This past Friday night and Saturday morning, we had parent-teachers conferences. (They went very well, thanks for asking.)During the course of my conversation with one set of parents, it came out that their 5th grade son has been attending ICS for three years, but their eighth-grade daughter just started this year. When I asked why, they said there is a particularly long waiting list for the graduating class of 2014 because there is an abnormally large number of thirteen-year-olds in Hong Kong.
Do the math. Thirteen years ago, it was 1996. Hong Kong was scheduled to be handed over to China on July 1, 1997. Children born before then would be issued a British Hong Kong passport. Nobody was quite sure what was going to happen after the handover. Hence the pressure to get those babies birthed in 96 and early 97.
In a similar vein, there is also a larger-than-average number of nine year olds. Nine years ago was the millennium, and the year 2000 happened to be the year of the dragon, a very good sign indeed. Thus boom-let number two.
The word “auspicious” was never a part of my active vocabulary. But I have found myself using it more in the last four months than I have in the last four decades.
Auspicious means inclined toward success or having a propensity to bring about good fortune. It is –I believe- more accurate than the word than “lucky” when talking about traditional Chinese ideas.
-Jack
The word “auspicious” was never a part of my active vocabulary. But I have found myself using it more in the last four months than I have in the last four decades.
Auspicious means inclined toward success or having a propensity to bring about good fortune. It is –I believe- more accurate than the word than “lucky” when talking about traditional Chinese ideas.
-Jack
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