Today's ad in the Apple Daily. Online users raised $100,000 HKD to campaign against Chinese mainland visitors to HK.

The locust is now synonymous for some very unwelcome mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong. Web users coined the term to describe the 28 million Chinese visitors now looked upon as marauders, bringing chaos to Hong Kong’s order and rule of law and consuming precious resources in the city.

Hong Kong residents are particularly vexed about the tens of thousands of pregnant mainland women who cross the border every year to give birth, obtaining Hong Kong benefits for their children and putting a strain on congested public hospitals. There is also much resentment towards the nouveau riche who come to the territory and splurge on luxury goods and apartments, driving up already exorbitant rents in the property market.

In less than a week, an online group raised $100,000 HK dollars to place the ad in The Apple Daily newspaper.

The advert, I fear, now signals that the gloves are off in an already vicious and long simmering dispute, dividing Hong Kong residents and those who come from the Chinese mainland.

But maybe the gloves were already off. Last week,a Beijing academic went on an internet talk show and went on a 15 minute rant, calling Hong Kong people “bastards,” “thieves” and “dogs” for insulting mainland Chinese visitors.

Illustrations featuring locusts, aka invading Chinese mainlanders, have gone viral on the internet.

But this recent blow up can be traced back to an incident in January when more than 1,000 people protested outside a Dolce & Gabbana shop. The fashion store banned locals from taking pictures outside, telling them only mainland Chinese visitors could do so.

Later, a video of a group of Hong Kong people angrily confronting a mainland Chinese family for eating on the city’s underground train network where food is banned went viral.

I totally get why the Hong Kong people are pissed. It’s a bit of an invasion. Out of the 42 million visitors Hong Kong gets each year, 28 million come from China. Though Hong Kong is now officially part of China, the two places couldn’t be more different. I have always marvelled at how clean and orderly Hong Kong is (even by Canadian standards) compared to cities in mainland China. Just crossing the border from HK to the city of Shenzhen gives travellers a stark comparison to see just how different the territory is from the mainland. The clean toilets disappear and we are met with dirty squatters. The orderly line ups in Hong Kong give way to frantic clambering and pushing. Everything changes. Even the air quality.

At Harbour City in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui, where many mainland visitors shop, it is easy to spot who comes from China and who is a local. Some of the worst stereotypes come true. The mainland shoppers move in loud, boisterous packs, line up outside Chanel and LV, squat on the sidewalks instead of finding a nearby bench, and they spit, a lot.

We lived in Hung Hom, where there was a train station directly connecting Hong Kong to Shenzhen. We watched as the apartments in our neighborhood were bought up by the Chinese. Our land lady was one of them and she was impossible to deal with. She dropped by unannounced. Even stayed a night at our place after handing us the keys and signing a one-year contract with us. In the end, she refused to return our deposit and we left Hong Kong a few thousand dollars short. The real estate agent apologized profusely to us. “These mainland Chinese,” she said. “I just can’t deal with them. They don’t listen.”

And that’s why the noodle incident caused such a big uproar. I think the Hong Kong locals shouldn’t have gotten so worked up about it, but when the family was confronted about eating on the subway, the Chinese mother of the family was defiant and unapologetic. “So we’re eating? What’s it to you?”

I get that a lot in China. “Um, there’s a line up here,” I would meekly say. “What’s it to you?” is the answer I usually get. “You line up if you want. I’ll do what I want.”

So obviously, I think the mainlanders need to be more respectful of Hong Kong’s rules. I don’t know how we can do this, how we can go about mass educating and enacting some kind of mass change of behaviour. It’s also important to remember not to hold all Chinese mainlanders accountable for the unruly behaviour of some and the hate speech of one loony professor. And finally, I can say for certain, that taking out a full page advert depicting locusts isn’t going to help.

On the eve of my departure from Hong Kong, here are a few things (in no particular order) I’ll miss about this great city, my home for the last year.

10) A most efficient city, connected by affordable and punctual buses, mini buses, double decker buses, a great subway system, trains, trams, underwater tunnels and ferries.

9) The signs that tell us to shout loudly in Cantonese at the speeding mini bus drivers, queuing them to let us off at the next stop.

