Hong Kong has developed a reputation of being filled with suits rushing about trying to make millions of dollars and their rich tai-tai's spending money like its going out of style. And, to be honest, there are plenty of people like this in the city. But, the rumors that Hong Kong is devoid of good design, culture, or creativity is absolutely wrong. Hong Kong has its own unique aesthetic, you just need to search a little harder to uncover it.
The obvious place to begin is at the Hong Kong Art Museum. While not as large as Beijing's museums, nor as edgy as some of Shanghai's museums, this is a great place to begin exploring Hong Kong's art scene. In addition to pottery samples in all shapes and sizes, dozens of scrolls of gorgeous calligraphy, there are many more subtle examples of Hong Kong identity. Many of the poems and brush paintings on display are ancient examples of protest through artwork. Hidden amongst the bamboo leaves and orchids were critiques of the excesses of court life and calls to return to traditional values. Additionally, when I visited I saw an exhibit of works created by the first Chinese artists allowed to travel to Paris to study Western painting; showcasing Hong Kong's unique position between East and West. I was also able to view a retrospective for the Hong Kong sculptor Tong King-sum. The exhibit exalted the artist's use of texture, his strength in overcoming his physical disabilities, and his role in promoting the arts in Hong Kong throughout his life.
They don't really allow photos inside the museum... so you will just have to visit to see their collections yourself!
My next favorite spot is PMQ in Sheung Wan. PMQ stands for Police Married Quarters, because back during the British colonial period police officers who were married with families lived in this building. Years later, the building was abandoned, and the neighborhood became built up as one of the premier shopping districts on the island. The local government, unwilling to demolish this historical building, but not wanting this valuable real estate to go to waste held a contest. Whoever came up with the best plan for the idea that would allow the public to best appreciate both the legacy of the building and the contemporary state of the neighborhood.
A team of designers came up with a plan to foster young stars in the Hong Kong design industry. Given that real estate is outrageously expensive in Hong Kong, but having a shop or base for others to discover you is so important, especially to those just entering their fields, the team decided to provide subsidized studios/ shops for the designers in the PMQ building. The entire building was renovated to meet modern safety standards, and young professionals in the fashion, jewelry, cosmetics, interior design, product design, bakery, and other related design industries were invited to join a space for two years. Additionally, established brands and restaurants were invited into a limited number of semi-permanent spaces for a higher price, thereby subsidizing the small companies and ensuring sustainability for the project.
What I like most about the PMQ project is that it creatively solves many problems all at once while at the same time staying true to its design roots. Local and foreign artists are invited to put on free shows for the public, creating a rotating stream of attractions, while the more permanent designers have time to develop new products and industry connections. This is one of my favorite places to purchase unexpected gifts for friends and family back home. Not only am I supporting local artists, but I also get have a wonderful experience every time I return!
Honestly the best cupcake I've had in Hong Kong!
While you are in the neighborhood, be sure to check out the galleries and antique shops along Hollywood Road. There are dozens of small galleries with a constantly changing array of contemporary artists from all around the world. While some of the locals who prowl the area may be looking for a piece to hang in their apartment, I've never had any problems just going in and checking everything out. The people working at the galleries are generally very friendly and love talking about the works.
If you are looking for more traditional art head to Lascar Road (more commonly referred to as Cat Street. The little shops along this road specialize in Chinese and Tibetan antiques. However, be warned that most (if not all) of the items are fakes. If you want the real deal, be prepared to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars at one of the larger Hollywood Rd. shops. Still, the Cat Street market is a fun and colorful shop if you are looking for a "jade" pendant or Mao poster. My personal favorite is the little old man who sells hand painted calligraphy at the end of the street. Pick up a traditional quote or two from him!
Of course, art isn't limited to museums or galleries. Wandering around in the Soho/Sheung Wan area is a fantastic street art crawl. Just a week or so ago there was a huge initiative by HKWalls to invite graffiti artists to spray or paint huge murals all around this neighborhood. I've also heard that they've gone to Stanley Beach and done a similar project, but I have yet to return there since winter break. But seriously, grab a map and try to find all of these amazing pieces (and some other surprising unauthorized graffiti too!).
Nothing says Hong Kong like Bruce Lee!
I haven't even begun to touch on some of the amazing gardens, architecture, historical archives, concerts, plays, or the random pop up events that I've occasionally stumbled across. Hong Kong has an amazing and lively art scene, it just takes a little digging to find. A blend of East and West, tradition and modern, commercial and avant garde, there is always something interesting and inspiring going on in this amazing city.
