Be Like Sheep

An idyllic Chinese New Year garden party at Government House

In his Chinese New Year video message, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said that last year was a tumultuous one, and suggested that perhaps the city's residents should emulate this year's animal in the Chinese zodiac.

"Last year was no easy ride for Hong Kong. Our society was rife with differences and conflicts, he said. "In the coming year, I hope that all people in Hong Kong will take inspiration from the sheep's character and pull together in an accommodating manner to work for Hong Kong's future," he said.

So the wolf is telling his flock to be more docile and obedient...

Was this a deliberate message or was the metaphor completely lost on him?

Leung Chai-yan continues to create headaches for her dad

While he may be hoping for a relatively trouble-free year in 2015, so far many of his headaches have stemmed from his daughter Leung Chai-yan who has show business aspirations and keen on gaining any attention for herself at the expense of her dad's leadership image.

Officials in Beijing must be smacking their heads with their hands watching the family drama unfold on the sidelines.

For Hong Kong residents this is very amusing, though it's interesting to point out no student activists or pro-democracy leaders are taking advantage of this to smear Leung.

When Leung released the video, he was quick to point out that the children in the video were not paid actors, and that they had "language impairments".

In his message, the wolf tells the people to be like sheep...

But many were quick to point out the wolf and sheep metaphor, which also brings to mind the 2004 Chinese novel Wolf Totem by Lu Jianmin (pen name Jiang Rong), who suggests people should not be sheep who blindly follow others and instead become wolves with free spirits to survive.

Perhaps Hong Kong people should take a page out of Wolf Totem and unleash their independent streaks. Maybe sales of Lufsig will pick up again?

Picture of the Day: Discounted Lufsig

Stock up on Lufsigs while stocks last!

The other day when I was in Causeway Bay, I popped into Ikea to take a look around.

Note to self -- do not go on a Friday evening at 9pm. Traffic-wise, it looks deceptively fine in the store, as there aren't as many people checking out the showrooms.

Over a year ago Leung tried to have fun with Lufsig...

But once you arrive at the cashier, there are massive lines. 

I usually don't end up empty-handed in Ikea, and picked up a pack of napkins. But as soon as I saw the lines to pay, I gave up.

However, I noticed a bin with Lufsigs, or the wolf character in Little Red Riding Hood, who wears a red and white checkered shirt and jeans with suspenders, while holding grandma in his paw was on sale.

He became famous about last December when protesters threw the stuffed toy at Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and it quickly gained notoriety because of his association with a wolf, and also the toy's Cantonese translation sounded like female genitalia.

These days protesters like to use the toy as a metaphor...

But now that it seems like the Umbrella Movement may be winding down in the next week or so, the Swedish retailer has also decided to move its Lufsig stock. Originally priced at HK$99.90 ($12.88), it's now HK$84.90!

With the discounted price, is that a subtle sign Leung has lost favour?

One can only hope...

Lufsig's Popularity Continues

The paper cut-out version of Lufsig with grandma in tow

This morning I made the paper cut out Lufsig that was given to me by the Democratic Party at the Lunar New Year Fair at Victoria Park. The "paper craft" required lots of folding and nimble fingers to put it together. In the end it does look like the doll from Ikea that coincidentally is back on sale at the Causeway Bay, Kowloon Bay and Sha Tin stores.

A "paper craft" project handed out by the Democratic Party

About 2,000 of the stuffed wolves were available today with about 700 in each store. However to ensure everyone could get one, the stores handed out reservation tickets before the store opened and each customer could only buy one HK$99.90 ($12.86) wolf.

The first person at the Causeway Bay store waited in line at 6am and from pictures in the media it looks like there was a long queue for the toy.

Some bought Lufsig as a way to show their displeasure at Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, while others saw it as a symbol of democracy. Others were keen to make money off of it, with one guy in line hoping to sell the stuffed animal online for HK$689 -- the same number of votes he got from the 1,100 voting committee.

Lufsig is back on sale in Hong Kong garnering more fans

It's hilarious that Ikea has been swept up in this controversy -- that its toy was thrown at Leung and since then has been snapped up by pro-democracy locals. The company has pledged to meet customers' needs.

"Please don't worry. In case this batch of [Lufsig] is stock out, we shall try our very best to replenish our stock as quickly as possible to meet all of our customers' demand on our ordinary range," the store posted on its Facebook page.

The next batch of toy wolves are expected to arrive in late March or early April.

Stay tuned.

Lunar New Year Fair: Report from the Trenches

An overview of the Lunar New Year Fair at Victoria Park from an overpass

I just got back from Victoria Park to see what was up for grabs at the Chinese New Year fair. As expected there were tons of people, and after entering the Causeway Bay entrance there were so many people that at one point the crowd did not move for 30 seconds.

