrating to the cities and making more money) to tap. There is also a growing number of high-educated young people ready and eager to work. With such leniency to economic rules, China's market (with so much power with the large population,) can indeed redefine the rules for the world. The country is building up at high speed. Nice cars, investing in new architecture, and the highest technologies. It is developing its own critical edge on the Western urban way of life. Next once the financial state and economy is fully bloomed, I believe culture and the arts will begin to develop and blossom further.
Strength in numbers.
First impressions : very new, hi-tech, modern, not foreign, booming, clean, little poverty (in the main city). Kowloon (on shore from HK island) has beautiful markets with tons of cheap knockoff goods. They have streets dedicated to types of goods – for example flower street for flowers, sports street for sporting goods. This is the market setting up shop for the day. Insanely cheap fake everything. More to come.
Article from Tiny Mix Tapes
More on art/music/less urbanized discoveries to come....
British Presence / Western presence
Filipino nanny culture / sundays
Happy Valley - the HK Beverley Hills
Chinese New Year
clothes,music,art,food,culture
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