In high school, I resented being forced to study Spanish. I hated Spanish in middle school, and I was prepared to do almost anything to avoid studying it again in high school. I say almost, because I was not about to take the distance-learning French class which was rumored to be even more boring. During my sophomore year I heard about a Chinese course being offered to high school students at UW-RF, and got really excited. Finally, something other than Spanish or French! A few friends and I talked to the administration and received permission to enroll in the program during our junior year. That year passed, and so did most of the summer without any additional information about the course. Finally, one week before classes start, I heard a rumor that the program was cancelled due to low enrollment. I confronted a guidance counselor, demanding to know what exactly was going on. Indeed, the program had been cancelled, and the school had not bothered to inform any of us students. With only two years left in high school, I had no other choice. I demanded placement in a Spanish course, and spent the next two years resenting every verb conjugation exercise.
This is brewing in the back of my mind as I sit down at SOAR to begin enrolling for my first semester of courses. I was in one of the last enrollment sessions, and many of the classes were already full. My first priority was to sign up for a chemistry course, everything else was secondary because I was on the way to becoming a famous genetics researcher (as I'm writing this, I'm laughing at myself... if only I knew). Anyway, I began scrolling through the endless list of electives and very quickly became overwhelmed. I gravitated towards recognizable topics; costume workshop, concert band, and French. Except, introductory French was full, or it conflicted with my chemistry class. I tried Italian, German, and even Spanish. No luck. I clicked through every single language offered by UW (hint... there are a lot!) and found exactly two that were not full or in conflict with chemistry; Mandarin Chinese and Urdu. I had no idea how one would even begin learning Chinese, it seemed so completely foreign, but that anger I carried throughout high school came back to me. I won't let my stupid little high school keep me down. This is a new start. I'm a whole new person in the big city. I can do anything. I enrolled in Mandarin.
I still remember the ver first day of class almost perfectly; nervously entering a new lecture hall in the Microbial Sciences building, awkwardly introducing myself to students from all sorts of backgrounds; students who already spoke fluently but couldn't read or write, Cantonese speakers, students who have Chinese parents but never learned themselves, Korean students, and even a couple of other clueless beginners like me, and getting my Chinese name 高爱丽. Our poor TA, You Laoshi, had just arrived from China, and we were his very first class. If only he knew what he was getting into.
We spent a solid month echoing sounds back to our teachers. No characters. No words. Just sounds. Vowels, consonants, and tones were practiced for eight hours every week. It felt more like an awkward pre-school singalong than an actual university course. Every day I went to Chinese class wondering, why bother? Its not like I was actually learning anything. But I went, every single day. And I commiserated with my classmates. We complained during class exercises where we introduced ourselves for the 7 billionth time (你好， 我叫高爱丽。 我是一个学生。你呢?). We complained about our listening homework in the cafeteria. We complained about hand cramps as we compared our hundreds of copied characters. We gossiped about the TAs. We wondered if we would be able to actually go to China one day. And, against all common sense, we signed up for second semester.
Chinese does not come naturally to me. Every single thing I know about the Chinese language has been hard-won through hours spent copying characters, drilling pronunciation, and hundreds of flash cards. For example, I know the words left and right. We learned them in second semester! The characters are 右 and 左, they are pronounced you and zuo or is it zuo and you.. wait, does the box-thing or the I-thing mean left or right? And I'm back at the very beginning again.
But, despite all of that, Chinese is so much fun! Take for example the phrase 马马虎虎. Literally translated, it means horse horse, tiger tiger... which is nonsense, unless you know the story behind the phrase. Way back when, someone drew a picture and proudly held it up for his friends to admire. Apparently, it wasn't a very good picture, because his friends couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a horse or a tiger. From a mediocre picture to a phrase for not very good, Chinese is proof that languages evolve and freeze all the time. It may make no logical sense, but this is what makes Mandarin interesting to me.
Last semester, I took UST's Chinese for non-Chinese background students VII (AKA advanced foreigners) with a bunch of wonderful Americans from schools literally across the nation, two Korean students, an pair Indonesian students, a students who's family was originally from elsewhere but was raised in HK, and a graduate student from Greece. UST is admirably trying to revamp their Mandarin Chinese language program for international students, providing more levels in order to more accurately group students according to their levels. But, because we all came from such different backgrounds, it is very difficult to know who exactly knows what. The curriculum remains a work in progress, and while I'm glad to have taken the course to keep practicing, I will be even more grateful when I return home to UW's wonderful Chinese language department.