Sai Kung, Hong Kong (Credit: Marc Kuo)

My neighborhood, Hung Hom, in east Kowloon. A quiet, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood filled with young families and the cutest babies in the world. Fresh markets, fresh seafood, all the stores within a few minutes walk from the apartment. Just a 6 minute mini bus ride to Tsim Sha Tsui.

7) Coming home on the iconic Star Ferry from Central – a 15-minute commute that will bring you past the stunning Hong Kong skyline for only $6 HKD (less than 1 US dollar).

6) Soft shell crab hand rolls

5) Enjoying the mountains and numerous hiking options in the region’s 23 country parks – which make up half of Hong Kong’s total land mass – and day trips to various outlying islands with fresh seafood and magnificent views of the South China Sea.

4) Kayaking in our favorite country park, Sai Kung, and jumping into clear, blue-green waters on a hot summer day.

3) Roasted Goose

2) Numerous parks across the city, teeming with healthy senior citizens practicing tai chi, using the public exercise contraptions available, and walking the stone pebble trails barefoot (for a free but painful foot massage).

1) The humble, hospitable and humorous Hong Kong locals. Thank you for a great year.

Until next time!

A visit to Cheung Chau island in Hong Kong harbor

By SUZANNE MA, For The Associated Press

Tue Jan 11, 1:02 pm ET

HONG KONG – Looking up at Hong Kong’s skyline of soaring office towers and mammoth apartment complexes, it’s hard to imagine that a short ferry ride could whisk you away from this bustling metropolis to another world — a world where there are no high rises, no cars and no crowds.

Read complete story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20110111/ap_tr_ge/as_travel_trip_hong_kong

Check out my photos here:

from silkroadproject.org

Hong Kong public schools all kind of look the same. There’s a gated entrance and the guard will ask you what you’re doing at the school before he or she will let you in. Inside the school, there’s a sort of open-air lobby. It gets drafty in here on a cold day because there’s an open courtyard no more than 10 metres away – that’s where the children queue up, ready to be taken to their classrooms.

As a volunteer teaching assistant for HK’s Council for Early Childhood Education (CECES), I met my first graders in the courtyard. I was going to teach them how to fold origami – a paper candle – in English.

The children were tiny. I bent down to chat with them and zip up their jackets.

“Are you our teacher today?” they asked in Cantonese.

“Yes,” I replied in Cantonese.

“But last week we had an English-speaking teacher.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well we’re going to teach you in English today, too.”

The children’s faces fell.

“Look, it’s going to be fun,” I promised.

The first graders don’t really have a command of English at all. They know their ABCs, but aren’t yet able to read. A few of the better students will know some basic words.

Cute but a heavy burden for HK primary school children

As we walked up to our classroom on the second floor, I noticed the children, on top of carrying heavy, over-sized backpacks, each lugged around a large plastic bag stuffed with a total of 18 soft-cover textbooks.

“What’s this?” I asked, taking some of the bags off the little ones’ hands. The children were literally dragging the bags up the steps with them.

“Our new books,” they told me.

The plastic bags were damn heavy, even for me. I don’t know how the children were expected to carry so much on their own. I took on a few more bags on our way up.

The public school system in Hong Kong has been described to me as “rigid” and “boring” – there’s a lot of lining up, a lot of memorizing text books and loads of homework. I’m told primary students in Hong Kong have to do about three to four hours of schoolwork nightly. When it comes to learning English, a second language, memorizing just isn’t going to do it.

Here I am reading to Primary 1 students in Kowloon City

That’s where CECES comes in – CECES has been developing English programs to teach the children with more “informal” techniques – a paper folding class in English, for example, a sports and theater class, and an eco-phonics class (just to name a few), where children learn English phonics through ecology-themed lessons.

The children are bright and enthusiastic. The key is to make the lessons fun. The goal is that when we show up for their after school English classes, they won’t be disappointed.

It’s also important that the children can actually see what’s being written on the chalkboard.

Over the past few months, as I’ve volunteered at a number of schools in Hong Kong, I’ve noticed children who are falling behind because they cannot see the board at the front of the classroom. They have either 1) forgotten their glasses at home 2) don’t have glasses 3) been told they shouldn’t be wearing their glasses all the time.

