Archive for May, 2012

• BLOG – The Tiny HK Apartment With 24 Rooms in 1

  Date: 2012.05.31 | Category: Architecture & Infrastructure, Blog | Response: 0

  As HK has the most expensive real estate in the world, space is a premium. Architect Gary Chang – director of EDGE Design Institute - decided to design a 344 sq. ft. apartment ‘Swiss Army Knife’ – which is able to change into 24 different designs by simply sliding panels and walls. Gary calls this the ‘Domestic Transformer’, the clever bastard…

  

  AFP Via EDGE Design

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• MAN OF LETTERS – A Letter to Ocean Park

  Date: 2012.05.30 | Category: Man of Letters | Response: 2

  The following letter to Ocean Park was penned shortly after a visit in 2009…

  

  Dear Mr Zeman,

  On the morning of Saturday March 14th I bestowed my presence upon your fine aquatically themed leisure park and was surprised to discover that you apparently enforce a strict dress code. Indeed, had I have known that your establishment required a certain impractical distinction to its guest’s attire whilst wolfing down candy floss, fraternising with sea mammals and tackling the ‘Abyss Turbo Drop’; I may have reconsidered donning a bright yellow chicken costume. However, one failed to recognise any such clothing directive in your small print.

  Whilst admiring your charming flurry of flamingos near the entrance, I was accosted by a staffer who offered me tickets to return at another time, sans rooster outfit. Upon challenging this audacious offer, I was informed that certain fellow visitors could potentially mistake me for an employee. I delicately reassured the over-zealous worker that should an unlikely misinterpretation occur, I would graciously elucidate that my appearance as a giant six-foot-white-boy-chicken was solely for my own exclusive enjoyment, and that any enjoyment experienced by third-parties was purely coincidental.

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• MAN OF LETTERS – A Letter to American Express, Hong Kong

  Date: 2012.05.29 | Category: Man of Letters | Response: 0

  American Express are rewarding their customers for supporting small business by handing out Starbucks coupons! Such selfless instances of community outreach always move me to reach for my parchment and quill…

  Dear Ms Yeow,

  I am just in the process of reassembling my ever-unreliable Irony Meter after it exploded upon receipt of your recent communiqué regarding small business. (Ironically, the box said ‘Built Specifically to Withstand Corporate Cluelessness’). 

  Nevertheless, I am pleased to accept a coupon that I shall lovingly squander at my grassroots, local, independent Starbucks branch, which I note is struggling by on a meagre revenue of US$10.71 billion. I hope my HK$3 upgrade will not dent their NASDAQ stock, lest their 149,000 employees be out of work.

  Might I also clarify as to whether the coupon is valid at all 19,555 worldwide branches or just the 100+ Hong Kong locations? Does it include the Hollywood Rd outlet which recently replaced an independent restaurant, as well as the Central branch which is mocked up to resemble an old Mama-and-Poppa’s tea shop?

  Finally, how literally should I take AMEX’s advice to support small business? As suggested, I’ve been frequenting some adorable sole-traders but they seem to demand some kind of archaic tangible form of currency! And retailers who accept cards do not take AMEX, complaining of ‘inflated merchant fees’ for the card. I even tried paying my elderly lychee hawker with the Starbucks coupon but she started chasing me with a large stick.

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• BLOG – WTF Licence Plates of the Rich & Shameless #6

  Date: 2012.05.29 | Category: WTF Licence Plates | Response: 0

  

  via Nikhil Sadhwani Photography.

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• HISTORY – The Bombing of Hong Kong by the U.S. 14th Air Force

  Date: 2012.05.28 | Category: History & Abandoned HK | Response: 1

  The 3 photos below are from the FDR Presidential Library & Museum and show scenes from an aerial reconnaissance flight after a raid on Hong Kong during WWII. Often, after a bombing mission, one lucky pilot would get to stick around to try and survey the damage to targets in order to report back to command.