This semester, I enrolled in eighth semester Chinese, but ultimately dropped it. In combination with 15 other difficult credits, and missing much of the first two weeks of class, I knew there was no way I could catch up with the heritage speakers. I was surprised, however, to find how much I miss the routine of Chinese class, looking over new vocabulary, slowly reading through new papers, and commiserating with an instant new set of friends. I find myself listening in to Mandarin conversations on campus, just to quiz myself. I'm trying to decipher the traditional characters on signs around campus. And, I'm looking into graduate programs that include a Chinese language component.
Every day you make a million random little decisions that shape your life. Consider stretching yourself, and learn a random language. Had I not made that snap decision four years ago, I wouldn't be sitting in this dorm room overlooking the sea. I wouldn't have found two amazing internships working with passionate and inspiring people an ocean away. I wouldn't have found a community of friends who continue to support and amaze me every day. I wouldn't have stumbled onto a million other random little decisions that have made my life so much richer and more interesting.
Back in the beginning stages of planning everything, when China was just this crazy idea in the back of my mind, I came up with a list of a million reasons not to go. Why leaving would be the worst possible decision I could make. Why traveling would ruin my life forever. Many were pretty stupid; What if my plane crashes and I'm forced to integrate with some tiny Pacific island culture WITHOUT WIFI?!? What if everyone back home forgets about me and I become forever alone?What if I catch the bubonic plague?
Some were a little more reasonable; What if I get dumped because my boyfriend doesn't want to deal with being thousands of miles apart? Will I make friends? What if I hate absolutely all of the food? What do I do if I get lost? Who do I call for help?
And, of course; What if something happens to my family while I'm away?
There isn't really a way to account for all of the what-ifs anxiety will throw at you, and you definitely shouldn't be limited by them (especially the crazy ones). But, that doesn't mean nothing will go wrong.
Last week, one of my worst fears came true. My grandfather passed away, painlessly, but suddenly. Unexpectedly. It was my third day of class, and I was gearing up for microbiology lab in Starbucks when I heard the news. There aren't really words for the shock and pain I felt in that moment. I think I immediately burst out crying and scared everyone else in the coffee shop. My first thought was: I'm on the wrong side of the world. My second thought was: I need to go home. Right now.
It's funny, had you asked me just a few days earlier where exactly home was, I would have said Madison. Or, had it been a particularly nice day in Hong Kong, HKUST. But during the entire 48 hours it took to return to the US, home was Minnesota, back with my family.
I spent one week at home. Admittedly, during the daytime I mostly slept, and at night I was up watching youtube videos and looking at pictures of cats while sipping chocolate-mint tea. But I also went out to see a lot of my family. Between school in Madison, internships and study abroad, I haven't really been home for more than a few days in, well, nearly two years.
There is that old cliche about how study abroad changes you, or finding yourself abroad. I always secretly thought that was just a load of bull. Life changes you. It doesn't matter if you are in China or Minnesota, time passes by, and we all change. My youngest sister is now figuring out where she wants to go to college and setting up a senior art show, while the other contemplates graduation and entering the job market. My high school friends are working real jobs, beginning to get married, considering graduate school, and freaking out about student loan debt. Almost everyone I knew from UW graduated this semester, and they won't be back in Madison with me when I return next year. My grandparents shrank, and they look so much less sturdy than they used to. My parents looked tired, a lot more worn down than I remembered.
I came back to old memories of summer weekends spent baling hay, feeding calves, chicken chasing, and sneaking ice cream to the farm cats. I listened to dozens of stories I've never heard before, met distant cousins, family friends, and other local veterans. There were lots of tears, even more hugs, and endless mugs of coffee to ease the pain. It all seemed so removed from my life here in UST, but at the same time intimately familiar.
I hadn't realized how homesick I was until I boarded that first plane and felt a pain clenched around my chest drift away. I reveled in all the little details of life; the smell of fresh coffee everywhere, wheat bread, cheap gossip rag magazines in by checkout lines, and fresh snow and wicked cold. As I settled in with my third or fourth cup of coffee, I knew this was where I belonged. But soon enough, the feeling was back again. Even within a short week, the clamps tightened around my chest. I NEEDED a good bowl of noodles. American commercials are SO annoying. Why isn't hot water freely available everywhere? Don't you realize it is cold outside?
