Covid Numbers Climb; Oscar-Nominated Ascension

Babies and toddlers seems more at risk of Covid-19 now

Hong Kong had another record day of cases -- 7,533 -- and sadly 16 deaths, one of which was an 11-month old baby girl. There is a big concern now about children becoming infected and how they are not getting vaccinated or are too young to be vaccinated in the case of this baby.

Meanwhile the government is still going ahead with the vaccine pass that starts on Thursday. In order to get a haircut or go to a religious service you must have at least one jab and have this vaccination certification uploaded on your LeaveHomeSafe app.

Uploaded vaccine passport is on left, none on right

If you are going to a shopping mall, supermarket, department store or wet market then you may need to show your vaccine pass if a security person stops you. So there may be some people who are not vaccinated and may take the risk of going into a supermarket without having to show anything. How is this helpful?

And perhaps even worse, no vaccination is needed at all to go into a hotel! Why is that when almost all hotel staff were pushed to get the jab? It boggles the mind.

Something completely unrelated to Covid -- I watched a documentary called Ascension that was nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Awards.

I didn't know quite what to expect and was surprised at the end and how it all came together.

Oscar-nominated documentary Ascension

There is no one main character, no particular storyline, but it becomes more apparent the longer you watch it. It starts off with scenes of people looking for jobs and those trying to entice them with decent labour conditions, like free wifi, air conditioning in the dormitories, but the pay is very low at around 20 kuai (US$3.15) an hour. We are not sure what the jobs entail, but some say you get to sit while working, others say the job is in an office.

People get rounded up and taken in coaches to their new destiny.

Some make rugs for Ikea, components for spray bottles, bottles of water, others make microchips, Christmas trees, jeans, and shirts. 

Perhaps the most amusing scene is watching mostly women putting sex dolls together. They are made of silicone, with large pendulous breasts, and curvy bottoms. They have permanent surprised expressions on their faces. Each one is custom made -- "Her nipples need to be pink!" one worker says, another has her wig changed from blonde to brunette. Another flings the doll's legs apart to inspect her down there. Each one is photographed to make sure it is correctly done up.

Worker checks the sex doll's face with the order

An interesting tidbit is that director Jessica Kingdon said a subsequent talk that all the sex doll factories they went to were owned by women.

Then the film shifts to jobs that have been created in the last few years, such as cryptocurrency mining (mostly young guys playing video games and eating lots of junk food), men collecting rented bikes that are dumped in a pile, people talking into their smartphone streaming online to sell things, and what looks like a pyramid company, where everyone is aiming to make over 10 million yuan in three years.

There's also people who are training to be bodyguards, hitting each other until there are scratches and bruises on their chests, and to be professional-looking assistants where they should smile to show eight of their upper teeth, while others are training to be butlers, measuring the distance between glasses and plates. The instructor asks them if they have ever watched Downton Abbey and none of them have, leaving them with little understanding with what career they have chosen.

It's an interesting look at what Chinese wealthy people think what being rich should look like, and the butlers trying to fulfill that fantasy. They probably assume everyone in England lives like that, ringing a bell for the butler to appear. 

People waiting around to get work in factories

This is similar to the aspirations of China's middle class. They think they have made it when they buy luxury brands or they go to a water park and sharks swim around them in an outer pool. It's all quite overwhelming the sheer numbers of people all trying to enjoy themselves at the same time.

Kingdon herself has an interesting background. Her father is Jewish-American, her mother is Chinese. Her brother went to China for a few years, learned Mandarin and persuaded his sister to come look at the country.

Before Covid-19, Kingdon and her small crew filmed in 51 different locations around the country and she says in interviews she had the best Chinese food. Kingdon also managed to meet relatives on her mother's side, one of which is now a cousin who works in Silicon Valley in the US.

Nevertheless, the title of the film comes from her great grandfather who wrote poems. One of them is Ascension, where he writes that the higher one climbs, one is horrified by what they see down below.

