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More observations: 1) the hand-held, hands-free headset, and 2) China dogs regulation
i) the hand-held, hands-free headsetCellphone headsets have been around for a while now. Whether wired or bluetooth, I think they're great. They free our hands to take care of more important business like driving. Yet even when I drive, I never use my headset. I simply don't pick up the phone. It's a distraction from the leisure of driving anyway.
But the headset has also assumed a prominent role as fashion accessory. Today I rediscovered the phenomenon of the hand-held, hands-free headset. Granted, people all over the world use headsets, but personally I think it's a much more common occurrence in Hong Kong for users to hold their mic piece up to their mouths even though it's designed as a hands-free device. While on the MTR (subway) ride, three people around me, both men and women, talked on their headsets in this manner. This habit can be broken down into two standard practices:
Exhibit 1 illustrates the classic hand-held, hands-fee headset technique. This is most common when the upper-body clothing article is not conducive for mic clipping, and also gives the bonus impression of a secret service agent.
Exhibit 2 illustrates the twice-redundant hand-held, hands-free headset technique. The user typically cannot make up his / her mind on which device to speak into, and so holds up both the phone and mic piece to his / her mouth. At times, said user does not actually place the phone up against their face, but rather hovers it in the general vicinity some 6-8 inches away. It's not so much the act of speaking into the phone, since the headset does the job anyway, but hoisting the phone triggers muscle memory, which further incites mental recognition of talking on the phone. This technique signifies to others that the user is in fact in conversation with someone else, not just talking randomly to themselves, and warns off potential psycho-stares.
Either technique is fine, since both are practices in redundancy, and if we're to be redundant, might as well do it in style.
ii) China dogs regulation
While in Beijing last year, I found out that taxes on pet ownership had been falling, 
prompting many urban households to purchase their beloved dogs. In fact, year-on-year dog ownership rates in Beijing increased by 17.3% as reported by the South China Morning Post.
(p.s., the SCMP is my only source of local news here because, frankly, it's the only one available in English.)This rapid rate of increase has brought about a noise problem. A conservative solution may be to increase taxes on pet ownership to discourage people from buying dogs, reducing the population and potential noise levels. But c'mon now! Why be shy when one can be bold? The Chinese government has recently implemented a canine population control law in the form of... a HEIGHT LIMIT!
The new height limit is set at 35cm. Dogs in violation of said limit may be either locked up or put down. Not sure if or what penalties are leveraged on the owners.
Just when you thought such a measure only applies to buildings, apparently it can equally apply to animals. This measure was put in place because large dogs are perceived to generate more noise. No, we can't (morally at least) control how big dogs get or how much they bark, but of course, certain assumptions on dog size and volume level are at play here. I guess we'll see more of Paris Hilton and less of Snoop.
The SCMP also reports that:
"The ban is strictly enforced. Even a partially blind Paralympic medallist is unable to get her guide dog registered ahead of the Olympics, and the Paralympics in September, when she is due to run with the torch in the opening ceremony."
I wonder what other bold and ingenious strategies the Chinese can muster up when it has to deal with an increase in the number of stray dogs, all of which will undoubtedly be taller than 35cm. Perhaps to restrict their movement roaming around the city, the city will surprise us yet again with... a LIMBS LIMIT ? gosh...
I couldn't help but add one more thing: CASH!
The Bank of China in Hong Kong put on sale commemorative Olympic-themed $20 bills today. Only 4 million notes will be issued. The two sides look like this:
Pricing for the sets range from HKD $138 for a single note to $1, 388 for a 35-in-1 uncut sheet.
I know very little about the hobby and industry of collecting commemorative notes, but exchanging $138 for $20 is 7-folds the product's monetary value, guaranteeing that these notes will never circulate publicly - ie, they're useless money. By some accounts, the immediate aftermarket already has these bills priced at 5x their purchase value, or 35x their monetary face value. And furthermore, 4 MILLION of these are issued, in a city of only 7 million people. If distributed equally, more than half of the city's residents could get their hands on one, or each household could potentially have 2-3. When viewed at from this angle, the supply-and-demand laws don't seem to justify the bill's value nor queuing up over a 48-hour period like this:
In any case, so are the economics of craze.
