Advertisement
Advertisement
Jason Wordie
Jason Wordie

Humble roadside food stalls introduced hungry Hongkongers to spicy but affordable South Asian delicacies that originated in the British Army garrisons stationed across the New Territories.

Conversations with the late Billie Gill, a fixture of the literary scene in Shanghai, China, in the 1930s, make up fond memories for one writer, who recalls two enjoyable days spent in her company.

An eccentric Hong Kong University English teacher in the late 1930s, Adrian Paterson absorbed Chinese culture with an enthusiasm that left its mark on his students long after his earthly tenure ended.

Advertisement

The 1.5 million refugees from China’s civil war who flooded post-war Hong Kong were practical folks. The fruit trees and bushes they planted are a legacy of the squatter settlements they once inhabited.

Healthy and full of protein, soybeans have been a popular foodstuff in China for centuries. Here’s how they’re processed, made into products like soy sauce – and used in Cantonese to refer to lesbians.

From zodiac predictions and what to wear, to traditions, the wood element and lucky foods, numbers, stones and colours, this is your complete Lunar New Year guide for the Year of the Dragon 2024.

Cheap but pungent, fermented bean curd has been adding flavour to Chinese rice and congee dishes for generations. Even stinky tofu can become highly addictive to those who come to enjoy it.

Direct flights now take people and goods between Hong Kong and other cities around China and Southeast Asia, but in decades past, small coastal vessels connected the region at a much slower pace.

It makes no difference whether one uses cow or bull dung on the plants in one’s garden – it will still grow. Perhaps the same applies to Hong Kong District Council election candidates.

videocam

The Friday market in Shek Kong, Hong Kong, was a favourite of British service wives living in married quarters near the then remote village. Now long gone, it is reduced to mere memory.

Jason Wordie remembers his enduring friendship with Irene Smirnoff, whose father, George Vitalievich Smirnoff, painted his famous scenes of Macau in World War II with his young child by his side.

Hong Kong missed an opportunity to promote itself as tolerant and outward-looking when it hosted the Gay Games 2023, all thanks to a self-appointed cabal of guardians of ‘traditional family life’.

Ubiquitous throughout Hong Kong on both public and private buildings, glazed ceramic tiles were popularised through their use to prolong the life of poorly constructed buildings.

Hong Kong has always been relatively short on historical relics but in Sung Wong Toi, a rare quiet spot in the hubbub of Kowloon City, one of our most ancient antiquities looks silently on.

When the global telecommunications industry underwent a revolution, reducing the time it took for messages to reach their recipients from months to minutes, Hong Kong was well placed to take advantage.

Macau is the Portuguese spelling of Macao, the official name others now use, whose roots lie in the territory’s Chinese name. Macau has also been at different times a colony, province and ‘enclave’.

Banker Francisco A. Da Roza, scion of a storied Macau family, tells Jason Wordie how honoured he feels to be helping curate an exhibition about the Portuguese community’s contribution to Hong Kong.

Few images are seen as being as quintessentially Hong Kong as the Chinese fishing boat, used in copious marketing campaigns to evoke a sense of the city, despite such vessels having sailed away decades ago.

Cantonese food is fresh, sweet and oily – and cooks’ choice of fats to give it the latter quality have evolved. Pork lard is still used, but peanut, rapeseed and palm oil have been added to the Hong Kong diet.

The Hong Kong Police did a superb job during the Mid-Autumn Festival Fire Dragon parade in Tai Hang, being helpful, efficient and with no one channelling their inner Darth Vader.

Once famous for its vibrant nightlife, Hong Kong has lost its mojo, and unimaginative attempts to revive it are only ‘doomed to fail’, as officials are apt to say these days.

Once wildly popular across the Chinese world, cheongsam have largely vanished into the pages of history – no thanks to Suzie Wong, and elite Hong Kong girls’ schools.

A century ago most of Hong Kong’s Chinese population was illiterate. The disappearance from the city’s streets of the professional letter writers they used is a reflection of its greatest societal achievement.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Cantonese furniture was the benchmark of Chinese craftsmanship for the outside world, and renewed domestic demand for high-quality items is seeing traditional skill sets revived.

Relics of the past, Victorian-era bandstands were often a joint effort of local government and philanthropists – as was the case in Hong Kong – and became a focal point for communal entertainment.

The weather in Hong Kong is pleasant for only a few months starting in autumn, traditionally the start of the international tourist season. Clear skies used to be a draw, but they are a relative concept these days.