I like coffee. In fact, I like coffee much more than tea. This preference was easy to indulge when I lived in Seattle, where getting a cup of coffee is not a difficult task. It became much more difficult in England, where quite often what is passed off as coffee is actually some sort of instant coffee drink with lots of milk and sugar (to my mind instant coffee is not really coffee). I didn’t know what to expect when I moved to Hong Kong. I worried that the cultural residue of being a British colony, combined with the modern relationship with China would mean that in Hong Kong a good cup of coffee would be hard to find. Tea? Easy. Coffee, well what to expect? Continue reading
Tag Archives: Asia
Whither the light?
The hour just after sunrise and the one again before sunset are the Golden Hours according to photography wisdom. They are golden because the light is apparently softer and the shadows are fewer… or something. These technical aspects of photography are not really my thing, I must confess. I do know that the weather can influence the colours of sunrise and sunset. I also know that while the visual effects are beautiful, the physical effects of the weather can be catastrophic for those affected by it, and often those most affected are the poor. Continue reading
Every taste a new experience
While the impression one gets of Hong Kong as expressed through the landscape images of its skyline is one of hyper-modernity, there is an ordinary side of the city which is not frame-able in dialectal understandings of pre-modern and modern, nor is it reducible to the visual cleanliness and cool sterility that the global city image tries to convey. Indeed the production of the Global City image in its attempt to produce spectacle, erases the everyday and the people involved in producing that everyday. In doing so that which makes the city magnificent is also erased. Continue reading
What is in a sign?
Hong Kong is a city where you can’t escape signs. Even the buildings are signs advertising international finance and exchange. The ICC, for example, holds the Guinness World Record for having the largest light and sound show on a single building. Indeed, one of the things that makes Hong Kong a fascinating place to wander through as a tourist are the signs that visually assault you. The combination of faded paint and rusted metal, hang over the streets in such way that one wonders how in a place prone to Typhoons they could still be there. As you get your eye in, however, there is a repetition to some of the signs. You see the sign in the photograph all over Hong Kong. Supposedly representing a bat holding a coin, they are the sign indicating Continue reading
Returning
I find myself awake at 4 in the morning because I am thinking about returning. I have come to Hong Kong as a trailing spouse. It is a common story in this place, and while it is often gendered female, I can think of a number of couples where the trailing partner is male. Indeed, there is even an internet group here called Tai Guy–a pun on the reference to Tai Tai. Tai Tai are the Hong Kong equivalent to ladies who lunch… and shop… and occasionally volunteer…and attend gallery openings on the first Tuesday of the month…and shop…and sometimes start businesses…and shop. Did I mention shopping was part of being a Tai Tai? Although technically the term for wife, it isn’t a complimentary one. It implies being kept. Continue reading
Escaping poverty through low end globalisation?
This photograph is taken in Guangzhou (the city once known as Canton) at a wholesale clothing market. Most of the people in the market are not from Guangzhou. The market traders are a mix of people from China and from a number of different nations in Africa. The customers are primarily Africans. It is an international place, drawing all toward a common goal: to escape poverty through the international circulation of cell phones and clothing. Continue reading
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