HK Girl Talk

HK Girl Talk – by Jin Wong – is a blog of the author's randomness and her being fascinated by all the interesting cultural phenomena in Hong Kong and China.

8 Post-Valentine’s Trauma in Hong Kong

8 Comments Posted by on February 16, 2012

Hey boys and girls, I hope you all had  great Valentine’s Day? Maybe you enjoyed a romantic dinner with your important half, or you got wasted after going to parties for singles (did you find a date?), or that you spent your night working til late and then you realized your date had been waiting for you for 4 hours and all the restaurants had closed so then you couldn’t find any nice place to spend time with your date and so you went home. (Oh noooo!)

Good, I think you had a nice Valentine’s Day.

However, beware of the Post-Valentine’s Trauma. They can be very disastrous and frustrating:

  1. You found yourself paying for HK$800-1,000 for a bunch of flowers for your date and they faded after 2 days and ended up in trash cans with leftovers and toilet paper.
  2. You found yourself paying for a dinner for 2 heads that was equivalent to buy half of an iPhone 4GS. Or if you had dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant, you could actually have bought a whole iPhone 4GS (and probably a Hello Kitty iPhone case as well).
  3. Hong Kong girls complain about eating too much chocolate (i.e. 15g, equal to half of a chocolate bar) because everyone (including herself) was distributing chocolate at the office.
  4. Florists found themselves still having a big stock of unsold roses. (Note: I tried to help them clear their inventory by buying some roses around 11pm on Valentine’s Day where everyone had already got flowers, but they still did not slash the price and offered a rose at HK$100!)
  5. Hungover for work after loads of champagne and wine.
  6. Hong Kong girls share their V-day experience with friends and complain to their BF why the gift she got wasn’t as good (i.e. as expensive) as her friends’.
  7. The Hong Kong girl who got the biggest bunch of flowers at the office on Valentine’s Day got boycotted by other female colleagues.
  8. When you buy gift for your important half next time, you have one less choice.

What’s your post-Valentine’s trauma (or excitement)?

Guys and Girls, Random Stories

3 Types of Restaurants Staff in Hong Kong

5 Comments Posted by on February 8, 2012

Hong Kong people like eating. They are obsessed with eating. Out of the top 10 search keywords on Yahoo in 2011, the first is “restaurant” and the second is “餐廳” (Chinese meaning of “restaurant”).  So, it’s not absurd to say Hong Kong is a “Dining Paradise” as seen in countless travel outlets and guidebooks. The food might be excellent, but what about the staff?

Here, I divide the Hong Kong restaurant staff in three main categories (ignore the so-normal-that-is-not-worth-to-talk-about ones):

1. The Frisbee Throwers

I played frisbee in a 500-sq meter park when I was small, and I was really bad at hitting the target (don’t make it personal). Restaurant staff in Hong Kong, especially those who work in a “Cha Chaan Tang” (tea restaurants, the most local and typical restaurants in Hong Kong), can throw frisbees at a 60-sq meter restaurant, be really good at it, and hit the target accurately. What I’m saying is that when Cha Chaan Tangs get busy during lunch time, the staff try to serve (actually, throw) the food to customers as fast as they can. They treat the plates like a frisbee and throw them to the table (target)  accurately and rush away for getting food for other customers without saying a word. All you would realize is that a black human-like shadow just skimmed over in non-human-like light speed, and all you can see is that a dish of lunch you just order 2 minutes ago suddenly popped up on your table magically with a loud “bang”. Now, what you should do is to wolf your lunch and disappear immediately.

2. The Table Sweepers

So we talked about the dish. Let’s talk about the table. Good food and good environment would make you want to stay at a restaurant for more a while after finishing all your dishes, but be prepared that your plan would get ruined by the Table Sweepers. Table Sweepers are restaurant staff, especially those who work for low-priced Michelin-starred restaurants (by the way, Hong Kong has the cheapest Michelin one star restaurant in the world), who take away your plates and cups 2 seconds after your mouth stop chewing, drinking or, moving. They can clean up your table automatically even though you haven’t finished your dish. And while you keep yelling “hey, I haven’t finished” at the back, their faster-than-machine hands have also thrown the food left on your plate away to the giant garbage can full of Michelin-starred food lees.

