Familiar Places and Faces

We're back in Hong Kong and familiarity is the main theme for this post. At the airport everything looked the same except the kiosk for Octopus cards. The university gave us the exact same flat. We know where to find things, what to do, and we have friends. Gathering at the dai pai dong is still a tradition. What could be better? Well, if I remembered my Cantonese, life could be a  little better at times! We also miss our Fulbright group. Here's a view at a look out created by the Lion's club near our flat.

So, what's changed in HK? Abbreviations are still everywhere. Massive crowds still crowd the Shatin mall on Sundays. They're still building high rises. There is one noticeable difference: monkeys. Lots of them. We saw them before, but they've gotten closer. We hear them on our balcony in the early evening and see them playing on the fence. We've raced under them as they flew through the branches above us on hikes. Last week, as we were hiking down the mountain towards Shatin, one blocked our path down the mountain. Allen walked closer to see if it would run, but it stood its ground and screeched.

When relaxed, these monkeys do not have red faces:

The monkeys here are rhesus macaques and some longtails and hybrids. Hiking in September in HK is actually risky even without  monkeys and feral cows. We got very dehydrated both times and it was super hot and humid. Arriving at Tai Po market for Thai food or Hilton Plaza for sushi made us feel better. That and lots of Pocari Sweat. (A sports drink from Japan with an unfortunate name.) Here we are with two Korean men who shared their watermelon with us on our first hike. I could feel the juices of cold watermelon reviving my body. What a gift!

We're stopped today from hiking because we're waiting for Usagi, the typhoon. It won't hit in full force until tonight. We're at level 3 of 8 right now so it's breezy and fairly cool, only 80 degrees or so.

This past week was Mid Autumn Festival. This is a very important time in China, celebrated over 3 days. The most important night is the full moon (Harvest moon). It's a time for family and giving thanks. Also for viewing beautiful lanterns and giving moon cakes as a gift. Here is an image of the traditional moon cake.

We were very fortunate not to receive this type as a gift. They really weigh down your tummy. Instead, our friends Toska and Kevin offered us very light and delicious ones as their parting gift. They stayed with us 11 days, arriving just after we did. Here's the lantern in one park on Hollywood Street:

This year we don't have many pictures of lanterns because we didn't go to parks on the full moon. Instead, we chose to see the fire dragon dance. Actually, we only glimpsed it because we were in a giant crowd of thousands all straining to see it on a very hot and humid night. The dance has been going on since 1880 when it was started to change the luck of a neighborhood of Honk Kong called Tai Hang. The dragon is made of straw and thousands of incense sticks are stuck into it and lit. So besides the heat, there was a heavy scent and lots of smoke. We all shouted when the dragon came near! Allen held the camera high for this picture. Our friend Tricia, who is the size of many Chinese, still got some great photos, and experienced the dance that way. Our video won't upload, but we'll try to post that later. You're looking at the head of the dragon, mouth open to the left, with the tail in the background.

Because the day after the full moon is a holiday, the three of us decided to go see the pink dolphins. This was on the advice of Toska and Kevin who really enjoyed it. We went to Lantau, an island nearby, then took a boat to a nature preserve. There we indeed saw lots of pink dolphins! They are humpback dolphins, usually black at birth, then grey, then pink and they live in the Pearl River Delta, where one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world can be found. Others of their species can be white, but only here are they pink. I chatted with our guide who has been doing this work since 1997, the year of the handover. It turned out that we had friends in common! Allen captured two fairly close to the boat. We have a video where the dolphin looks more pink. Also, here are Tricia and I.

Here are some images from the dried foods area in Wan Chai, beginning with a statue of the father of Chinese medicine. He's at the entrance to a little garden where Chinese herbs are explained. The picture is of ginseng.

Birds nests for soup

I read that over 25% of signs in HK can fall down at any time! They mean these old ones.

We also went to three galleries. The first image is part of Tricia's installation. She videotaped artisans doing traditional work, then projected different videos onto shovels. We could also hear some translated audio through ear phones. Very cool.

Here are two other shows:

Alberto Reguera, Abstract Expansion. Lots of heavy paint.

 Zhou Hongbin, Aquarium

Yes, that's a rabbit. The artist put it into a large tank of water and then took lots of big format pictures (and used photoshop). No rabbits were killed (I asked).

Now, turning to the reason we're here. I have a research fellowship in the English department at Hong Kong Baptist University. I'm also teaching one class, the same as two years ago, luckily. However, there is a double cohort, so I have 58 students! The head of department has given me a TA, but still. I took pictures of each student but I haven't memorized all their names. In October and November I'll be recording students in tutorials (we call them seminars in the US) with the help of (get this) two research assistants whose hours add up to full time!!! I never had this sort of help at Evergreen. Not only will they help record, they will also transcribe. I need to analyze enough data to present a paper at an international conference at the end of November. Here is a picture of the directory outside my office. At Evergreen we don't have titles, so it's nice to see one attached to my name!