Director Jessica Kingdon, her mother is Chinese

This encapsulates the film -- how people are struggling to get ahead in some way, whether it's factory work to escape the poverty in the countryside, or to become a butler in the hopes of getting away from a terrible work environment. And with all this production and capitalism leads to terrible environmental damage, climate change, and exploitation of labour.

But Ascension doesn't preach a particular message, nor is it judgemental -- it has a fly-on-the-wall approach to the film and lets the viewers see what is going on and decide for themselves what they see in the documentary.

Ascension

Directed by Jessica Kingdon

97 minutes

HSBC's Lions Back on Display

Peter Wong (left) unveiled the return of Stephen and Stitt

The big news in Hong Kong today?

The HSBC lions are back on display!

Stephen and Stitt, named after two bank managers, were unveiled at HSBC headquarters in Central today, nine months after extensive cleaning when they were painted read and torched during last year's protests. 

Last year the lions were damaged by fire and paint

Protesters were angry the London-based bank had shut down the bank account for SparkAlliance, which was accused of funding the legal and medical costs for the protest movement. Hong Kong police shut down the account which had HK$70 million, and arrested four people on money laundering charges.

"Stephen and Stitt have watched over HSBC's main building for 85 years. Through good times and bad, they have been an enduring part of Hong Kong's story," said Peter Wong Tung-shun, deputy chairman and chief executive of HSBC Asia-Pacific.

"Many customers, employees and the general public told us how much they missed the lions, so we decided to put them back on display following the first phase of restoration. When the work is complete, they will look as impressive as ever.

The two lions have a long history with the bank that dates back to 1923. Stephen, the one growling, was named after Alexander Stephen the chief manager, and Stitt for Gordon Stitt, the Shanghai manager at the time.

The lions were designed by Henry Poole in England in 1921 and cast in bronze. Another pair of lions were designed for the Hong Kong headquarters which was opened in 1935. 

Stephen back to his old self growling again

Since then Stephen and Stitt have only left their posts twice: in World War II when they were consigned to Japan for scrap metal. But luckily an American sailor spotted them in a Japanese shipyard and were returned to Hong Kong in 1946.

Then in 1981 the lions were moved again this time to Statue Square while the new HSBC headquarters was being built. Four years later they were put back in place according to feng shui. 

 

Museum Revamp Sparks Fears of Censorship

People went to see the Hong Kong exhibit before it closed

 

Today was the last day people could go see "The Hong Kong Story" at the Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui before it closes for a revamp. 

Many fear parts of the history recorded there would be changed so hundreds lined up today to record it in pictures and video. Others brought their children to teach them about the city's history, that it included being a British colony, which made Hong Kong a modern metropolis until 1997.

They worry the British history part will be gone

The exhibition charts the story of the island from 400 million years ago to Hong Kong's reunification with China 23 years ago. Since the show opened in 2001, "The Hong Kong Story" has had 10 million visits.

However, officials from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department said it's time for an "extensive revamp", which is expected to take two years, and some of the content will be amended.

As a result, many people came to take one last look, taking lots of pictures of the artefacts and how the city's history was described as a record because they worry the updated exhibition will censor some of the material. 

Some worried England's part in Hong Kong's development will be cut.

"I want her [my daughter] to remember the history of Hong Kong, especially the part related to England. I think the content will be changed and mainly focused on China, maybe will cut the part of England," a mother told RTHK.

Will these governors' portraits still be around?

A university student hoped the parts about British rule of Hong Kong would be retained.

"I hope the history museum will not be a museum that recorded altered history," he said.

This is how sensitive people are about defending the city. They are worried even a museum exhibition will be altered, but their fears are justified after seeing Hong Kong's institutions changing rapidly within months.

At one point the museum goers began singing "Glory to Hong Kong" and then shouted "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time!" 

It was a rare moment for people to protest albeit very briefly without the police pouncing on them.

Jiang and his modified calligraphy message

In the exhibition there is a picture of then president Jiang Zemin holding calligraphy he wrote that says: "Hong Kong tomorrow will be better". But someone stood next to the picture with Chinese words for "liberate" on his smartphone to make it read: "Liberate Hong Kong tomorrow will be better".