Now, back here in the dorms, unable to sleep at 3am for the third night in a row, I am beginning to realize that I'm homesick for a place that doesn't exist, cannot exist. I want all of my family, high school, college, and international friends within a one hour radius. I want a lake, the Minnesota north woods, Tibetan mountain top temples, cow pastures, and the ocean shore all together. I need a good cheeseburger, Beijing style dumplings, mapo doufu, and fish ball noodle soup served with freshly brewed coffee. I want Portland weirdness with Madison college-town atmosphere and Hong Kong's cosmopolitan flair. I want a cabin on the lake, a big red barn, and a refurbished urban loft with lots of natural lighting. I want white Christmas's with tropical flowers and fall foliage. I want the impossible, and it pains me to admit that.
Maybe this is the part of travel no one tells you about. Yes, I can adapt to anything... but can I adopt anywhere?
Mr. Kindschi's class, I got your questions! I will try to send out answers later on in the week, once I catch up on homework.
Study abroad is the best time of your life. This is when you make memories you will cherish for the rest of your life. Your friends and family are cheering you on from back home. Every day presents new opportunities for adventure, friendship, and self-exploration.
Except, not every day is magical and wonderful. Don't get me wrong. I'm having a fantastic time here in Hong Kong, but it is impossible to have the best day of your life for 365 straight days. And so, I'm going to present a list of five things I shouldn't really complain about, and five things that keep me going on the rough days. Interspersed are pictures from a recent hike I took near the Clearwater Bay Park down to Po Tai fishing village.
1. It takes twice as long to get anything done. Administratively, study abroad is complicated. Registering for classes is a multi-week process as I try to build a solid class schedule, get approval to enroll, and register the credits to transfer back to UW Madison. None of this is difficult, but it is time-consuming. Similarly, I've spent three days paying for housing, and two weeks trying (unsuccessfully) to get my taxes done. Things get complicated, and its not like I can walk into someone's office in Madison and ask for help.
On the bright side, people have by and large been very helpful and considerate. Random people on the street help me as I struggle to bag up my groceries, redirect me when I get lost, and professors respond to emails within 24 hours. It is easy to overlook the countless little moments where people go out of their way to help me find my way, but their help is priceless.
2. Air pollution. The air has been particularly foggy/smoggy in the past week, which makes it really difficult to take clear pictures... or you know, breathe.
Still, we've had some pretty excellent sunrises and sunsets.
3. Losing important documents. A couple of days ago I lost my wallet in the MTR. Back home, this is bothersome, but not the end of the world. However, my wallet contains my passport, student id(s), room card, octopus card, debit card, cash, and my health insurance card. The process for replacing any single item takes days or weeks. Replacing all of them? I shudder at the thought. Lucky someone had turned my wallet into the MTR authorities, and after two hours of absolute panic, I was on my way back home.
People always warned me about pick pockets and muggers, but I've (thankfully) never had anything stolen from me. I can be pretty absent minded, and I can't tell you the number of times I have had complete strangers run up to me to return a book or some change I had forgotten about. And really, I cannot thank the stranger who turned in my wallet enough. Thank you.
4. I'm cold. I know it is like -20 degrees in Madison right now, but hear me out. I live in a concrete box of a dorm room with leaky windows and no central heating. None of the buildings on campus are heated. Even finding a soft chair to curl up in is difficult. Admittedly, during the afternoon, this isn't really a problem; throw on a light sweater and you are good to go for a day of adventures. But at night, the wind whips off of the ocean and slices right through the cracks in the windows and chills the entire campus. There is no relief until the sun comes up the next morning.
Fortunately, Hong Kong has excellent tea and snacks to help warm you up on a chilly day. Few things are better than a mug of milk tea and a freshly made waffle dripping with peanut butter and condensed milk.
5. I get sick frequently. Different side of the world, different microbes. Also, in generally having millions of crammed into such a small area is a recipe for disease. While I've been lucky and haven't had any serious injuries or illnesses, I have had dozens of flus, colds, migraines, and mysterious illnesses that have laid me low for a few days. Nothing feels worse than being sick abroad.
I've learned to rebound much more quickly. I've only got a few months left! I can't waste time sitting around nursing a mild cold! There are exhibits to see, parks to visit, hikes to complete, pictures to take, and memories to make! Study abroad teaches you dozens of ways to become mentally and physically resilient. Like everything else in life, there are highs and lows. Take time to cherish the highlights, but recall the troubles too. It is not the struggles that define us, but how we react to trials that shape who we are.
The last couple of months have absolutely flown by. The holiday season has always been my favorite time of year. This is my first time abroad for Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Christmas, and it was a little bittersweet. I missed out on the classic turkey dinner for Thanksgiving, but a group of American exchange students organized a brunch, which may not be traditional... but was delicious.
