Celebration of Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival is one of my favorite festivals, other than Christmas.

Celebration only lasts for 2 days. But this year, there is one exhibition last for a month. Want to check out more Chinese cultures? Don't miss this one - Mid Autumn Thematic Lantern Exhibitions.

For more info, click here.

Attraction of Hong Kong Culture

Art is always reflect the culture and people behind a country. There is a always a group of fans of comic or manga in Hong Kong. Each locally created comic character and story reflect the society of a period of time. On Sep 28 (Fri) 2-3pm is the grand opening of Hong Kong Comic Avenue. It opens for the public for FREE. Don't miss it if you are on your Hong Kong vacation. For more details, check out their site here.

Hong Kong Food Expo

Are you an adventurer when it comes to food?

I sure is one of those people. Maybe, it is running in my blood.

If you happen to be in Hong Kong for vacation or whatever reason between Aug 16-20, don't miss these events in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Here is the schedule:

Aug 16-18 Hong Kong International Tea Fair

Aug 16-18 International Conference and Exhibition of the Modernization of Chinese Medicine and Health Products

Aug 16-20 HKTDC Food Expo 2012

All of these events are open to the public.

What I love about the Food Expo is that you can do your Hong Kong food shopping of any kind of food of different nationalities. Food from the supermarkets to specialty and seasonal shops.

If you can't make it to any one of these events, check out our shopping guide here.

For more details of the events, check out the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre web site

Have fun shopping!!!

Celebrating 15th Anniversary of The Handover

Do you happen to be on Hong Kong vacation on Jul 1 this year?

If so, you don't want to miss the firework that you will never forget for the rest of your life.

This year is very special. It is celebrating the 15th anniversary of The Handover which was taken place in 1997.

Not only there are a lot of events for celebration, but also special arrangement of this year's firework.

It will start at 8pm on Jul 1 (Sun) which will last for 23 minutes. There will be a firework design of "HK 15" showing up. And it will show 24 times. The "15" will show as Chinese.

If you are around, don't miss the BIG scale firework. It will be phenomenal as usual.

Graduation Party

I believe many of you received graduation party invitation(s) like we did last month. Over here in the States, people celebrate high school graduation. Think it back, none of us had any celebration like this.

Actually, in the Asian culture, study well and get good academic results are children responsibilities. Parents don't celebrate it. Going further back, in the Chinese history, there was only one occasion that people celebrated.

If someone passed the exam which allowed that person to get a position in the government, his family and friend celebrated. It is because that person's life was pretty much set. For people from the wealthier families, they definitely celebrated. That was a great opportunity to build more relationships with famous and richer people. Nowadays, a university graduate can't even have a job guarantee.

So, do you think that Chinese expect too much from their children? Or our kids expect a lot from us?

IM – Instant Message

I'm not the big fan of text messaging or instant messaging.  But I have to do it at work or with my sisters once in a while. 

My youngest sister and I were exchanging IM (Instant Message) lately.  At the end of the conversation, she sent me this one,  "88".  Men...I was scratching my head and wondering what in the world she was talking about. 

Then, I thought maybe it meant "Bye bye".  In Chinese, "8" is pronounced as "ba".  So, two "8" together must symbolize something sounds very similar.  So, I asked her.  And it is. 

If this is communicated to my American husband or people that Chinese is not their mother language, how would they think?  Not to mention about the “slang” and “slang-im”.

Chinese New Year 2010

This year's Chinese New Year happens to be on the same day as the Valentine's Day. It is very special to many people so as my family 'cos this is the first year for us to celebrate with our new baby.

My parents have a tradition. Every Chinese New Year Eve, every kid in the family receives 2 red pocket monies. And we must put them under our pillow and sleep overnight. We are not allowed to open them until the next morning.

These 2 red pocket monies are very different from any other red pocket monies from my parents or any others. They have very special wishes from our parents. They carry the wishes of good health and great new year.

My husband and I decided to carry on with this tradition. We are going to put 2 red pocket monies under the mattress in the crib ('cos it's just a baby) on New Year Eve for our little one.

Wish you all Happy Chinese New Year ("Kung Hei Fat Choi") and Happy Valentine's Day.