It reminded me of a story my Mom shared with me about growing up in Hong Kong’s public school system. My Mom had a classmate who had beautiful eyes. This classmate needed glasses, but her mother didn’t want her daughter covering up her pretty lashes. She hoped that her daughter’s vision would simply “adapt.” My Mom had two pairs of glasses, so she always lent one pair to her friend. This went on for a year until finally, the girl with pretty eyes got a pair of glasses herself.

Yesterday, I encountered yet another child who could not see the board. We were already on question 9, but this student’s worksheet was blank.

I asked him where his glasses were.

“At home,” he said. “Teachers don’t allow us to wear them in class.”

“That’s not true!” piped in his spectacled friend who sat behind him. “You can wear them in class, it’s okay.”

I told the student that I agreed. “You should be wearing your glasses whenever you’re in class,” I said.

“But my Mom said not to wear them too much,” he protested.

That’s when I thought about my Mom’s story.

Whatever miscommunications are going on, they fact is that there are children who need glasses and they should be wearing them if not all the time, but whenever they are in school.

And as for those new textbooks, well, I hope the children won’t be hauling them around everyday.

“When do you think you’ll finish reading all of them?” I asked the class playfully.

“When I’m 90!” one girl said giggling.

Volunteer with CECES

Contact:

Daniel Chan
CVC Chairperson
http://cecesvolunteers.wordpress.com
Email Daniel

Funny. One morning we were in a rural part of Zheijiang, where roosters crow and dart across roads that, these days, have become clogged with the newfound gasoline guzzling fortunes of the Chinese townspeople. And then later that night, we were having my birthday dinner up on Victoria Peak, looking over the harbour, the bright lights and the soaring office towers.

Two worlds.

I went home to Canada for Christmas break and despite the cold temperatures, it was a joy to be at home with my family. We had a lot of good food and a lot of down time. We are very much a modern family, each of us with our own PCs (or a Mac and iPad in my case, thanks to the bf for a great birthday present!) and too many television sets spread out around the house. But over the holidays, knowing that being together in the same place is so rare these days, we all gathered in the family room and watched the same HD channels. I may have been on the iPad, my brother on his iTouch, my mother on her laptop, and my Dad fiddling with his new Kindle, but we were in the same room. And that’s what really mattered.

I cried at the airport in Toronto. I was happy to return to Hong Kong for New Years. But somehow leaving family has become just a little harder these days. Must be my old(er) age.

2010 has been a most lovely year. I left New York City and moved to Hong Kong. I was reunited with the boyfriend. We had been doing the long distance thing for nearly 2 years and we had enough. I became a freelancer and managed to write for three outlets: I reported for the National Post about the masked man who boarded a flight in Hong Kong bound for Vancouver, I wrote a series of China health stories for the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and there are a couple of travel pieces I did for the Associated Press.

I became a regular volunteer with the Hong Kong Council for Early Childhood Education. I taught English phonics and reading to young children in the city’s public schools.

I made full use of our kitchen here, cooking up my Mom’s classic Cantonese recipes. (Thank very much to her for answering all my emails promptly and fielding Skype calls when I needed guidance!)

I continued with my Mandarin Chinese learning and I’m able to read and write just a little bit more. 加油！

And, there’s been a lot of traveling. I was in Holland for a dear friend’s wedding, I saw the Expo in Shanghai, climbed Mount Huangshan with my parents and ate my way through Taipei’s night markets.

2011 brings more change. As soon as I’m settled into my new life, I’ll blog about it. Thanks for reading.

Coming up: A culinary tour of Taipei’s Shilin Night Market

I visited him the last two times I was in China. He was very frail, bedridden and unable to hear very well or speak. Most of the time he was unresponsive. But we are grateful for that one time that he looked up from his bed and all of a sudden recognized my boyfriend – his grandson whom he hadn’t seen in a few years and whispered: “Ma-li-cky”, Marc’s nickname among his Chinese relatives.

That’s when I was introduced to him for the first time.

I was introduced as “Shan Shan”, my Chinese name. My boyfriend told him I was a writer. He asked if Grandpa thought I was pretty.

Grandpa worked hard to raise his bony arm up from the bed. His skeletal hand was trembling as he stuck his thumb up.

“OK!” he said rather loudly, surprising us. He then titled his head back and seemed to laugh, his toothless mouth curving in what looked like a smile.