For my birthday, instead of the traditional Babcock Dairy ice cream (which I miss desperately!) and cheese curds, I got a group of friends from my Chinese class to try out Sichuan-style hot pot. After stuffing ourselves with meat and veggies, we visited WanChai for some bubble tea and egg waffles!
Note to self... don't take large bite of waffle before having your picture taken!
Spending Christmas away from home was definitely the most challenging for me. Here, Christmas is a holiday spent out with friends, shopping, looking at the lights, and exchanging gifts. However, for me Christmas is always about family. It is the one time of year most of my extended family gets together to just spend a day cooking, eating, exchanging meaningful gifts, and catching up on the family news. Given all the time I've spent abroad or away from my family in Madison, this year was especially tough. I had a some solace from my boyfriend visiting over Christmas and New Year's (thank you Jon, and happy one year anniversary!) and the knowledge that my immediate family was visiting soon, but it is not quite the same.
Gotta love obligatory MTR selfies!
So... with all that said, New Year's has passed (at least, the western one... Chinese New Year is in February) and it is time for me to lay out my study abroad resolutions. I'm over halfway through my Hong Kong experience (though I may be able to go to Beijing next, more on that later), and its time for me to evaluate my progress thus far.
1) Eat more weird food. I've gotten pretty lazy with my meals lately, and have been eating western food more often than I care to admit. Hong Kong is known for crazy Cantonese dishes, and its now or never!
2) Climb more mountains. Some of my favorite memories from the past semester were on group or solo hikes in Hong Kong's amazing parks, but I avoided taking more of those treks because they often take up a significant amount of time or energy. I absolutely need to do the Lion's Rock hike, Dragon's Back hike, and climb up Lantau Island.
3) Take more photographs. No, I don't mean selfies. I've kinda been going back and forth about when and where I want to take my camera to get really nice pictures. I hate looking (more) like a tourist, but I really enjoy having quality pictures to show what life in Hong Kong is really like. I want to show more pictures of local life, housing projects, and the wet markets!
4) Spend at least 30 minutes each day preparing for the Foreign Service Officer Test. I recently learned that I was not invited to move onto the oral exams for the Department of State hiring process. While this wasn't a complete surprise, I'm still a little disappointed. Rather than moping, I'm working to make sure I have an even stronger application next year.
5) Create memories through multiple medias. I blog, I dump pictures onto my Facebook page, and I Instagram weird moments of my day, but other than that... I don't do a lot to record everything that is going on around me. I want to take more videos, re-start my personal journal, collect more tickets and postcards, fill out the Google+ page I'm sharing with the Oregon High School class I working with for the Classroom Connections project (hi everyone!), and I want to start making a couple of Shutterfly books filled with memories and thoughts from my time in Sichuan and Hong Kong.
6) Explore more. I've fallen into the trap where I know the districts where I am most comfortable: Sheung Wan has fantastic food, Tin Hau has the fabulous library, Kowloon Tong and Kwun Tong have good malls, and Lantau Island is a nice getaway. But I really want to make more of an effort to visit ALL of the MTR stops, and places not on the stops! More outlying islands, more local areas, and avoid getting stuck in a rut. Along with this, I really really want to visit Taiwan and Vietnam this semester. Financially, it didn't work out last semester, but with a little more careful planning, I should be able to continue exploring abroad!
So welcome to 2015, the year of the ram! I hope it is another amazing year filled with adventure, exploration, and opportunity like 2014 was!
Classes are over, and I'm already beginning to prep for final exams. It still feels like I'm just getting my bearings in Hong Kong, but the year is already half-way over!
Anyway, I really wanted to take this opportunity to explain how influential the humanities course has been. Community and Cultural Identity (HUMA 3630) was, by far, my favorite class this semester, and possibly one of the most interesting courses I've taken throughout my university experience. The objective of the course is to provide students (mostly locals in the School of Humanities and Social Science) with the analytical skills to study how we create and differentiate groups, communities, and cultures. However, in reality, this class forces students to consider how they identify themselves and interact with others.
Lectures/Tutorials: Twice a week, for two hours, we would have traditional lectures on social theories, historical context, and different methods of analyzing social groups. For the most part, these were my least favorite part of the class... but I generally dislike long lectures. However, the professor went out of his way to make sure we were paying attention and participating. Everyone was expected to answer at least one question per lecture, and provide some comments or questions during discussions. Our professor also included specific, local examples to show how these theories can be applied to local concepts. We talked a lot about Hong Kong history, specifically examining South Asian minorities, distinct groups of Chinese immigrants like the Hakka, modern trans-national families, and, of course, the student protests.