P.S. The 15th day of the Chinese New Year is the Chinese Lantern Festival which is also the Chinese Valentine's Day. To learn more, click here.

Chinese Terra Cotta

The Chinese Terra Cotta is treated as the 8th World Wonder. Although I had never been there, my husband and I are so fascinated by its greatness. We wish that we would be there one day.

I just read a Chinese newspaper about the thrid excavation which is about 24 years after the last one. The Chinese government hopes to have some mysteries solved through this event. They are:

1. The figurine of the general

2. Any variegated colored army

After traveling in Shaanxi, my mom bought me a book from the Terra Cotta museum (see the cover of the book). What impressed me was that a lot of them had color. It was the oxidation that made all of them look greyish. Hopefully, after 24 years of excavation, the technology is advance enough this time that the color can be preserved.

Chinese Herbal Tea

Walking in the busy streets of Hong Kong, you may see some stores putting out several bowls of soup covered with lids. Or you may see an 8-feet tall steam metal pot.

These stores specialize in the traditional Chinese herbal tea, called “Leung Cha” (directly translated as “Cool Tea”). It is very popular in the southern China due to the hot and humid climate. The ingredients are mostly herbs and sometimes with tortoise shells. They may sound scary to you. To prepare it, it usually takes from 4 hours up to 3 days of simmering. Although it takes a while, the tea is awesome to neutralize the “poison” inside your body.

I read the Hong Kong Chinese newspaper online on a daily basis to keep track of what is going on in my hometown.

There was a recent article about the Hong Kong government is going to list this traditional Chinese herbal tea as non-material cultural heritage. In 2006, the Chinese government had already completed the process.
I always heard the Chinese said that beer has the same function as the Chinese herbal tea. I had never tested if both work the same. But if you drink beer once in a while, pay attention whether your pimples and/or constipation getting better or not after that.

"HSBC" Bank

Have you ever heard of HSBC Bank? Did you wonder what "HSBC" Means? Do you know that this bank was founded and once headquarted in Hong Kong, my hometown?

You may be surprised this bank which claimed one of the largest in the world coming from a city about a little bit over 1,000 sq. km. (less than 400 sq. miles).

"HSBC" means The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

But why is "Shanghai" part of the name? This involved the history of China and Hong Kong.

Shanghai has been a prosperous city for years. When the communist came to China, many riches migrated to either Hong Kong or Taiwan.

For those decided to stay in Hong Kong back in the mid 1940s founded this bank. When China and Britain were negotiating the handover of Hong Kong to China, HSBC decided to move its headquarter to England.

Believe it or not, this is the story about this largest bank in the world and I am so proud of it coming from my hometown.

Garage Sale

I was never big on buying or using 2nd hand stuffs. I think there are 2 reasons:

1) My parents had never bought anything 2nd hand, including cars.
2) There is never a garage sale in Hong Kong.

What did I just say? Yes....there is no or never a garage sales in Hong Kong. So, what do people do with the stuffs that they don't want?

Here are the 3 common ways to get rid of your "junks":
1) If you happen to know some friends or relatives not to mind 2nd hand stuffs, you can give to them.

2) Donate to the charitable organizations.
Some of them have scheduled collections throughout the years in each district. You can drop your "junks" at their collecting centers any time. A small portion of them will be on sale for collecting more fund for the organization. Most of them will be sent to the third world countries.

3) Last thing you would want to do is to throw them away.

Unfortunately, this mindset is heavily rooted in the Asian countries. Some people do make a lot of money in the garage sale, but not in Hong Kong or other Asian countries.

Hong Kong's Fund-Raising in the Street

This is the lable I got, during this past trip back to Hong Kong, after approached by a student and the money donation.

During the weekends in Hong Kong, you may be approached by a or a few students in school uniform with a small stack of labels and a bag for collecting money. They are doing the fund-raising.

This kind of activity started since when my parents were in high schools. The charitable organizations would submit their request of fund-raising to the government. Once it is approved, these organizations would request the volunteers from the high schools. Each volunteer would receive a small stack of labels which is about a couple hundreds of them and a bag for collecting money.