3. The Royal Butlers

If you ‘re really concerned about being thrown food at or your dining table being swept over, you should go look for restaurants that employ Royal Butlers. Royal Butlers are staff that work for Michelin-starred restaurants (note: the three-starred ones***) and would take care of you like you’re a royalty. If you want to share the food, they split it into two dishes for you without you even asking; if you want to take a photo, they do it for you as if they really know photography professionally (or they’re good at acting like one); if you are feeling cold, they turn down the air-con and hand you a blanket. They also give you humane smiles and talk to you in a humane tone. Yeah, because they are human.

Actually #1 and #2 can be nice, it’s just that when the restaurant is getting busy, they can’t help it and would become so efficient that freak you out. #3 is a rare category, but once you’ve seen it, flowers will grow in your heart.

What is the category that you usually run into?

 

***Michelin-rates restaurants in 3 stars would be something a Hong Kong princess would like, by the way.

Culture, Food

Q&A Wednesday: What is People Drinking/Eating So Much during Chinese New Year?

8 Comments Posted by on January 25, 2012

Happy Chinese New Year, my dear readers.

This is the most important festival of the year for Chinese people. Everyone buys expensive gifts, drinks high-alcoholic wine, eats oily snacks and chews chicken meat (seriously). The more abundant of resources you appear to have, the more prosperous you look like to others. Everyone consumes hard at this time of the year to look good, to show off, and most importantly, to “keep their face”.

I once went to a city in southern China and saw that almost 80% of the shops on a street are shops that sell cigarettes and wine(煙酒). Chinese people told me this also happens to majority of a lot of cities in China. Those shops that sell cigarettes and wine are way more than shops that sell home products or personal care products. I was wondering how could people consume all those cigarettes and wine if they buy so much? Would they just drink them all, smoke them all, or put the wine bottles as decorations at home? But compared with the quantities of cigarettes and wine they buy, it seems that they have to drink wine as water, and smoke cigarettes as chewing gum in order to consume them all.

No wonder China has about 350 million smokers and produces 42% of the all cigarettes in the world (Peter Leo, 2006) and there is an estimated 2 million Chinese people dying each year of tobacco-related illnesses by 2020 (Time Magazine, 2011).

The root of the problem, again, is about the “face”. Drinking good wine, having good cigarettes, eating expensive Italian-made chocolates are all what prestigious people should do in the Chinese world. In particular, those who don’t do it would have to do it during Chinese New Year, because everyone should appear prosperous and having a lot money left and not caring how much money spent on the food and drinks.

Sometimes, it seems to me that this is a holiday of consumption rather than a holiday of celebrating the coming of New Year. Those delicately-packed gift boxes and wine bottles will be forgotten; those countless chickens killed for sacrificial use will be stuffed into human being’s stomachs in the end (and causes diarrhea) ; those strong Chinese wine given away as gifts will turn Chinese people’s face into red in 5 minutes.

It’s just insane, you know.

Culture, Q&A Wednesday ,

Hong Kong Parents’ Thoughts on Dating

26 Comments Posted by on January 12, 2012

Dating is a big thing in Hong Kong and China. Chinese people believe that a good foundation of households is what forms a good society. To foster a society with good families inside, you need good couples. And so, the fundamental step of all these would be – dating. However, don’t think that just because Hong Kong is a civil society you can have all the say in choosing your lover. Sometimes, the parents are the big bosses behind.

Even though the parents might not actually tell you what concrete steps to do regarding your dating someone, they do instill some proper mindsets in you throughout your upbringing. What the parents want to create is a mind-changing revolution that benefits you which in turn benefits them.

Dating is not just a 2-people matter. In Hong Kong, the parents are the big bosses sometimes.

 

Here are what the parents think and what they have:

Don’t Date in High School

Hong Kong is a place notorious for its spoon-fed education (at least before the education reform in recent years) where young kids are forced to study extremely hard to get themselves into the best schools and climb up the social ladder. Parents usually fill their kid’s schedule with extra private tutoring and interest classes (playing piano or violin being the most popular) just to make their kids more versatile. So, back to the main topic – since there is no time left for the kids, how could they date someone, not to mention to ever have time to meet someone they like?

The parents always say,

  • “You’re too young to date someone.”
  • “You’re going to love your iPhone more than your text books once you start dating!”
  • “Only talk about this with me when you get 3 grade A in your A-level examination.”

