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[HongKongMan]

I got six or seven little red packets (Lei sei) on my return to the office on Wednesday – I felt honoured to be included in the local culture but at the same time slightly disappointed that everyone must know that I’m single – it’s always good to have some mystery about your private life in the workplace. It was fun on the other hand to go through with the little ceremony of pretending to be very surprised and then very grateful the next minute. It was an interesting sight to watch the junior staff walking around the office in a circuit of visiting the various managers.

Considering it was a HK$4 million display of pyrotechnics that lit up a cloudy and drizzling sky to celebrate the start of the year of the pig (the organizers said 23,888 (the lucky eight) were used), it was a shame that I was able to see about five of them before we gave up due to the smoke, fog and rain to head back inside to the bar! The display kicked off with fireworks meant to resemble the Chinese character for “luck” in red (It was the first time in history that a Chinese character has been displayed in fireworks), together with a pink pig’s snout and gold ingots. However the rest of the evening was entertaining as I had an interesting (i.e. deep) conversation with a girl (Ling Yee) I meet hiking (with a group of German expats – don’t ask) the day before (I guess it must have been my first date in HK).

I was woken up on Tuesday morning to loud banging of drums and lots of children at the bottom of the apartment buildings opposite to me with a Lion (or dragon – not honestly sure of the difference – maybe the size) dance/parade to celebrate the new year. So I got up and went downstairs to join in and walked in a procession around the apartment building, through corridors and down to the basement. Eventually managing to exit the building through the car park and up to the garden area for the final show piece dance and a crescendo of banging, a very entertaining way to start a bank holiday! Photos attached.

The local newspapers are full of doomsayers warning that the rush on the mainland to have ‘piglets’ will backfire. It seems that mainland couples have gone ‘hog wild about having children in what is considered a lucky lunar year according to traditional Chinese beliefs’…

Hong Kong, 24.02.07