The other day I was in Wan Chai on a back-pack buying quest. I have two backpacks already but one doesn’t have a place for my hydration system tube and I’ve decided the other one is too big. So I went to buy a smaller hydration backpack since the hiking season is starting again in Hong Kong. The store I go to is near Canal Street. Underneath the overpass on Canal Street there is a strange ritual that goes on. Little old Chinese ladies sell these cute paper tigers there. People come and sit on little stools and give the ladies pictures of people they’ve had problems with – their husband’s mistress, an evil ex-boyfriend, their mother-in-law, you get the idea. The ladies put a piece of pork fat on the paper tiger’s head, stick incense in a couple of potato halves, put the pictures on the ground, and then proceed to beat the living tar out of the pictures with a shoe! The ladies are professional beaters. It seems like a type of voo-doo, but there is a definite Chinese ritual behind it.
I couldn’t begin to describe all the intricacies of this ritual so I will provide a link to a couple of blogs that have very complete descriptions you can read. Apparently there is a holiday in March when it is especially auspicious to feed the hungry tigers, but people can do this ritual any time. In fact, the other morning I was walking down to Bowen Road to go run and what should I see on the path but a piece of foil, with a couple of sticks of incense on it and a half-burnt paper tiger. If you get out early enough in the morning it’s not at all unusual to find little impromptu shrines here and there along the street, but this was the first time I’ve seen the little paper tigers at a random place along the way. Maybe I’ve just never really noticed it before.
I understand that according to Chinese tradition there are local gods here and there all over the place so that explains the random shrines; people are just communing with their local gods. But why was the little paper tiger shrine doing right there? Who knows…
Here are the links:
The other interesting thing that happened last week was an encounter with an old man at a bus stop up in the New Territories. I was on a hike with Michael Hansen (www.hansen-hikes.com) and we were waiting for a bus to take us to the beginning of our hike. Michael knows a fair amount of Cantonese and can communicate with the locals very well. This little old man came up to Michael and asked him for change for the bus fare. I think the fare was $7.60 HKD (about one dollar US). The man was asking for change for one Hong Kong dollar to get the 60 cents. At first Michael didn’t have enough change, so he tried to just GIVE the man a HK dollar (about 13 cents US). The man would NOT take that Hong Kong dollar! Finally I started scrounging around in MY wallet and between the two of us we found enough change for the man. He thanked us profusely and that was that.
But I found myself thinking. Those little 10, 20 and 50 cent HK coins are a pain. To us they seem practically worthless (do the math: 1 US dollar = 7.78 HK dollars). I honestly am tempted to just throw the damn things away sometimes! But to that little old man, maybe that 60 cents was the difference between whether he would eat that night or not. Maybe it made the difference between whether he would be able to take the bus the next day or not. It really gave me pause.
I know there is a lot of poverty in Hong Kong. But it is SO DIFFERENT from the US. And it is different from many of the countries that surround Hong Kong too. In the US we hear about the poor people in the inner cities, or in rural America, all the time. For the most part it seems wrong to us that there should be ANY poor people in the US and we have, to a larger or smaller degree, some sense that we should help poor people improve their lives in one way or another. In many of the countries that surround Hong Kong there are so many poor people, and the poverty is so very extreme and so exposed. Here it is hidden, in neighborhoods that are outside the city centers, where no-one ever has a reason to go except other poor people. And the attitude is different too. There is a great belief in fate here. If you are poor, well that’s your fate. No one thinks its wrong or unfair, it’s just the way it is. Recently there was a minor scandal in Hong Kong because in a particular poor neighborhood a woman threw herself and her children off a balcony in despair. This was shocking because it was unusual that someone didn’t just accept their fate in resignation. Many people are Buddhists and they think there’s a reason they are poor in this life, and maybe if they live right they’ll get a better deal in the next.
Here’s a link to a story about Tin Shui Wai, the “City of Sadness” –
So, it’s funny. Ever since that incident with the little old man at the bus stop I’ve been looking at those coins differently. I’m more aware of their worth, as small as it is. I’m trying to at least make the correct change, if a bottle of water costs $6.50 I look for those little coins in my wallet. It just seems disrespectful now to treat those coins with distain!
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