  The initial Japanese attack took place just 8 hours after the bombing Pearl Harbour. The Gin Drinker’s Line set up over 2 years by the British was expected to protect the territory for months – however, it fell in the space of 3 days with troops outnumbered 2:1. Within 18 days, Hong Kong itself had fallen and the Japanese ceased control at the Peninsula Hotel on Christmas Day, 1941.

  Despite an impressive continued resistance by Gangjiu Da Dui Guerillas, the brutal Japanese occupation lasted for 3-and-a-half years (for which there is still residual resentment amongst many Hong Kongers today).

  Unexploded bombs from WWII are still occasionally uncovered, especially around areas of reclamation, and war remnants can be spotted and explored on various historical hiking trails around the city.

  • Hong Wrong entry featuring a video of the Gin Drinker’s Line trenches and tunnels.
  • Wikipedia – The Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong and the Battle of Hong Kong.
  • Hong Kong History Museum, TST (includes an excellent section on the WWII Japanese Occupation)
  • A 2005 protest calling on Japan to acknowledge and apologise for its actions in WWII.
  • Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association

  

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• ART – The Cattle Depot Artist Village (Comfort Women Exhibition)

  Date: 2012.05.27 | Category: Art & Music, Photography & Wallpapers, Places & Attractions | Response: 0

  Originally a government-owned slaughterhouse, Ma Tau Kok’s Cattle Depot Artist Village was renovated and reopened as artist’s studios in 2001. Home to around 20 such art groups, it was opened to the public in 2009 and occasionally hosts exhibitions.

  

  

  Though a  welcome rarity in a city renowned for its cluelessness with art and culture, red tape continues to inhibit artistic expression as resident artists cannot paint the walls, place works outside their studios, stay overnight or conduct any public functions without a Public Entertainment Licence. Only recently have the public been allowed to even visit.

  

  GovHK’s short-sightedness, obstructionism and outright hostility towards any grassroots cultural or artistic expression will mean that we will inevitably continue to lose out to neighbours such as Singapore.

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• BLOG – Weird Propaganda Sign on Hong Kong Soil

  Date: 2012.05.26 | Category: Blog | Response: 0

  The billboard below is situated outside the Admiralty PLA barracks on Hong Kong Island. It says ‘Love the motherland, love Hong Kong, love the garrison troops“, written in mainland simplified Chinese as opposed to locally used traditional characters.

  There remains around 6000 personnel stationed in Hong Kong inculding elements of the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force, PLA Navy, and PLA Air Force. All are under the direct leadership of Beijing.

  

  Photo via Flickr

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• VIDEO – No Room at the Cemetery? Turn Loved Ones Into Jewellery!

  Date: 2012.05.25 | Category: Video | Response: 0

  CNN’s Ramy Inocencio reports below on diamond burials for the dead in Hong Kong. No, it’s not a new luxury line of blinged-up coffins but rather a process whereby loved ones departed are transformed into jewellery as a cost-effective, portable and convenient way to keep them around after the Grim Reaper has struck.

  Spots in private cemeteries cost around HK$280,000 and families wait up to 56 months for reused public burial spaces. Therefore, sending your late Grandma to Switzerland to be ground down into a diamond may actually be a wiser option…

  90% of the dead are cremated, due to the limited space, as TIME Magazine reports…

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• BLOG – WTF Licence Plates of the Rich & Shameless #5

  Date: 2012.05.24 | Category: WTF Licence Plates | Response: 0

  

  via WTF License Plates on FB 

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• BLOG – The Official Hong Kong Hiking Drinking Game

  Date: 2012.05.22 | Category: Blog, Possibly Racist | Response: 5

  As you work your way around Hong Kong’s country parks, trails and hiking routes, grab your energy drink and play the Official Hong Kong Hiking Drinking Game as you inevitably encounter the following sights and curiosities…

  Umbrella in the Sun – 2 shots

  

  Pet Dog – 2 shots (extra shot if dog in baby back carrier)

  

  White People – 2 shots (N.B. White people are concentrated on the Dragon’s Back route – it’s the only hike they know)

  

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