Our professor even participated in an on-campus forum about the protests.
Additionally, it was really interesting to get a Chinese perspective on Western history, philosophy, and sociological theories. You know how in high school, we covered Chinese history in about one week, rushing through a couple of dynasties, the Opium wars, and the Communist revolution? In this class we covered all of Western civilization in two days. The important bits are apparently the Greeks, the Romans, the Middle Ages, and Modernity. It's a weird portrait, and it really forced me to put my knowledge of Chinese history into perspective. This also placed me under a lot of pressure throughout the class. As a Genetics major, I can say with confidence that I'm no expert on Greco-Roman history, America's 20th century anti-Chinese immigration policies, or current movements of Chinese businessmen abroad, but I was frequently called out to explain historical backgrounds or current Western perspectives. It is really difficult to sum up several centuries of Western racism in three sentences, but I tried.
Field Trips: Throughout the semester, there were three planned field trips for the class. We all needed to attend at least one, but we were welcome to all. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend one of these trips, nonetheless I learned a lot. Each field trip focused on a different minority group around Hong Kong; the Hakka, Pakistanis & Indians, and a unique rural village in the New Territories. By studying each group's cultural event, conducting on-site interviews, and doing a little independent research, we were to piece together an idea of how these groups maintain their identity within the larger Hong Kong community.
Way back when, before Hong Kong was taken as a British colony, but after most of the Chinese residents had already settled, a group of Hakka Chinese migrated to Hong Kong island. Together they established a small fishing and farming community and managed relatively well. According to legend, one year, before the Mid-Autumn festival, there was a huge typhoon. Along with the waves of water, a giant python appeared in the village, eating livestock and threatening the villagers. The brave villagers managed to kill the python, but soon afterwards, a mysterious plague began killing many of the Hakka. A priest declared that the python had been the son of the Dragon King of the Ocean, and he had sent the plague as punishment. The only way to save the village was to perform an elaborate fire dragon dance. A huge straw dragon, studded with thousands of sticks of burning incense was carried by the Hakka men all throughout the village for three days, until the plague was gone. The ritual is repeated every year by the Hakka community.
Now, the old Hakka village has been replaced with high rises, as central Hong Kong has been built up over the years. The area has become gentrified with western restaurants and luxury apartment building. Nearly all of the Hakka people have been forced out of the area, and are now scattered throughout the New Territories. However, with the support of the Hong Kong government, the Jockey Club charities, and, most importantly, the strong communal ties that continue to bond these people, the ritual continues as an important cultural tourism event. Government officials are invited to the lighting of the dragon while expats and mainland tourists eagerly flock to watch the spectacle. Despite this, the Hakka community still maintains ownership over the ritual. A religious ceremony takes place at the local temple, where only Hakka community leaders are invited to participate. The majority of the volunteer organizers, musicians, and dragon-runners are Hakka. And the ceremony continues to be a source of strength and pride for the Hakka community.
Community Service: The third component of the class was, to me at least, the most interesting. Everyone was required to complete at least 15 hours of service with an organization that works with South Asian minorities in Hong Kong. I was selected to work with Caritas Ngau Tau Kok on a number of different projects within their Ethnic Minorities (EM) outreach program. South Asian minorities, particularly Pakistani, Nepalese, and certain ethnic groups from India, face discrimination, lower socio-economic status, and little or no access to Chinese-language education, disconnecting them from the majority Hong Kong society. Caritas works with these minority groups to address a few key problems; Chinese language lessons, after-school tutoring for children, public housing assistance, and connection to the Chinese community.
Our first project focused on the dearth of large, affordable housing for large immigrant families. In shifts, we visited an apartment compound with a large number of Pakistani immigrants. The compound was being systematically bought out by a developer, and Caritas estimates that all of the tenants will be forced to leave sometime next year. We administered questionnaires to the residents to get a better idea of their awareness of the issue and identify their needs. Pakistani families are generally larger than local Chinese families (averaging four to five children per household, as opposed to one or two) and have significantly lower income levels, due to the lack of job opportunities for minorities and that the wife traditionally stays at home. It is, therefore, very difficult for these families to find adequate housing. Many of the families we interviewed had been waiting for public housing for five to seven years, and didn't know where they would go if they were forced out of their current apartments.
