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”.

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.

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!

Olympic Game

Not sure if you watched the open ceremony of the Olympic Game. It was so exciting to see how China presented almost 3,000 years of history and culture in this way.

When my husband and I were watching it last night, I told him, "The background music reminded me Chinese New Year." 'Cos a lot of the music they played last night are always played during the Chinese New Year.

Thinking back in Jun'08, one of my best friends sent me set of limited edition of chopsticks and chopstick holders just for Beijing 2008. So, I was looking for it this morning and took some pictures so that I can share with you of the beauty of it.