N*Sync

For the last twenty years, Julie has worked second shift as a nurse two or three nights a week. And of course, I had that whole wedding photography thing happening on Saturdays. This has meant that as a family we have never really been a nine-to-five, weekends-free kind of household.

That’s all changed now.

In the morning, Julie and I get up together. The girls and I leave the apartment at more-or-less the same time. Monday through Friday evenings, we reconvene at home for dinner together as a family. We spend our weekday evenings together doing homework, grading papers, and paying bills.

Weekends are free to do things together as a family.

We’ve finally managed to secure something more akin to the all-American household schedule.

And to think, all we had to do was move to Asia.

-Jack

Relaxing on the Bed

Staying in Touch via Email

Happy Birthday China

One of the fascinating things about living in Hong Kong has been watching Hong Kong’s views and take on China. It’s a bit of an interesting nexus because Hong Kong is definitely Chinese, but for 150 years it was not part of China. In 1997, Hong Kong was ceded back to China, but Hong Kong has been allowed to retain much of her autonomy. The official line has been “One Nation. Two systems.”

In my brief time here, it seems to me that Hong Kong is glad to be reunited with China but is also quite happy to observe China with a watchful eye from a safe distance.

I have started grabbing day-old, Hong Kong newspapers from our school library. It has proven to be a great way to get a feel for Hong Kong’s complex attitude toward the Mainland. In the same issue Monday, I read an editorial that was highly critical of the iron fist with which Beijing still rules China, and an op ed piece that waxed poet about how China’s command-and-control economy has recently proven superior to the free markets of the West. (A pretty presumptuous conclusion after just five winning quarters out-performing the West which have come after five decades of a slow-motion economic train wreck with untold casualties)

Today, October 1, China is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist regime by Mao Zedong. This year –which is not always the case- the anniversary happens to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. So as you can imagine, Beijing is pulling out all the stops. Rumor has it that tonight’s firework display is going to be the biggest ever in the history of the universe.

Because it’s the mother country and because they love a good party, Hong Kong seems to be joining in on the celebration despite their antipathy toward the Communist leadership in Beijing. But just to make sure that Beijing doesn’t get the wrong message, Hong Kongers will get on board the 60th anniversary celebrations now, and then they will take to the streets in June to commemorate and protest the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

It’s a complex relationship.

Every year, the communist party leadership in Beijing commissions a film that re-tells some aspect of the founding of the nation in 1949. Most everyone in Hong Kong recognizes it for what it is: unrepentant propaganda. But it will still do half-way decently in the theaters here. This year’s movie “The Founding of a Republic” is a big-budget, star-studded event. More than a few people have confessed that they are going just to be able to pick out the 150-plus stars including Jacki Chan and Jet Li.

Me? I’m gonna go have another mooncake.

-Jack

Vine on Fence

Of Mooncakes

We're on the eve of our first Chinese holiday here in Hong Kong: Mid-Autumn Festival. It is essentially Chinese Thanksgiving which celebrates the bounty of the fall harvest and is a very family-oriented holiday.

There are three things you need to know about Mid-Autumn Festival.

One: we have two days off of school. (Yes!)

Two: there are lanterns hanging everywhere; many of them lit. Very cool.

Three: mooncakes, mooncakes, and more mooncakes.

A couple of weeks ago, we started to notice an increase in subway advertisements and t.v. commercials about mooncakes. Last week, we noticed that stores –grocery stores, bakeries, dollars stores, hardware stores- started stocking boxes and boxes of mooncakes. The stacks spilled out onto the sidewalks. It was then that we finally made the connection between the holiday and the mooncakes.

Mooncakes are a traditional part of the Mid-autumn Festival. People give them as gifts and serve them as desert or treats. They're a little smaller than a puffed-up hockey puck. They have a thin pastry exterior, a dense, bean-paste core, and at the very center there is usually a filling, the most traditional of which is an egg yolk. They came in a wide variety of styles and flavors.

In the ads they look delicious. I had my first one today.

It was okay.

It was really dense, rich, and not all that sweet. Julie’s comment was “Not worth the calories.”

And they’re not cheap. One mooncake can run you US$2 to US$4. The word is that after the holiday is over, you can’t give them away. I think we’ll wait until then, to truly give them a fair sampling.

Mooncakes have an indefinite shelf-life which makes them the fruitcake of Asia. It's an open secret here in Hong Kong that mooncakes are regularly re-gifted.

It’s rumored that there is one box of four mooncakes out there that has been in circulation since 1983.

If that particular box lands on my desk, I will be sure to forward it to you.

-Jack

In the Stationery Store

Let me Explain Your Heritage to You

I thought that distilling and presenting American history to a room full of Chinese Hong Kong students presented a challenge. But it turns out that teaching American history was just a prelude to the tightrope of teaching Chinese history to a roomful of Chinese Hong Kong students.

In my English classes, we are reading DragonWings an historical fiction novel that chronicles the immigration of a Chinese man and his adolescent son from China to San Francisco in 1903.