Our second project was to host a town-hall style meeting for both the Chinese and EM residents to attend. There, the two graduate students led a discussion about the current situation, future options for the residents, and they attempted to answer the residents' questions. From the beginning, the group self-segregated, EM women in the back, Chinese families to the left, and EM men to the right. The gap between the two groups only continued to widen throughout the meeting, as the graduate students slowly translated conversations for each group to understand. It was interesting to watch how these two groups interacted. While they all shared the same concerns, there was no sense that the two sides were at all connected by this issue.
The third project was to attend weekly tutoring sessions for Pakistani high schoolers at the Caritas community center. They mostly focus on Chinese and math tutoring, as these are two key areas where EM students traditionally fall behind, but on the day I attended, I worked with a couple of female students to draft an English essay about teen pregnancy. The students were basically like all students everywhere; fun to talk with, curious about me and the United States, and willing to do almost anything to distract themselves from their homework. I had a lot of fun. While I'm obviously useless as a Chinese tutor, I have been invited back to continue helping students with their writing and math homework.
Our final project was a community and cultural fair for local Chinese residents to learn more about South Asian culture and to interact with EM people. Visitors stopped by different stations to learn about different foods from around the region, receive a name in Urdu, practice their cricket skills, and get a henna tattoo! The children had a lot of fun running around playing the games, and it was nice to see the locals and minorities interacting more than they usually did. Of course, it wasn't a complete success, there were a fair number of people racing to get through each of the stations to to get their final prize, but overall in some small way I think we contributed a little bit the the greater understanding between these two groups of people. At the very least, I gained many new friends and memories from the experience.
7:00 My alarm jars me awake, and I slowly climb down from my
lofted bed. My two roommates are still asleep, so I try not to make too much
noise as I clumsily assemble the ingredients for coffee. My French press is
perhaps the most valuable thing I own here, as coffee options on campus are
pretty bleak.
This is my bed/desk!
There's not a whole lot of room, but it's enough for me.
8:30 After I drain two cups of coffee, read through my
emails, and catch up on what everyone on the other side of the world has been
up to (thank you Facebook and Twitter!), I pack my bag and head out to school.
Watching the sun rise over the bay is never disappointing!
8:45 The entire campus is set on a mountainside, meaning
everything is arranged vertically. In theory, you could walk along the sidewalk
to get to the main academic building, but no one actually does this. There is a
series of walkways and elevators that runs up the center of campus that
everyone uses instead. They are convenient, but crowded during passing
times.At 9:00 they usually aren’t too
bad, and you can generally get into an elevator pretty quickly.
One of two sections of the bridge linking the dorms to the academic building.
9:00 I sit down to enjoy some breakfast… er, dim sum.HKUST is pretty isolated, so there are no
real off-campus food options. On campus there are a few major food options, and
unfortunately they are mostly less than ideal. For western (ish) food there is
Einstein’s café, Milano Fresh, Ebenezer’s, or McDonalds. They are building a
Starbucks on campus, but that won’t be finished until next year. For Chinese
food there is Seafront Cafe, Asia Pacific Catering, Golden Rice bowl, the fancy Chinese
restaurant on the ground floor, or the cafeteria on LG1. The LG1 cafeteria is
widely considered the best on campus, so that’s where I eat most of the time.
The baos are usually served around 8:30 or 9:00, and they sell out quickly, so
hurry in.
I missed the baos today, but did manage to snag some fried noodles... Don't forget the chili sauce!
9:30 First lecture of the day; Plant Biotechnology.This is a pretty large class, with roughly 70
students, and the professors move through material very quickly.Attendance isn’t recorded, but the lecture
slides are mostly composed of excerpts from actual research paper and require
some serious interpretation. There are no breakout discussion sessions, and the
weekly tutorial session usually ends up being another lecture.Raising your hand to ask question during
lecture is not actively discouraged, but the professor will get frustrated if
lecture is frequently interrupted, and most of the local students never speak
up during class. Instead, office hours and meetings outside of class are the
best way to get your questions answered.
10:30 After lecture, I head to the library’s study space in
LG4. I have ninety minutes before my next class, which I mainly
used to study for the Foreign Service Officer Test, catches up on lecture
notes, or looking up cat videos.
LG4 is quiet, has comfy chairs, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the bay, and plenty of outlets... what more could you ask for
12:00 Chinese for Non-Chinese Background Students level 7
begins.HKUST’s Language Department is
working on adapting the Chinese language classes for non-local students. It’s a
bit of a work in progress, because students from the US generally have very different
experience from Indonesian or Korean students. At times, this class is
incredibly frustrating; lectures are only twice a week, there is very little
opportunity to speak in class, we are responsible for learning roughly one
hundred vocabulary words a week, and I often feel like I’m in over my head.