If the parents found you not reading a text book for 5 minutes during exam period, beware that they would hit your butt with a cane. How would you even dare to date someone (that might potentially ruin your academic results)?

You Must Date in College

Dating is banned in high school, how about in college (or as Hong Kong people say, “university”)? The parents would force you to find someone to date, seriously. They have a 180-degree change of thoughts between dating in college and dating in high school. As getting into college means that you will be receiving good education, and then good jobs, and good life etc… Therefore, when you get into college, a very big part of your lifelong mission is completed; your parents’ investment on you is now rewarded. But, the parents want more – you finding a potential husband / wife in college. As the moms always tell the daughter,

  • “The best time to find your important self is at college, those people are more pure compared with those whom you meet in the society after you’re graduated.”
  • “In college, you still have time to spend time with your lover and see if they’re husband potential! ”
  • “I don’t want you to not be able to get married before 28!!!!!!”

This usually results in over-excitement of being in a relationship as the college students aren’t allowed to do so in high school (or not telling their parents if they did). The kids would be indulged in spending time with the lover, thus skipping lots of classes and passing many deadlines of school assignments. When they are graduated and find a job, they end up being together with the same person for a few years. Even if they get bored, they simple can’t break up with each other because of their mutual over-reliance throughout the years.

Son, be Successful, but Don’t Share with the Girl

The parents don’t just put expectations on the time you should start dating, but also your lover’s criteria. However, the requirements of a good lover vary between if you’re a guy or a girl.

If you’re a guy, your parents would keep telling you to get a house and a car before you get married so that you’re financially safer and it would help you overcome any downsides in your marriage life. Basically, your parents want you to get rich because they also know that Hong Kong girls would find you more reliable to marry with, and so it’s more likely for you to have a better girlfriend or wife. However, the parents would also tell their son not to date any girls who like them for their money. This is in essence telling the son, “be rich and successful, but beware of the gold-digger bitches!” So, the parents get everything they invest on their son back. Smart parents, huh?

Daughter, Make Sure the Guy will Buy You a House

How about for daughters? It’s the opposite. Parents would want their daughter to find a rich guy who would buy you a house and a car (ideally with a 18-k diamond ring) before getting married. It not only means that the guy can take care of the girl financially, but also, the guy can take care of them, the parents themselves. But being just successful is not enough. Parents understand that rich dudes are usually busy on checking the stock prices and watching the property market, so the ideal kind of husband for the parents would be someone who is also caring and willing to spend time with their daughter (i.e. not a rich jerk). Preferably, the guy should also be tall and good-looking because it gives the daughter a better public image. Alright, so, successful, caring and physically attractive, are we talking about some imaginary computer-generated characters that you can only see in some fitness center advertisements here?

If you think the parents are ridiculous, it’s fine. They are. But what is more ridiculous is the society. When the capitalism in Hong Kong mixes with the traditional Chinese value of “striving for the prosperity of the family so you need to have a good spouse” , the results would be those unreasonable parents’ expectations of the ideal spouse of their children. Are these expectations a social norm of the Chinese society, or just the capitalistic Hong Kong? What do you think?

Culture, Guys and Girls , , , ,

Guest Post: How to Find the Best Apartment in Hong Kong

5 Comments Posted by on January 4, 2012

(This post is authored by Tammy Tan as a guest of HK Girl Talk as a part of the “Hong Kong as an Expat” series. If you are interested in contributing guest posts to HK Girl Talk, please contact the blog owner, Jin Wong, with your details)

Apartment hunting in Hong Kong is fun. I love chatting with friends about their apartments, how much they cost, how they found it, what it was like moving in, etc. Everyone is excited and offers their stories. People trade tips about finding the right apartment and ooo and ahh about potential properties. After all is said and done, you can throw a housewarming to celebrate!

Apartment hunting in Hong Kong is also hard. People have busy schedules and finding the right apartment is a big decision. After you move in, you’ll be stuck in your apartment for at least a year and, often, you’ll wind up staying for two or more. As a result, you should take your time, do your research and make a decision that you’ll be happy with for a long time.