On a last side note, a couple weeks ago China also issued a new 10 Yuan bill that looks like this:
And yes, both the Chinese and Hong Kong bills feature the Bird's Nest stadium by my boys HdM, but they still have a ways to go before overtaking Corb's throne on printed money.
Today's agenda: rumblings on (sub)urbanism, Zagat prose, and a new (?) word from the Chinglish dictionary
Before we get into the real content, I just want to express my gratitude to all those who have voiced their pleasure in reading and encouragement for my continued writing. Today's post is probably going to be a bit more dry with less wit to boot, but hang around anyway.
i) rumblings on (sub)urbanism.
I am trained as an architect, and perhaps more valuable than any lesson I've learned about making buildings, is that as an architect, it is our fundamental duty to dream. Don't get me wrong though. I am a pragmatic idealist. I believe in things that can actually be executed and accomplished, because that's the only path for change. Parametric whims bear no interest to me. And despite my plans and efforts to escape the architecture industry, my training and psyche will forever stay with me. In such, my interest in the built environment will most likely never change.
A week ago, I engaged in a conversation about the future of Chinese cities. China, and of course...
(After completing this part of my blog entry, I realized it was too long, somewhat incoherent, and probably too boring for the majority of you who aren't architects / urbanists - a trifecta for blog failure in our attention deficient society. And so I'm cutting it short, and including the rest as a link for your perusal only if it strikes your fancy.)
ii) Zagat prose.I don't know why I'm writing about the Zagat restaurant guide. I haven't flipped through one in probably a year or so, but in the process of writing this blog, I have inadvertently given more thought to the process of writing as means of disseminating information, and how the internet has made public opinion accessible through blogs such as this one. User-generated content seems to be the fad these days, with good reason too of course, but perhaps (and I haven't checked my sources on this) a predecessor to blogs and online reviews is the print version of the famous Zagat surveys. I don't have a copy with me at the moment, but Zagat reviews typically read like this:
- The "owner of this place makes it all worth while". "She is a very kind" and "warm person". "The prices are good" and "the food is great". "It's place go to if you need some quick and good".Notice the generous use of quotes. The Zagat survey, you see, is user-generated content. Zagat does not actually review the restaurants themselves, but rather receives and publishes customer opinion. What makes it facinating is that rather than publishing snipets of stand-alone quotes, Zagat edits and joins them into seamless sentences, presenting various user opinions as one. So while stand-alone quotes may be bulletpoints for browsing, their fusion as one sentence presents a tone of unity and authority, and I think is an imitable style of writing to make online user-generated content even more accessible. So rather than scouring through 86 reviews on Yelp, imagine all of that condensed into a much more concise format with the option to expand to include the full review. So with the sample quote from above, placing your cursor over any of the quotes will expand it to include the full review, and removing your cursor will make it disappear again. I bet there already are websites out there with this format in place, and if not, I call first dibs and all patents.iii) a new (?) word from the Chinglish dictionaryAs you may or may not know, a particular phenomenon that has emerged out of Hong Kong is the canto-based Chinglish dialect, a text-based and ad hoc pronunciation guide to mimic Chinese words. This is most often used in online chats where typing and reading Chinese characters may not be most convenient. My friends Jenny and Gary are my teachers in this most inaccurate language. There are essentially no rules and no consistencies. Improvisation reigns supreme. One's ability to converse in the language is confined only by one's imagination. Think about it as an equivalent to the hip hop vocabulary, where proper words such as "holler" becomes "holla" and "for sure" becomes "fosho". However, it's much more interesting when the task at hand is to translate Chinese characters into English sounding syllables. One example you may be familiar with is "Gui Lo" - standing for 鬼佬 -
an often-used and perhaps even pejorative term that refers to westerners. But my friend Gary has taken this translation a step further, and in his Chinglish vocabulary now uses the term "Ghost Guy", which word-by-word literally translates to 鬼 (ghost) 佬 (guy), and of course the female equivalent 鬼 (ghost) 婆 (grandma).
We can get into this more and try to break down their meanings and why there's an apparent contradiction in the use of a term of reverence ("grandma") within the pejorative phrase of 鬼婆 (western woman). But in any case, my interest for the moment is really only in the linguistic creativity that emerges out of the local conditions within a global language.