Which phone apps do you use?

But no one got upset -- people were in good spirits and didn't complain about how it was so crowded -- it is to be expected when you go to these kinds of events. Luckily the temperature was perfect so it wasn't too warm.

What was hot this year? Lots of equine-themed toys with the Year of the Horse coming on Friday, lots of minions from Despicable Me and then some trendy things like stuffed animals from the Japanese chat app Line and cushions that looked like phone apps like WeChat, WhatsApp, the Facebook "Like" sign, and icons for Instagram and Candy Crush.

Many of the young kids liked buying helium balloons though a few Hello Kittys and minions floated up in the sky...

The pan-democrats were out in force, some keen to bash Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Some drew giant caricatures that made him look like he was beaten up, and one even made a giant stuffed Lufsig, based from the popular Ikea wolf toy with the grandma attached. That stall, manned by The Democratic Party, even handed out a paper cut out of the toy wolf.

A giant Lufsig with grandma attached

Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, former Legislative Councillor and former leader of the Civic Party was still out in her stall wearing fingerless gloves and writing Chinese calligraphy for donations. When she first got into politics she was ashamed her calligraphy wasn't very good, but after some lessons she actually quite enjoyed it and since then has shown up writing new year couplets for donations.

And of course Chinese New Year wouldn't be complete without flowers. The flower stalls sold lots of orchids -- some of the more expensive pots cost HK$6,888, and then there are the plum blossom trees, the Chinese equivalent of Christmas trees that people have at home and hang lai see envelopes on the branches.

There were lots of chrysanthemum flowers and water narcissus, some already in bloom -- which aren't the ones you want to buy now -- but they were so fragrant, their scent so gorgeous that I could smell it all day. I was tempted to buy some bulbs that were about to bloom, but in the end I decided my green thumb skills weren't good enough to a) discern which bulbs to buy and b) look after them well enough for them to bloom in time for Chinese New Year!

Beautiful and fragrant water narcissus already blooming

Another pungent scent was that of stinky tofu... it led to some food stalls that were also selling sugar cane drinks, squid balls, strawberries on sticks glazed in a syrup coating, and even chuar -- meat on giant skewers that were roasted on a grill then dipped in a giant tray of cumin that also smelled delicious. But alas I was still full from dinner!

After almost two hours touring around and the purchase of the stuffed rabbit from the Japanese phone app Line, I made it home and realized I was really wiped out. Done and dusted for another year.

The Lufsig Saga Continues

The Chief Executive's desk looks quite sparse for a man running Hong Kong

We have to give it to Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying for taking lemons and making lemonade.

After the Ikea stuffed toy wolf Lufsig was thrown at him on the weekend, Leung was shown on his blog yesterday posing with it on his desk. The wolf had the casual look going with its legs crossed and hugging the grandma.

"Today I am with a wolf on the desk," he wrote. "I realize that this toy has been very popular recently with heated offline sales and speculation online. This shows that Hong Kongers' creativity is boundless."

Yes - especially when it comes to protesting...

In any event Leung said the toy was a present for his daughter and a gesture of support for Unicef as part of the proceeds go to the international child welfare charity.

Oh and the crude Chinese name for the toy on the mainland? It was changed to 路副西 (lufuxi) from 路姆西 (lumuxi)... which is basically the c-word in Cantonese.

It's an excellent example of what is translated into Putonghua does not necessarily work in Cantonese...

In the meantime Hong Kongers have exercised their creativity and photoshopped Leung's picture...

Hong Kongers seem to have a lot of fun with this photo...

Toy of the Day: Lufsig

Lufsig has become the new rallying mascot against Leung Chun-ying

Ikea has unwittingly become part of the anti-Leung Chun-ying campaign with its grinning stuffed animal called Lufsig.

The wolf is based on the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and this version is wearing a red checkered shirt and blue pants while clutching a cute granny in its left paw.

But ever since the toy was thrown at the Hong Kong chief executive by two protestors from the League of Social Democrats during a public forum on Saturday, people have been trying to get to their nearest Ikea to buy one, because of the wolverine associations with Leung.

Also while the name of the wolf is not translated into Chinese in Hong Kong, its Chinese name in China sounds an obscene three-word phrase associated with female genitalia.

Yesterday an Ikea spokeswoman confirmed that Lufsig had sold out in its stores in Causeway Bay, Sha Tin and Kowloon Bay, with the remaining few going on sale today.

"All Lufsig toys were sold out. The next set of supplies will arrive in Hong Kong in early January," she said.

The selling out of the wolf toy has benefited one group -- Unicef -- which will receive a HK$10 donation for every HK$99 toy sold.

If you are desperate to get one, Yahoo's online platform had a Lufsig toy listed for sale at HK$150.