BBQ: Hong Kong Style

My students invited me to a bbq last week. It was not quite what you would expect. We met at a business establishment that provides the space, materials, food, and beverages for the entire operation. It involves cooking your own meat (squid, chicken, beef, and prawns) on long skewers over an open fire. A very communal affair. This is the way bbq is done in Hong Kong.

Rush Hour Crowd Control on the MTR

Hoop Dreams: Hong Kong Style

Macau

Macau is the other Special Administrative Region in China that was a former Portuguese colony and is now known as the "Las Vegas of the East". It is a one hour ferry ride on the high-speed jetfoil/catamaran.




They run the ferry service like an airline.




The spectacle that is the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino.


There are some nice spots in Macau away from the casino district and maddening crowds.

Hong Kong Mountains

Had a retreat last weekend in the Hong Kong mountains located in what is called the New Territories.

Ten Things About Hong Kong Higher Education

Here are a few facts about university life in Hong Kong. I will resist the temptation to provide any explanation or interpretation; otherwise the post will extend endlessly.

1. Students don’t drink much, if at all; especially female students. There is no college drinking culture.

2. There are no mascots, and there are no school t-shirts sold in the bookstore.

3. Retention rates are close to 100%. There is no retention problem (except if you believe they retain too many students).

4. Graduation rates within the three year program (currently the British model) period are also close to 100%. There is no graduation rate problem.

5. Students (currently) are admitted to specific academic programs, not to the university. They move through the curriculum as a cohort (the introduction of the General Education program may change all this).

6. Students do not buy books. Faculty do not order books. Bookstores will not take orders because students don’t buy books.

7. The faculty are called “staff”.

8. Tenure is called “substantiation” (and it works a little differently than tenure).

9. The term “professor” is reserved for full professors. Assistant and associate professors are referred to as “Dr”.

10. The administrative leaders of academic programs are called “heads”, not “chairs”. High prestige full professors are referred to as “chair professors”.

Friendliness

Many have asked me if people in Hong Kong are “friendly”. By “people” I assume they mean the people I see on the street and in public places. The answer is “no”; people are not friendly here in the way Americans define friendliness. That does not mean they are unfriendly. Rather, I would describe them as largely indifferent. I often feel invisible.

While I am no expert on Chinese culture – I am having enough trouble sorting through the contradictory claims about the Chinese/Asian teacher and learner – my experience thus far in public places and in the classroom leads me to conclude that the Chinese (here in Hong Kong and perhaps on the mainland as well) are very reserved, stoic, and tolerant. Public displays of any kind, including public displays of tolerance, are rare. They have mastered the art of “civil inattention” across the range of social settings (not just the subway and elevator).

Americans, on the other hand, tend to be friendly in a loud, boisterous, often superficial, and animated fashion; with both friends and strangers. This is not the way of the Chinese.

However, once you have met and become an acquaintance, all this changes. People will greet you with a smile and ask how you are doing.

It may be that social interpersonal relationships and human connections take on a greater significance in Chinese culture as part of the “guanxi” system (a kind of social capital) involving obligations, favors, and reciprocity. For this reason they are not entered into lightly. I offer that as one possible hypothesis.