Mr. Shangkong | Asia's World City still has a few unique gifts, if you look hard
With the advent of globalisation, truly unique Hong Kong souvenirs are a rarity these days, but there are still a few left if you know where to look
With the holidays upon us, our minds turn to gift-giving and the struggle to find something appropriate.
When my friends from the mainland travel to Hong Kong, they often ask me what they should buy as souvenirs for their friends.
What they really want is something memorable that won't be found elsewhere. I always wrestle with an answer.
Blame globalisation. These days wherever you go, particularly to big cities like New York or London, it's getting more and more difficult to find something that really represents that city. I remember I once bought a T-shirt with the famous "I heart NY" logo on it in New York. Later, I saw something similar in London and Dubai - all made in China.
Before Hong Kong was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997, many mainland visitors liked to take back souvenirs with a British colonial theme. The trinkets held no particular political meaning for them, just representative of a certain era. Such souvenirs mostly disappeared after 1997, although there are still some on the shelves in Stanley market.
But some critics contend Hong Kong is losing its own flavour day by day; others quip that today's Hong Kong is "just another mainland city" like Shanghai or Beijing. To some extent, both Shanghai and Beijing are also very global, considering how many skyscrapers they each boast, and how many multinational corporations have offices there.