March 12 Field Trip to Hong Kong Disney

The View Across the Border part 2

We have a Chinese Hong Kong freind who is a committed Christian. I asked him if he has any concerns about the future of religious freedom now that Hong Kong is part of China. He could not have done more to minimize the notion that religious freedoms could or would ever be in danger here in Hong Kong. The gist of his comment was “We are all very excited to be reunited with China. After all,” he said, “We are all Chinese.”

This conversation took place in the same week when the western news media announced that Gao Zhisheng an outspoken Chinese Christian lawyer who advocates for religious freedom and human rights inside of China and is often referred to as the “Conscience of China” disappeared.

Just this month a court in Shanxi province sentenced five leaders of an unauthorized home church to prison terms of up to seven years.

I get the impression that the Christians in Hong Kong are still working to find a balance. On one hand they feel incredibly strong ties to a nation that represents a 2500 year-old cultural legacy –the motherland, if you will. On the other hand, they also understand the policies of the current regime are not exactly hospitable to their Christian faith.

-Jack

Bubble Tea

The first week of school, I gave my students a get-to-know you survey asking them about their favorite t.v. shows, vacation spots, sports and what-not. One of my students said that one of her hobbies was drinking bubble tea. That got my attention.

I asked around and students’ explanations did nothing to help me understand. Something about cold tea with little balls in the bottom.

Eventually Annika and Elise caught wind of the joys of bubble tea, but it still took us a while before we all had one.

It’s basically a thin fruit drink with plenty of ice. Although many recipes forego the tea, strictly speak, bubble tea is made with a tea base. Milk is frequently added. The thing that makes bubble tea distinctive are the black tapioca balls in the bottom of the cup.

Bubble tea is generally served in a plastic cup with a wider-than-usual straw so that you can suck up the tapioca balls.

The tapioca balls are chewy and not really all the flavorful. But they sure are a fun ending to your bubble tea experience.

Annika and Elise go a little gaga over bubble tea. I can pretty much get them to do whatever I want if I bribe them a bubble tea.

“Hey girls, came wander around Tai Wai with me for an hour.”

“Nah”

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“No it won’t. It’ll be boring.”

“I’ll buy you each a bubble tea.”

“I’ll get the lift!”

-Jack

Pooch at the Outdoor Cafe

Plastic Dessert Samples in Restaurant Window

The View Across the Border part 1

Ever since last October when I watched Hong Kong celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Communinist takeover of China, I have become very interested in Hong Kongers’ view of China.

We live in a bit of an expat ghetto here at ICS, so whenever we get out and about, I am always glad for the chance to chat with local Hong Kongers.

During a warm weekend a while back, we were at the beach. Annika and I swam out to a big raft. As I am wont to do, I got to chatting with an ethnically Chinese Hong Konger on the raft. He was born in Hong Kong but went to university in England. He had visited the States several times and spoke perfect, idiomatic English. He was very cordial.

Because I genuinely want to understand, I started asking questions. Our conversation veered toward the current state of affairs in China. He explained to me that, yes, the communist party does form a ruling elite in China, but it’s really no different than in the States where you have the ruling elite of the Ivy League Old Boy’s network.

Come again.

With all sincerity, he compared the control exerted by the communist party to an archaic Old Boys network that is increasingly irrelevant and is undermined and outdone in a thousand different ways every day by people outside of that network.

The implication was clear: what we in China have going on is really not fundamentally different from what you have going in the West.

These are exciting times to be in Hong Kong. In part, I think that Hong Kongers are still so relieved that the Red Army didn’t come rolling over the border in 1997 and nationalize everything in sight that they have been happy just getting back to the business of doing business.

When the Chinese took over Hong Kong from the British, they promised to maintain a “One Nation, Two Systems.” At best it’s an awkward arrangement, because at the end of the day, the systems these two places are built on are incompatible. China is among the least-free places on earth. Hong Kong is among the most free. The equating of the Ivy League Old Boys network and the ruling communist party is –I think- an example of the lengths one has to go to in order to resolve the internal dissonance created by this unavoidable fact.

I am truly trying to make sense of what I see and hear. I have a long ways to go. I guess I’m having difficulty reconciling the view of China that I have as an American with the view of China that is held by some of the people I’ve chatted with here in Hong Kong.

Maybe the only dissonance is in me.

There is a lot I don’t know.

But I do know that my daughters would be a lot happier if I would quit striking up quite so many conversations with strangers and get back to doing back flips off the dock.

(Okay, I just made up the part about the back flips.)

-Jack

That Makes Two of Them

Next door to our school is a local Chinese school. We have to walk past to it in order to get to our train station.

For the past month, some student artwork by a second grade class has been hanging in one of the windows. The artwork faces inward, so we pedestrians walking by see the students' name and class section on the back of the artwork. Apparently there are two Annikas living in our little corner of Hong Kong.

Most people in Hong Kong have a Chinese first name that they use on official paperwork and a western-inspired first name that they use on a day-to-day basis. That's how you end up with local Chinese girl called Annika Wu.

In my class, I have Hammond Tong, Florence Lau, Queenie Hon, Hazel Chan, CoCo Tin, Peony Tan, Desmond Wong, and Vaughan Lo.

-Jack