Hope springs eternal.

 

 

Remembering Elsie Tu

Veteran Hong Kong politician Elsie Tu gave her life to the city and its people

We're going to miss Elsie Tu, a veteran politician who died this morning at 102.

102! That demonstrates her will to live and probably good genes.

She was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England in 1913, and Tu and her then husband William Elliot moved to Hong Kong to do missionary work in 1951. Soon after not only did she quit the church, but also the marriage.

She then met the late Andrew Tu Hsueh-kwei and they founded Mu Kuang English School in 1954. It wasn't until 1985 that their friendship led to marriage -- 30 years after the two teachers met. She was 71, he was 63.

Tu with husband Andrew, co-founded Mu Kuang English School

"Mr Tu was very outspoken... he taught me a lot of things to make me better understand Chinese ways," she said.

In 1963 she got into politics and won a set on the Urban Council that year.

She later got involved in fighting against corruption, which led to the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 1974.

In 1985 she was appointed as HKSAR Basic Law Consultative Committee member. Although she was English, Tu was very pro-Beijing, supporting then former security secretary Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee over Anson Chan Fang On-sang in the Legislative Council by-election.

Despite her political leanings, it was her standing up for the little guy that many admired about Tu.

Over two years ago she complained about tycoons who didn't have a conscience to care about the poor.

She didn't name names, but expressed support for striking dockworkers.

She will be remembered for fighting for the poor

"I think shame on you. Why should you have [billions of dollars] when the poor can't even buy meat for their children's food? How could you have [billions of dollars] and still want more? The dockers are getting so little and their conditions are disgraceful."

Tu added there were some rich men with a conscience and some without, and there are many elderly who barely have enough to live on.

Who else is going to take up the fight for the underprivileged? Tu was a wonderful example to the end.

We will miss her indomitable spirit.

Going Abroad Younger

Mainland Chinese parents want their kids to study abroad to avoid this fate

Mainland Chinese parents who can afford it are looking to send their only child abroad for education earlier -- as young as kindergarten.

The anxious parents either don't want their children to go through the rote education system or think it's too stressful, and would rather they go abroad for a more liberal-minded schooling.

Clive Smith-Langridge, headmaster of Packwood Haugh School in England, said he has received many inquiries from Chinese parents about the preparatory school, which accommodates for students aged four to 13. He reported one inquiry came from a parent of a one-year-old baby, perhaps in the hopes of getting on the wait list for September 2018?

Across the Pacific, Alex Zou, CEO of Vancouver Public Education Alliance, which helps Chinese students pre-grade 12, reports his client base has doubled in each of the past few years. While most of the students are studying in high school, there are some that were sent to elementary schools and even kindergarten.

"The high school students we serve only need to pay about CAD$24,000 (HK$150,000) a year, including tuition and board, which can easily be covered by many Chinese families," Zou said. "I think studying in Canada has become an 'education for ordinary people'."

Parents not only hoped their children would have a solid education, but also develop hobbies and personalities, as well as have a competitive edge later on in the job market.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, China opened up to the world, and the only Chinese students who went abroad were those studying master's degrees or a doctorate.

Some 10 years ago mainland children started studying in overseas high schools. In the United States, nearly 24,000 mainland students enrolled in private high schools in 2013, compared to just 65 in 2005, according to eol.cn, China's largest education portal.

Zou said most mainland students studying abroad are from wealthy coastal regions, while families in second and third-tier cities preferred their children to complete high school at home.

Back at Packwood Haugh School, Smith-Langridge says: "We can prepare and send our students to the best independent schools in England, like Eton. At the moment there are two or three Chinese students, but the market is promising here and the demand for high-quality education is growing."

While it's natural for parents to want to give the very best to their children so that they can have a better life in the future, we have to wonder studying overseas at kindergarten age is the best thing for them.

Otherwise this may spawn a new generation of kids with major attachment issues...