Each student or volunteer will approach each passer-by and ask him/her if he/she would be interested in buying a label. You can donate whatever you want to get a sticker. Once the money is put into that bag, there is no way for that volunteer to take it out. So, it is very secured. This weekends fund-raising activity always ends by noon.

Sometimes, you may see the elderly as volunteers.

If you travel in Hong Kong one day and approached by a person as described above, please extend your helping hands.

Refund and/or Exchange Merchandize

I just came back from the trip of visiting my hometown, Hong Kong. When I lived there, I didn't pay attention to some of the places and people around me. I thought that it was just a normal life. Living here in the States for a few years, I realized that how big the difference of the culture and people from where I came from. So, I want to share with you some of my experience from this trip. Hope you enjoy it.

In the western countries, we take refund or exchange any purchased merchandize for granted. But it's not in China and Hong Kong.

In essence, anything purchased cannot be refunded, returned or exchanged. Once you checked out at the cashier, you, being the customer, have 100% responsibility. If you find out that the cloth you bought was torn right after stepping out of the store, you are not allowed to take it back. It's too late.

Once in a while, a mom-and-pop store may offer for the exchange of sizes. But this is very, very rare. It also depends on at what time you bring in for the exchange. If the store just opened for the day without any sales yet, the owner will tell you either to buy something more or come back later during the day. Otherwise, it will bring her/him a bad luck.

Also, the merchandize you are going to exchange must worth the same or more than what you purchased before because they will not give you back the refund of the amount difference.

So, we live in the place that allow us to do the exchange, return and/or refund should be grateful.

Chinese Bridal/Baby Showers?

My friend's, Valerie, son is going to marry an Asian girl soon. Her future daughter-in-law, Maggie, is partly Japanese and partly Chinese. And Valerie wants to host an Asian-themed bridal shower to give Maggie a surprise.

So, Val called me and asked for the opinions and advice. One thing she mentioned to me that, being an American, she had never been to any Asian shower so she really doesn't know where to start.

My mission is not only give the advice to Val, but also give her some cultural and historical background to understand the Asian cultures.

First of all, I told her that there is NO shower in most Asian countries, especially in China. All the expenses are paid by the newly wed or parents-to-be. Unlike here in America, everybody gets together and buy everything for the newly wed and/or the baby. But that is not the way in China. Some friends or relatives may buy some gifts. But no one is obligated to buy something or give money in the showers like here.

I even told Val that when I first heard my husband, my boyfriend back at the time, tell me about the baby shower, my first response was thinking people getting together to see the first shower the baby has. It sounds funny...hehehe....But for an American, you may know from this example about the Asian reaction.

Another advice I told Valerie that she has to make sure that where her future daughter-in-law exactly came from. 'Cos we sometimes mix up China, Japan or other Asian countries easily. But their cultures are very different even though a lot of them originated from China. You don't want to mix in something and do it wrong to cause any bad feeling. If she can't find out or be sure, she may want to skip the Asian theme part to avoid the mistakes.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun talking with Val and help out my friend to understand more about her future daughter-in-law. :-)

The Busiest Stores in Hong Kong and China before Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (the year of ox) comes very early this year. It is going to be Jan 26. Almost everybody in Hong Kong and China is very busy in buying different things for this BIG festival, such as gifts, new clothes and new shoes. You will see people everywhere.

But among all the stores, comparatively, shoes stores and hair salons are the busiest places. During the month of the Chinese New Year, their business is almost dead. Why? This is because the Chinese superstitions about shoes and hair.

Shoes in Cantonese are called “hai” which is very similar to the exclamation or complaint. If anyone buys shoes during the Chinese New Year, he/she will pick up some bad luck.

Hair symbolizes prosperity and wealth. Nobody wants to cut his/her wealth. Therefore, no one would go to have hair cut during the first month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

There is one thing that I have to share with you which was “invented” by my mom. If anyone wants to buy shoes during the Chinese New Year, buy a pen first. Yes….buy a pen first because it is called “bat” which pronounces the same as the word “no” or “not”. Then, shoes are no longer bad luck. It’s funny. I usually wait after the first month of the Chinese New Year.

