You can get some pretty strange results if you mix together things that don’t really seem compatible. Like those clumps you get if you mix something acidic with milk.
That’s how I feel about Hong Kong sometimes: a strange love child between Britain and China.
I love to visit Hong Kong. I love the food, I love the shopping, I even love the public transit system. That being said, I always find something strange about Hong Kong’s mix of East and West. Well, three things actually, since my last visit there this past September – things that stood out in an amusing way, not necessarily good or bad. Just amusing.
1. The Hollywood-ization of English teachers
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of really bad advertising campaigns by private English language schools. These advertisements look like movie billboards and the teachers look like movie stars. You’ll find the posters everywhere – they’re on the MTR subway system, they’re on buses, they’re on bus stop shelters, they’re on billboards – and they’re the epitome of cheesy.
It’s said that non-Chinese people are preferred as teachers because of the perception that they can speak English better. That kind of makes sense, right? If you wanted to learn Mandarin, you’d probably be inclined to pick someone who looks Chinese over, say, a European, right?
Funny enough, none of these “movie posters” feature billboards of non-Chinese teachers. Maybe this is about schools working against the stereotype because they feel they need to compete with schools that have a non-Asian teachers.
Whatever their reason, my advice: please, please, please stop.
2. You can find a lot of really weird, ugly sneakers
You can buy almost anything in Hong Kong. Football (er, soccer) is really popular there and even my favourite team, Real Madrid, relies on sales of shirts and other merchandise to fund their admittedly obscene transfer policy. Still, I wasn’t prepared for this sight.
Wandering around Sneaker Street in Mong Kok looking for new Adidas Superstars, I came across Real Madrid-branded shoes (and yes, those are a pair of Chelsea-branded shoes behind). One part of me can’t believe that the club would really sell anything in order to make a buck, because let’s face it – they’re ugly!
One part of me can’t believe that anyone would actually buy them, which may or may not be true, since they’re obviously on sale from $539HKD to $329HKD.
But the scariest thing of all is that a small part of me actually wanted a pair of my own.
3. Real-life Monopoly money
I think Hong Kong can be viewed as one massive experiment on free market economy. There’s no sales tax, low income taxes, amd little government intervention. In fact, the government does so little, it’s not even in the money-printing business. This, from what I have seen in my travels, is the lone exception to all the state-issued currency around the world.
Even the US government controls the printing of their dollars and they are (supposedly) the bastion of capitalism and free trade.
Instead of a central bank and a mint, the task of creating paper money has been delegated to three banks: HSBC, Bank of China, and Standard Chartered. Thankfully, there is an agreement or some kind of oversight regarding the size and colours of each denomination, but the design of each bill is up to the banks.
I find it rather amusing that banks have this responsibility – and three of them at that. Come to think of it, it’s probably better that it’s three banks and not just one – what would happen if it went bankrupt?
Stay tuned for reports on the perils of Chinese overnight trains and a night of camping along the Great Wall.
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Steven Wong is a Toronto native and serious traveller who is always looking for the next adventure and destination. He is currently taking on China bit by bit. For more travelling vicariously through him, go to: stevenwong.ca.