On one hand, I don’t want to assume that my students are well-versed in all things Chinese. On the other hand, I don’t want to appear as though I think I know more about the Chinese experience than they do.

Kids, when our book takes place, the emperor was a Manchu, which is why Uncle doesn’t like him. But you all already knew that of course, right?

The Boxer Rebellion was a movement in 1901 to expel Westerners from China. It’s a fairly important event in Chinese history –or at least I think so. In a reading I had put together, I’d made reference to the Boxer Rebellion assuming the kids all knew what that was. This morning, I had half-a-dozen kids ask me “What’s the Boxer Rebellion.”

Well kid, pull up a chair and let me tell you what I know about your Chinese heritage.

It’s a tricky balancing act.

I’ve been alive three times longer than they have and I am the teacher and I am better read than they are. (Well at least most of them.)

Then again, they are the ones who are Chinese.

I guess we’re going to have to figure this out as we go along and extend a lot of grace to one another in the process.

-Jack

Saturday in the Park

I cringe to think that someone visiting the States sees me doing something quirky and then reports back to her home country. Boy, you should see what they do in the U.S. When eating pizza, they flip one piece on top of another and then eat it like a sandwich. No, that’s not people in America. That’s just me.

Likewise, I want to be slow to draw broad conclusions about life in Hong Kong based on one observation. Men in Hong Kong do push-ups on the sidewalk on busy street corners. Or maybe it was just that one dude that one time.

Saturday, we were at a large municipal park. We saw a couple of old-timers doing Tai Chi in the park. Okay, I happen to know that this is pretty standard. (Although, I’m fairly sure the old guy in the stretched-out, sleeve-less t-shirt was making up his own moves).

But then we came upon this gentleman –about fifty, in cargo shorts, and with a graying ponytail- standing on a small arched bridge in the middle of the park. He was singing. Loudly. Dramatically.

Oh that’s cool, I thought. People in Hong Kong sing loudly in public in the park. I was thinking that I might do a little Tai Chi in the park tomorrow, but maybe I’ll do some loud singing instead. That’s right up my alley.

Then I saw two young Hong Kong men walk past Singer Dude. I saw them do a double take and then smile to themselves.

It made me question my earlier assumption.

As the two young guys approached, I asked them if they understood what Singer Dude was signing. They said they didn’t know for sure, but they thought it was a Chinese Opera.

Then I asked what I really wanted to know: So is it pretty normal to stand on a bridge in the park and sing loudly for half an hour? Embarrassed, they smiled, and shook their heads a definitive “no.”

Okay, I got it.

Tai Chi in the park: A standard Chinese thing.

Caterwauling from a bridge: Just some random Chinese guy doing his thing.

It was a good reminder that I have to watch my assumptions and be careful about the conclusions I make about life in Hong Kong.

Oh, I guess I can probably go ahead and give back The Sound of Music sheet music I borrowed from Elise’s music teacher.

-Jack

That's a Crock

It's the simple things in life that make me happy. Take crock pots, for example. Having to work each day until 5:00 makes getting dinner on the table a bit of a nuisance. Add to that, the challenge of grocery shopping and cooking on a two-burner stove and an oven the size of a microwave and you understand why a crock pot might make me overjoyed.

As Jack described earlier, we have been blessed with a source where we can purchase large supplies of meat at a discount. The stew meat, I have found out, when cooked in a shorter period of time can be a little tough. Hence, I am very excited because today I managed to pick up a used crock pot for a bargain price with the hopes of more tender meat in the future.

You see, I have become an avid internet garage-saler, so-to-speak. As Jack mentioned, there is a website where expats wheel and deal in all kinds of things they no longer need or want. I have tried to comb this site each day for a few things we need--especially the free listings. The challenge becomes claiming items before someone else does and then figuring out where in this vast city I might meet up with them to claim my new purchase. It's kind of like a treasure hunt.

Being the Sabbath, I must confess here, that this new Crock Pot did involve me texting during church. I'm hoping that since I was being a good steward and actually ended up purchasing it from another believer on her way out of church, there will be extra grace extended.

It all started at 6:30 this a.m. when I texted a response to an ad and asked if the pot was still available. Once we were in church I received a response that it was. I had become aware earlier that the seller was on Hong Kong Island, where we would be attending church, so I was hoping it would work out to purchase it today since it would save me a 45-minute train ride later. So, there I was, texting (only twice!) in church and setting up a time to meet her just two train stops away once the woman was out of church. Thank goodness for our detailed map of HK, because she gave me some landmark at which to meet her which was a five-minute walk from the train station.

It couldn't have worked out more smoothly. After putting in a small plug for her church, we exchanged money and parted ways. So, for US$12.00, my family will have some tender stew meat. I have to tell you, slow cookers are not common here, and to purchase one new would be about $80.00. So, yeah internet garage-sale-ing!

As a bonus, we got to explore a little bit of the city we had not been to yet, so that was fun too.

Here's to a future of yummy stews and soups!

Feel free to send me your favorite Crock Pot recipe.

-Julie