This was my one, brief conversation I shared with Marc’s grandpa.

When he died early last week, and we found out via that email, we tried to change our plane tickets and cancel our hotel bookings in Taiwan immediately. Expats aren’t able to get Chinese visas in Taiwan, so we had to get back to Hong Kong.

We were able to schedule a flight back from Taipei to Hong Kong for Wednesday. We hoped that we could apply for a rush visa at the airport and be able to leave for China on Friday afternoon, making it in time for the early Saturday morning funeral.

It should have worked. But when we got to the airport and approached the people at the China Travel Service desk, we were told that there were new requirements for applying for a Chinese visa at this time. Because of the Guangzhou Asia Games, the Chinese visa office was requiring a booked return flight to China as well as proof of a hotel booking.

“We’re going to stay with family. There’s been a death and we are trying to make the Saturday funeral,” I said.

We were told they wouldn’t accept our application – unless we booked a flight and hotel. Conveniently, they were ready and willing to do that for us on the spot.

What about getting our visa in Wanchai, directly from the Chinese visa office? Yes, the CTS employee told us, you can do that but Wanchai has the same requirements – flight and hotel booking required. But, he said, they aren’t doing rush service anymore – because of the rush of tourists going in for the Guangzhou Asia Games – you can only do this here.

In the end, we were not able to book a flight and hotel in time. We couldn’t get our visa and we missed the funeral on Saturday.

The family, most of them now settled in Europe, all made it to China on time. Meanwhile we, so close in Hong Kong, were unable to make it.

Even though we had missed the funeral, we went first thing Monday morning to Wanchai to apply for a rush visa. Not only were we able to get a rush visa, but they never asked us for a hotel and flight booking, which we had in hand just in case.

On Tuesday, we picked up new visas and today we are flying into the mainland to visit Marc’s family. All of them are still there and we would like to pay our respects.

It’s China Travel Service that doesn’t have any respect. The man at the CTS counter lied to our faces. He knew we had to get to China for a funeral, but that didn’t matter. I’ve used CTS many times before, but now I’ll publicly say that I’ll never go to them again. This is no way to run a business.

Most of the locals here are already wearing jackets, wrapped scarves around themselves, and taken out the knee-high fashion boots (lots of boots and short shorts here). Even when it’s sunny and 25, the girls are sporting the boots. Meanwhile, this Canadian is still in her t-shirt, leggings and flip flops. I will stay this way as long as I can.

Pumpkin, carrots and a cob of corn

My favorite part of autumn has to be the appearance of pumpkins at the grocery store. The sight of a round, sturdy, orange pumpkin just makes me smile.

Surprisingly, Halloween was a big deal here in Hong Kong. People were really into the holiday, dressing up in elaborate costumes and going out to parties or to Ocean Park for the annual Halloween bash (the entire amusement park becomes one giant haunted house, it’s pretty cool).

“Hong Kong people started to celebrate Halloween maybe about 10 years ago when Ocean Park first starting holding their annual celebration,” said my hairdresser, Larry Ho, whom I often consult when trying to understand local culture.

“We never grew up celebrating Halloween, so we really embrace the chance to dress up and be someone – or something else – for the day.”

I bought a little pumpkin just before Halloween and I put it on my writing table. For a couple of weeks, it was my muse.

Then, one day, I decided it was time to chop up that pumpkin and use it in a soup.

I grew up having the privilege of sipping, slurping and savouring delicious and healthy Chinese soups thanks to my most talented Cantonese Mom (Thanks Mom!) and as I have my own kitchen now, I’ve decided to continue that tradition.

I’ve made a variety of soups since moving here. Two favorites have to be Green radish and carrot soup 青红萝卜汤 － good for curing sore throats and phlegm – and Winter Melon soup 冬瓜汤 – a cooling summer soup that  is good for clearing “heat” in one’s body, according to traditional Chinese medicine.

Simmer simmer simmer

These days, I’ve been making a great autumn soup called 南瓜排骨汤 Pumpkin Pork Rib Soup. Here, try it at home:

Ingredients

500g pork ribs

1 small pumpkin or 1/4 Chinese pumpkin (these are bigger and more squash like)

2-3 carrots

1 corn on the cob

Directions

When I make soups, I usually start the process first thing in the morning so that by evening, all the flavours have had time to simmer and mingle in the pot. Plus: I don’t need to add salt.