On today's agenda: Red Cliff 赤壁 (the movie), Miss HK Pageant (Part 2), Wedding photos (no, not mine, dumbass), and the iPhone 3G launch
1) Red Cliff 赤壁
I had the pleasure of watching Red Cliff last night, staring Tony Leung (梁朝偉) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武）. The movie really was quite a joy to watch, especially for those like me who know very little about Chinese history but have an unquenchable thirst for violent depictions of its military prowess. The scenes were beautiful, capturing vivid images of warfare, contemplation, lust, and struggle, and along the way, I learned a thing or two about China's history, however out of order, skewed, and popularized it may be. At least I now have a faint idea of the sequential order of the many dynasties, and the movie has even prompted me to search for a map tracing the political boundaries of the many dynasties throughout China's 4000 year history. I'm sure it exists out there. I just have to find it. If my efforts fail, I'll just compile and draw one myself with the abundance of free time that I have. But back to the movie. Despite the movie being a highly satisfying 2hrs and $60 well spent, I left with a bitter taste. The movie, you see, is called Red Cliff because it tells the story of the battle at Red Cliff, which by my understanding, is the last stand during the Han Dynasty circa 200 AD immediately preceding the emergence of the Three Kingdoms. I'm not a history buff and can't tell you more about the significance of this battle, but any battle that signifies the end of one and the beginning of another era is one worth noting. Yet despite the movie's name, the movie itself only builds up to the battle at Red Cliff, and doesn't continue to stage the epic battle!! Just when all the pieces were in place, the screen not-so-ceremoniously shows the words "to be continued...". Can you imagine my frustration with sitting through 2 hours of a movie to end up not being shown the scene for which the movie is named after? It'd be equivalent to a movie depicting the H-bomb in Hiroshima to never actually show how it happened or what ensued. I now have to wait until the sequel comes out, whenever that may be, and in the meantime am left grappling with the irritation of a truncated ending.
2) Miss HK Pageant (Part 2)
I realize pictures can be misleading (or how about Miss Leading, a la Miss Photogenic, Miss Congeniality, etc.?), and so compiled a second round of Miss HK candidate photos to continue my poll on who has the most potential to be crowned this year's winner.
After this second look, I've given my votes to #3, 5, and 8. What's your vote? Here's the tally thus far. Pink denotes round 1 votes, and white denotes round 2 votes.
3) Wedding Photos
Quite a few of my friends are now engaged, and so the topic of wedding planning is often discussed, with me as the quiet observer with nothing of value to add to the conversation. One piece of the wedding puzzle that has particularly caught my eye are wedding photos. I believe most people typically have a set shot to leave as a memory of their youth and their love. Great. But most of the time these photos try too hard to capture the essence of romance, leaving the soon-to-be newly weds as puppets at the photographer's mercy - a bad decision that often lends its way to photos like this one:
I don't know this couple and only found this image online as an example. But seriously now, is this how the couple truly wants to remember their wedding? The frail man falling wounded in the arms of his new bride? I don't think so.
But instead, let me draw your attention to this gem I found featuring my close friends Eko and Charissa. They're probably gonna kill me for putting this photo up, but THIS, is the pinnacle of wedding photo perfection:
Everything about this image is unequivocally and unapologetically cool. They make no mistake in telling you they're badass! =)
4) iPhone 3G launch
Congrats to all you who bought your new iPhones. I'm tempted to get one myself, but my personal financial advisor is telling me not to. I might have to fire him soon.
I have no qualms against iPhone owners, no matter how many hours in line they stood and waited to get their hands on that newly minted gem. But I do have a problem with guys like this who wear a shirt with the word "Jealous?" written across the front as part of a calculated effort to make his way to fame as Hong Kong's first iPhone 3G owner (photo: South China Morning Post):
If Eko and Charissa's photo epitomized coolness, this photo should sit in the Webster-Merriam dictionary next to the word "Asshole".
Just FYI, Hong Kong is currently hosting its Miss Hong Kong pageant. Below are the 12 candidates. I personally have my money on #8 and #9. How about you? Let's take a poll!
I must say I'm a bit surprised at how quickly some of you have caught sight of my blog, and this popular initial reception, which I'm sure will not be sustained, has prompted me to write post numero deux. On today's agenda: the Olympics, and a recommendation for Gmail.
