Notes
We're Off To Plant Rice!
Hong Kong has plenty of places where visitors can buy conical "paddy field" hats as souvenirs, despite that most rural inhabitants prefer the Hakka- or Tanka-style hats.
It's one thing to bring such an item home to wear at a party and be silly, but it's quite another to pick your way through a crowded Hong Kong train station, luggage in tow, with said pointy hat on your head: especially when you're as white as the driven snow.
Then again, maybe the folks I spotted embarrassing themselves wanted people to stare at them.
And Rushing Closing Doors
Standard announcement played at all MTR stations each time a train arrives:
Please let passengers alight first.
Standard thought that goes through my mind each time I hear it:
Like that's going to happen.
In short, nagging just doesn't work.
If it did, Hong Kongers would have stopped barging onto trains decades ago.
It'd Be Like Losing An Arm
If you were ever in doubt that Hong Kongers prize their precious communications devices more than life itself, consider this announcement, played ad nauseum in all MTR stations:
Please beware of pickpockets. Safeguard your personal belongings and mobile phone.
Setting aside the glaring redundancy, the subtext to this message is clear:
... but if you have to choose between losing your wallet and your phone, the wallet is the obvious choice.
Wahaha
Every time I hear the name of the Chinese food and beverage company, Wahaha, I laugh.
It just seems like the thing to do.
Bing Bum
It's likely no surprise to you that ping pong is derived from the Chinese name for the game (I can't bring myself to call it a sport, but let's just let that go, shall we?), but what you may not know is the name is a Chinese onomatope.
As with English onomatopes, the Chinese name reflects the sound of the game: ping pang qiu (乒乓球) in Putonghua (Mandarin), and bing bam bo in Cantonese (where "bam" sounds similar to "bum" and "bo" sounds like "baw"); literally bing bang ball.
Clearly English adopted the Mandarin pronunciation over the Cantonese, which is a good thing, because otherwise we'd all be calling the game bing bum, which to our ears sounds like a description of a cherry-red behind.
Now that I think about it, I can only imagine the utter confusion Chinese speakers suffer when they hear the expression badabing.
Dim Sum
HK Photographic
Friend Finder
Good Feng Shui