However, my classmates are absolutely wonderful and friendly, our professor is
a sweetheart and funny, and I am slowly growing my Chinese vocabulary. Hong
Kong isn’t the ideal place to study Chinese for a number of reasons, but I keep
sticking with it because language classes are a fantastic ways to connect to a
culture and make new friends!
2:00 Depending on what day of the week it is, I generally
have several hours off in the afternoon. In addition to a quick workout and/or
nap, this is the main period I use to work on some of my class projects. In
addition to the midterm and final exams (which are slightly terrifying and
nearly always graded on a bell-curve), most classes assign a long-term group
project or a paper, or sometimes both. In my Personalized Medicine course,
student groups are responsible for diagnosing patients in weekly case studies
and presenting the genetic origins of the disease.Additionally, we were individually assigned a
genetic disease that we needed to characterize and identify a series of five
SNPs that could be used as a genetic test for the disease. Similarly to
Madison, professors emphasize using primary research, interpreting technical
data, and presenting your findings in a clear and informative way. Ooh! And lunch! I tend to spring for a nice lunch, because by this point I'm ravenous. I recommend Ebenezer's falafel gyro or Milano's create your own salad.
I'm usually also knitting during class. As long as you are in lecture and paying attention, the professors don't seem to mind. Also, I've heard rumors that there isn't really central heating in Hong Kong... so I need to prepare.
5:00 I head out to evening lecture. On Wednesdays, this is
my Community & Cultural Identity class, which is by far my favorite class
I’ve taken so far. The professor is knowledgeable, funny, and really tries to
engage the class. Using different perspectives from each of the social
sciences, the course analyzes what how community and culture have evolved over
time, and in particular how it impacts minorities in Hong Kong. It’s been
interesting to get the Hong Kong perspective on migration, race relations, US
immigration policy, and the recent protests. As one of two American students in
the class, it’s been especially challenging. Trying to condense hundreds of
years of racism down to three sentences is tough, as is explaining the
background to anti-Chinese laws in the 20th century, and the
limitations of the current US political system, but it has definitely been
rewarding.If you want a deeper look at
Hong Kong history, culture, and identity definitely take this course!
We were also required to complete some volunteer work for this class. I worked with Caritas, a Catholic charity that works with underprivileged locals and Pakistani immigrants to increase access to resources and education. Above is a picture of the apartment complex that many Pakistani families lived in, but are now being forced out of. We helped with an education campaign to help these families find new housing.
6:30-7:00 Dinner time! Or, if it is Wednesday, I run to catch a bus to get to the subway to head to the IFC in Central to grab some coffee and chat with other knitters. Every other weeknight I usually head back down towards the dorms and stop by Seafront for a bowl of noodles. I'm not a fan of their rice-based foods, but the noodles are pretty good, especially with a liberal dose of chili sauce.
8:00 Back in the room, for some more FSOT studying. I'm a big fan of the Hong Kong Public Library, and usually have a stack of books on various topics to choose from. Also, the Dane County Public Library System has an e-book lending program, which has been a fantastic resource for me while I'm abroad. I really enjoyed reading Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, and found it pretty helpful on the exam.
I'm also trying to catch up on some classics... college really cuts into your reading time.
9:30 Depending on how my week has been going (and how hungry I am) I may go on a half-price sushi run. In the Hang Hau mall, there is a sushi restaurant/ vendor that marks down all of their products after 9pm. Given that Hong Kong is a former fishing village, that the shop is only a fifteen minute bus ride away, and that I can get a full platter of good sushi for less than $10, its a pretty good deal.
11:00 Get ready to go to sleep... this usually involves more cat videos.
1:00 AM Some group of students outside our dorm begins yelling/singing/chanting. This happens nearly every night without fail. I'm not really sure why... some times its obviously exchange students coming back from a night out, but other times it is student organizations calling out slogans in Cantonese. At any rate, once this dies down, it is quiet for the rest of the night, and I can rest up for the next day's adventures.
Group cheers are strangely popular on campus. In this video, three business student associations battle in a clap off.
Not every day is a huge adventure or pilgrimage to some far-flung island, but I'm really enjoying my little routine here in Hong Kong. Some things are familiar and remind me of home, but everything is just different enough to remind me how far I've come, and how little time I have. It feels like midterms just finished, and now I'm rushing to finish a variety of final projects. Truly, time flies when you are having fun!