(Please be forewarned that this blog is my WRITING outlet, and even though I'm not particularly loquacious, this series of blogs will probably contain more words than you might want to read. And no, this isn't a diary, and so I won't be posting many personal pics here. That's what facebook is for.)
The Olympics.
I am in the fortunate position that the next two Olympic Games will take place in cities close to my heart: Beijing and Vancouver, and so I've probably grown to pay more attention to the Games now than ever before. Last year in Beijing, despite the Games being more than a year away, one could not escape Olympic-mania. I haven't visited the Mainland yet this year, and so I can only assume that the craze has only heated up even more. The Games are city-specific, not country-specific, meaning that the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver will take place in Vancouver and its vicinity, not branch out to other Canadian cities. This year, for the 2008 Games, Beijing and the IOC granted Hong Kong (some 2000 kilometers away) the right to host the equestrian events. I consider this an honor and a privilege. Yet unlike its brethens in the Mainland, Hong Kong has essentially demonstrated no Olympic spirit. Aside from a large Olympic logo on Victoria harbour and a few TV plugs by not-so-famous celebrities, the city really isn't sporting the same type of festivity and excitement as can be found in Beijing. In fact, a couple nights ago, I saw a commercial on TV featuring horse races and events, and naturally figured that was an ad to promote the Olympics. Then at the end, realized it was only an ad for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the de facto gambling authority. Given, HK is hosting only one event, not the entire games, but still, wouldn't one take this opportunity to showcase and promote one's city, whether for cultural, social, or financial intents? Why this city has remained so passive in this regards is beyond my understanding, and frankly, has been disappointing.
On another Olympic-related note, I saw this image in the South China Morning Post today:
Apparently both photos are the exact same view taken from the same spot on two different days. Seriously now! People are BREATHING that!
(And on a side note, it's nice to see CCTV's skin edging towards completion.)
Moving onto a recommendation for Gmail.
I'll keep this short, but can the engineers at Google please allow a date-search capability? So when I want to look for an email from a year ago, I don't have to keep on clicking "Older"? Plus the option to click "Oldest" really isn't that useful is it? Let's get rid of something that's useless, and replace it with something useful, please. Aside from that, I'm glad to see I've only used 1/3 of my 6.9 GB of storage space. Keep up the good work!
Today seems an apt day to begin a blog. Why? Because it's just as good as any other day. I can't really find a logical reasoning behind choosing the date of a blog's grand opening. Today is as good as any other day.
This isn't my first blog. Some of my close followers may recall a blog i kept 2 years ago while working in Rotterdam. That was a simple blog. Essentially I wrote a weekly top-ten list of observations, documenting peculiarities in my daily life from my supermarket routine to some of the insane hours I put into work. This blog however, is somewhat inspired by my brother Duy Ho's blog, and a blog my thesis partners and I (mostly Yusun) kept during my last semester at the GSD (found here: http://nairobics.blogspot.com/). It is my hope and intent that this blog will allow my friends from all over the world to keep in touch with me, however loosely, and to give them a window into life in Hong Kong / China.
As the inaugural post, I actually do not have much to say. I can ramble on about my self-prolonged, boredom-induced jetlag, or I could complain about the many things about Hong Kong that have irritated me thus far. But these observations have not yet had the benefit of time, and I'm afraid blogging these thoughts will later turn out to be a miscalculated misreading (double negative?). So rather than bgein my corner in cyberspace with reflections, I will outline an incomprehensive list of topics of interest that for certain will follow in the months (years?) ahead:
1 - beauty
2 - efficiency
3 - headline news & peculiar oddities
4 - language
5 - culture clashes
6 - my adventures in a new career
7 - the economy
8 - sports
9 - rumblings on architecture from a nostalgic ex-architect
And with that, I give you the beginnings of more cyberspace pollution, a blog that will undoubtedly find its way into internet oblivion. Or perhaps this collection of thoughts and short essays will gather steam and a loyal following, prompting its widespread publication into print form. We will never know, and that's why we try.
prompting many urban households to purchase their beloved dogs. In fact, year-on-year dog ownership rates in Beijing increased by 17.3% as reported by the South China Morning Post.
