In The States, stationery generally refers to writing paper. If you are using the term broadly you might include cards, notes, pens, pencils, and calligraphy brushes. But in Hong Kong, my students use the term even more broadly. Stationery not only refers to pens and paper, but it applies to all kinds of items you might keep on your desk such as scissors, whole punch, and tape dispenser; which recently gave rise to the following sentence from one of my student’s short stories. (You’ve got to love the teacher’s name.)
“Ms. Gibberish loved all the stationery on her desk, but the bit of stationery she was most fond of was her stapler.” (Mayhem ensues when a student borrows -and then breaks- the stapler in question without first asking permission.)
In The States, if you needed to buy a supply of three-ring binders or an electric paper shredder, you would say that you were going to an office supply store. Here in Hong Kong, you go to the stationery store. And trust me, it’s not going to look anything like an Office Max. It’s probably going to be a mom-and-pop shop that opens up directly onto the sidewalk. But it will be stacked from floor to ceiling with all sorts of stationery.
About half of which will be Hello Kitty brand.
-Jack
Last week’s Hong Kong-ism was “shroff.” The word originated from India. In the last century when the majority of British Hong Kong's police force was Indian, a shroff was the Police Court Official to whom money was paid. Today, in a parking lot, the "shroff office" is where you pay your parking toll. By extenstion, the word shroff in Hong Kong is coming to mean parking lot.
"Shroff" is one of those odd reminders of Hong Kong's complex, colonial heritage.
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