But if you happen to travel Hong Kong 2 weeks before the Chinese New Year, you will find some awesome deals. Good Luck!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR.

How do Chinese call their relatives?

In the western world, grandchildren call their grandparents from both their parents' sides as "grandma" and "grandpa" and call their parents siblings as "uncle" and "aunt".



In the Chinese world, little ones call everybody differently. Even if a stranger walks by your kid and hears how he/she calls his/her grandma, this person can figure out right away from which side of the family his/her grandma from. The same rule applies to when the kid calls their uncles and aunts.



Let me give you some examples how we call our grandparents:

Grandfather from my father's side - "Ye ye"

Grandmother from my father's side - "Ma ma" (It sounds like calling your mother. But the tune is very low. It's very different.)


Grandfather from my mother's side - "Gung gung"

Grandmother from my mother's side - "Pau pau"

In the western world, when your kid calls his/her uncle, he/she may call him as "Uncle Joe" in which that person's first name is included. In the Chinese culture, nobody is allowed to do so. This is seen as disrespect, even among siblings. But in this new generation, certain families are not as strict as it used to be.

How is a name translated into Chinese?

Throughout the centuries, names have been translated by the number of syllables. It is out of respect of other countries cultures.

Unlike English, there is no alphabet in Chinese language. For instance, there are 3 syllables in this name, Roberta. There will be 3 Chinese characters to represent it.

For names ending with a letter, such as b, d, k, l, m, p, s and t, are considered an additional syllable often. For example, there are 3 characters to represent a name, "Bridget" because of a "t" at the end of the name.

Certain characters can only be used in a male or female name. Therefore, we also base on the gender to use different characters when we translate your name.

Mums

During this time of the year, you always see a lot of mums in front of people’s houses. There are so many different colors. And they bring out the lives of the fall.

Mums are a kind of chrysanthemum. Chinese call mums the baby chrysanthemum. There were a lot of poems appreciating chrysanthemum since 200B.C. Chinese describe it as a strong gentleman among flowers because it can stand in the cold weather so long and still bring out the colors. The original Chinese chrysanthemum was yellow. It was then developed to different colors and varieties in the 1100s.

Chrysanthemums have been used in Chinese medications for 3,000 years. The most common usage is in tea which helps the body to release the extra heat. Another function of it is for longevity.

Interesting, huh?

Halloween

My husband's family always ask me, "Do Chinese celebrate Halloween?" "Do you have X'mas?" which I believe you wonder the same things, too.

Yes, we celebrate pretty much most of the western festivals. Some people put on the costumes on Halloween. But there are not of them. There is no trick-or-treat. Halloween is pretty much only for adults or grown-up.

The attitude of Chinese treating Halloween is totally different from the Chinese Ghost Festival which falls on the 14th day of the 7th month on the Lunar Calendar. People always have a lot of fun on Halloween. But during the 7th month, people are scared of meeting any evil spirit or ghost. And at the same time, they are very respectful of the ancestors and those passed away.

For more interesting story of the Chinese Ghost Festival, stay tuned. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Jade

Many women love diamonds. But in the old China, there was no diamond, but jade.

A lot of emperors and rich people had their belongings, ornaments and jewelry made of jade. It didn’t only represent their superiority and privilege, but also protect them from the evil spirits.

This stone is very human-oriented. Why? If you wear a jade pendent, you will realize it. The more you wear it, the greener it is.

But how does it protect one from evil spirit? I heard this story from my schoolmate several years ago. She wore her jade pendent all the time. She never took it off. One day after getting out of shower, she saw from the mirror that the jade had half of it left. It looked very strange to her. So, she looked down at her pendent. It was in a whole and good shape. She looked back to the mirror again. It was just half of it.

Then, she knew that some evil sprits tried to approach her. It was this jade protecting her from their harm. At the end, she threw the jade away. It was because it had already carried out its mission. It was not able to protect its owner again.

Was that true? I really don’t know and don’t mean to scare you. But I just want to show you the importance of this precious stone to the Chinese society.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of fake products out there. Some professional can even tell. If you really want to buy one, go to the well-known stores.