Real Estate Craze
There are a lot of realtors in Hong Kong. Next to finance and shopping, real estate might be the biggest industry in Hong Kong. People love real estate. There are popular Hong Kong TV shows just for people to show off their houses. Often times, men will need to buy a home just to show their girlfriends that they are financially stable. Some girls won’t get married to a man unless he has his own apartment. Some of the richest families in Hong Kong have made their money on real estate speculation and everyone is looking to be the next Donald Trump.

With so much focus on real estate, you’ll notice that there are a lot of real estate agents everywhere you go, but very few people make good use of these great resources. Instead, people just choose 1 or 2 real estate agents and look at 10 or so properties. Among those 10 or so properties, they pick their favorite one. With so much riding on this decision, you should do more research and use everything at your disposal! If you can shave 5% off your rent, it is well worth the time you spend.

So many real estate advertisements, which one actually fits you?


Step 1 – Get the Right Realtor
The first step is to get lots and lots of real estate agents working for you. The best way to do this is to go to the property websites targeting locals such as gohome.com.hk or 28hse.com instead of websites targeting expats like hongkong.gumtree.com.hk, craigslist.hk or hongkong.geoexpat.com. When you are shopping for real estate, it’s best if you know Cantonese or find a friend who does. They are going to charge you a lot more if you only know English. Some real estate agents don’t even know English, so if you don’t know Cantonese, you might not even see all the properties on the market.

Step 2 – Prioritize Your Needs
When you get to these sites, you should start developing a sense of what you’re interested in and, most importantly, how much you want to spend. Start by looking at the smallest apartments you can stand. Don’t be afraid to be stingy. Psychologists have shown that you can quickly adapt to the size of your apartment, but you’ll never get used to a high price or bad location. Of course you’ll want everything at first, a good price, a huge apartment, a good neighborhood, convenience and awesome décor, but you’ll quickly realize that you can’t have everything. You need to prioritize!

There are lots of issues that you should consider that aren’t immediately apparent. Remember to factor in the cost of furniture if the place is unfurnished. Plan a trip to IKEA and see how much the furniture will cost you. Also, remember that Hong Kong has six modes of traveling: the tram, the MTR, ferries, cabs, private cars and buses. Even if an apartment isn’t near the MTR, it can still be very convenient if you’re open-minded.

Step 3 – Deal with the Realtors Wisely
Once you find some properties that you like, ask the relevant agents to show you more like this. You should be specific about your priorities and price range, but be careful. Real estate agents are compensated based on how expensive your apartment is. If you tell an agent that you can spend more, they will show you more expensive apartments. They’ll know that you can afford a nicer apartment and it’ll be too late to ask for a cheaper one. When they do show you a cheaper one, they’ll make sure that it’s ugly so that you pick the nicer ones and they get a higher commission. Start with a low price and ask for the nicer apartments later.

Using these websites, you should be able to schedule viewings for over 5 apartments each afternoon. With a few afternoons and a weekend of searching, you could see over 40 apartments! The best way to get a good deal is to have lots of real estate agents working with lots of landlords. They will compete pretty fiercely with one another and you’ll wind up the winner.

Step 4 –Negotiate Hard
Typically, landlords can be negotiated down anywhere from 10% to 30% off of their initial offer. Real estate agents will tell you that 5% to 10% is more likely. Your mile may vary depending on how good you are at negotiation. Be sure to ask for furnishings if you need them. Also, be sure to write down your expectations in the contract. Will there be a washer and dryer? Will it be furnished? What happens if something breaks? Look up real estate contracts online and be diligent!

Step 5 – Throw a Housewarming
Remember that at the end of all of this, you owe it to your friends to showcase your new place. You have to throw an awesome housewarming party and get wasted in your awesome new home.

Interested in learning about other expats’ lives in Hong Kong? Please see the guest posts in the “Hong Kong as an Expat” series. If you want to contribute to a guest post for this series or for other topics, please contact the blog owner.

Guest Posts, HK as an Expat ,

A Summary of HK Girl Talk in 2011

7 Comments Posted by on January 3, 2012

Dear readers,

Happy New Year! Thanks for all your support and feedback to HK Girl Talk. I treasure your every comment and have tried to write all the topics you suggested. Though the blog was only established in May 2011, it has reached many cool and valuable audience like you in its first year!

Here’s a summary of HK Girl Talk in 2011, hope you enjoy it.