If you’re on a time constraint, this can be done just a few hours before dinner; just know it won’t be nearly as flavourful.

1. Wash all ingredients

2. Boil a big pot of water

3. As the water is heating, chop up carrots, corn on the cob and pumpkin into small chunks. (Some people cut the skin off the pumpkin, but I leave it on. When it’s simmered in the soup, it will become soft. If you’re strapped for time, cut the skin off.)

Sweet, soothing, delicious Chinese soup - and healthy, too

4. When the water comes to a boil, put pork ribs and allow to cook for several minutes. (5 minutes or less)

5. Add carrots and corn into the pot and bring to boil. Then simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes.

6. Add pumpkin. Pumpkin is added last as it cooks more easily.

7. Simmer all the way until dinner time!

A young man who boarded a plane to Canada in disguise probably didn’t come up with the Mission Impossible-style ruse himself – he was probably helped by a human smuggler – his lawyer says.

What are people reading? Well, a lot about food. Some of the most popular hits are on my “Best Cheung Fun in Chinatown” post, where someone linked my review to a board on Chowhound.com. Another biggie is the “Story Behind the Story” regarding FRIED DOUGH. But of course. It was a commentary + outtakes kind of post, because so much color didn’t get into my AP story about Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons entering the New York City market.

Because I’m particularly interested in immigration and migration of the Chinese, a German filmmaker recently wrote me asking if I could meet him for coffee to talk. I don’t know how much I can help him, but I told him I’d be happy to talk about my research going on in Zhejiang province at the moment, as well as my Masters thesis work I did in Brooklyn with Fujianese immigrants.

And then there was that time when I blogged about the plight of some domestic helpers from Indonesia and the Phillipines as they painstakingly leave their families behind to find work in places like Hong Kong, Dubai and Singapore. Shortly after publishing that post, I received an e-mail from a woman in New York asking if I knew of any Filipino nannies available for hire in Manhattan with a valid driver’s license.

Yes. I get some strange requests sometimes.

At the end of the summer, an editor at Verge Magazine contacted me, wanting to write a little review of my blog for their September issue. Verge is a Canadian magazine (distributed across North America) aimed at young people interested in working, studying or traveling abroad.

Needless to say, I’m glad to see that people are reading! Keep on visiting, leaving comments and writing in.

Click here to see full-page spread of magazine.

I’m part of a group of volunteers who help out with the Hong Kong Council of Early Childhood Education.

I didn’t think any of the kids would have developed a bond with me just yet, since I just started volunteering with this particular reading program. I was wrong. Today, the two boys I read to last week – Mikey and Jordy – recognized me right away and marched straight to my table.

I picked up a book titled “Grumpy Bear” and started asking them what they thought “grumpy” meant.

The children are still developing basic English reading and writing skills. They know the English alphabet, enabling them to copy words down in little booklets – but that’s about it.

So, when I spend this hour reading to them, I usually read one sentence in English, followed by an explanation in Cantonese. It’s great practice for me, because I have to think on my feet and use my second/third language to talk to these children who are eagerly awaiting a translation.

“What does grumpy mean? Take a look at the bear’s face, what kind of expression does he have?” I asked the children in Cantonese.

The children were able to guess correctly what “grumpy” meant. I asked them what situations would cause them to be grumpy. One girl said: “发脾气！When I throw a temper tantrum!” Another said: “When I’m not able to sleep!”

Bingo. The book was all about a bear, an awfully grumpy one, who was trying to sleep. In fact, he was trying to hibernate but was constantly being disturbed by mice, birds and bees.

It was just one hour of reading books to the kids – but it put a smile on my face for the entire afternoon.

I’ve been volunteering with CECES since June, shortly after arriving in Hong Kong. It is pure joy to see the children have fun while learning at the same time. Though I needed a lozenge at the end of today’s class – the kids were super excited and noisy – I am learning a lot. I’m learning about teaching, about keeping a child’s attention and I’m getting the unique experience of using both Chinese and English to pass on whatever knowledge I can share.

Interested in volunteering with CECES?

Contact:

Daniel Chan
CVC Chairperson
http://cecesvolunteers.wordpress.com
Email Daniel