Total no. of posts:

  • 33 posts by Jin
  • 1 guest post

Most viewed posts:

  1. How to Rate a Hong Kong Girl Dec 2011
  2. Meet the Princesses – 4 Major Characteristics of Hong Kong Girls May 2011
  3. Why Hong Kong People Hate Speaking Mandarin to Non-Chinese Speakers? Jun 2011
  4. How a Finance Guy Gets a Hong Kong Girl May 2011
  5. Hong Kong Girls and Chinese Girls’ Perspectives of Love Jun 2011

Guest post:

  1. Asking for Directions in Hong Kong Dec 2012 – by Simon Hu

Most visitors come from:

  1. Hong Kong
  2. United States
  3. Canada

Most active readers who make comments:

  1. zenlifefrugal (97 comments)
  2. Craig (20 comments)
  3. Ziccawei (16 comments)
  4. MKL (12 comments)
  5. Ronald M Kim (9 comments)

Testimonials:

  1. Interview with China Travel Blog
  2. Hong Kong Blogs Review

Please don’t blame me for being annoying, I still would like to restate this blog’s philosophy:

HK Girl Talk – by Jin Wong – is a blog of the author’s randomness and her being fascinated by all the creepy and exciting cultural phenomena in Hong Kong and China.

You can read the About page for more details.

If you would like to receive instant updates of HK Girl Talk, please follow me on:

Please you would like to contribute a guest post, please contact me.

Have a great year of 2012. Thank you!

Letter to Readers

Q&A Wednesday: How to Avoid the Crowds During Holidays in Hong Kong?

5 Comments Posted by on December 28, 2011

Spending holidays in Hong Kong is fun. Restaurants are open until midnight, Christmas gift products are on sale at a ridiculously low price, festival lighting is sparkling across the Harbour from all those skyscrapers. Everything seems cool except that… it’s really packed everywhere!

A typical holiday night in Hong Kong's Central district

Imagine, the popular density in Hong Kong is around 6,500 people per square kilometer (the figure in Mong Kok district is 130,000 people per square kilometer, the highest in the world!). It takes many tall buildings in order to for all these armies of people to have some space to move and breath. Now, during holidays, those who usually stay at home would all go on the street!

Lan Kwai Fong, Tsim Sha Tsui harbour side and all the downtown districts would be utterly crowded. The worst part is that, the police would set up a fixed one-way route for the crowds to move and you would find yourself turning around 18 streets just to get to the street next to where you are. A 10-minute walk would become a 1-hour limp. Once you want to turn back forwards or stop and wait for friends, our friendly policemen would stop you and say “please don’t stop over here and  follow the route and keep walking, it’s for all the citizens’ safety”.

So, how could it not be a chaos?

So, here are what you should do to avoid the crowds:

1.  Book a Place and Get there Earlier

Instead of going to bars and restaurants by walk-in on a holiday night, you should book a table at your favourite bars and restaurants at least a few weeks in advance so that at least you are assured of having a place to go. On the day of the holiday, you should get to the area where the place you booked is located way earlier. For example, if you have booked a table at a bar on Wyndham Street, you better be in around Soho or Central before 6pm so that you don’t need to elbow your way from Queen’s Road to Wyndham Street.

2. Stay Indoors

If you hate being in the crowds, just don’t go on the street and stay indoors. You can throw a house party and invite your friends to come over and drink together. But this is less practical because houses in Hong Kong are so small and many of them don’t have a good view.  Then, you can book a Karaoke room with dinner buffet and sing all night. This is not a bad option if you have a bunch of friends around and all of you prefer singing than walking like a living corpse on those busy streets full of traffic control.

3. Forget about the Land

There is still one place of the world you can go – the sea. Most of the crowds are on the land – the streets, the bars, the restaurants, the karaoke centers – regardless of outdoor or indoor. So, the sea is somewhere spacious. You can consider booking a boat and cruise around Victoria Harbour and enjoy the night sky. The boat booking companies usually offer dinner, snacks and drinks, depending on your budgets. One big bonus of this option is that, you can see the spectacular fireworks right above your head. This is even better than a lavish dinner in a top-floor hotel that costs you 3 times as much.

What would you do during holidays? How do you avoid the crowds?

Happy holidays!

***

If you are interested in having your questions answered in this section, Q&A Wednesday, please contact me!

Q&A Wednesday

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