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Flag of British Hong Kong (in use from 1959 to 1997) Hong Kong is a unique place. It was Britain's first and only direct colonial possession in China; and it was the last big British colony, the last remnant of the Empire that ruled a quarter of mankind. Under British administration, Hong Kong rose to become one of the richest, most exciting, and densely populated cities in the world.  Yet it has always been a thoroughly Chinese city, in which East and West met, but didn't merge into one single people, one single civilization. When Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer of the Royal Navy took possession of Hong Kong in the morning of 26 Januray 1841, in a place that is now known as Possession Point, the island of Hong Kong had nothing in common with the vibrant metropolis that we see today. Dismissed by Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston (1784 – 1865) as ‘a barren island with hardly a house upon it’, Hong Kong was nothing more than a remote outpost of the Chinese E

Taipei street scene 1) People Wearing Surgical Masks If you go out wearing a surgical mask in Europe you'll probably see people staring at you in panic, wondering whether you want to spread a mortal disease by mingling with healthy people instead of putting yourself into quarantine.  Don't worry, it's not that in Taiwan millions of people have serious diseases. It's just a habit to wear surgical masks, and no one will think you're weird and no one will look at you if you wear one. I don't know if the habit of wearing masks comes from Japan, or if it is a consequence of the SARS panic from a few years ago, which led East Asian countries to care more about public health in their overcrowded cities. Actually, wearing masks is not a recent phenomenon; I remember reading a book written in the 1930s about Japan, in which the author described a group of Japanese soldiers' wives in occupied Manchuria wearing surgical masks. Definitely, East As

Yesterday I finally arrived in Hong Kong and moved in my new temporary flat, where I will be spending the next two months. Hong Kong is known for having one of the most expensive property markets in the world. As South China Morning Post reported ,  "prices per square foot now exceed HK$10,000 even in drab, unglamorous districts such as Taikoo Shing on Hong Kong Island, where thousands of 700 square-foot units sell for more than US$1 million apiece, more than a large cottage in Provence, France, a 2,700 square-foot bungalow in Hawaii, or a 1,300 square-foot flat on Manhattan’s Upper West Side." I now have the privilege to experience myself the consequences of the shortage of land and high population density that characterize Hong Kong (and also of recent years' speculation). My new really tiny room (it's the smallest room I've ever lived in) costs 4,000 HKD (around 400 Euros). Hong Kong's lack of space and huge population are the reasons why the c

And so the time has finally come for me to say good-bye to Taiwan for a longer period of time: tomorrow I'll be moving to Hong Kong. I must admit that it was really hard for me to write the previous post, because I am so excited and couldn't concentrate.  I will be living in one of those huge buildings where thousands of people house (I will post pictures when I have the chance). And I will experience and explore the life of this amazing metropolis. On the one hand I feel relieved. Somehow I just couldn't stay in Taiwan any more. Although the country and its culture as such are very interesting, and although I tried to understand and learn as much as possible, I am probably not very good at coping with the environment here. I want to give you an example, just to vent my anger a little, if you don't mind. I have already written in another post about the habit of many Taiwanese people to cancel meetings as they please, giving just a short notice. I am sorry g

Yesterday I had once again a conversation about the alleged habit of Westerners to take a shower in the morning. I was surprised when, a few years ago, a Chinese friend asked me for the first time the question: " Do Western people really take a shower in the morning ?" I had never thought about this before. But apparently, a lot of Chinese/ Taiwanese notice (and disapprove of) this habit. When you live with a Chinese family (which could for example be your girlfriend's/boyfriend's family) you might have noticed that they are not very happy with your going to bed without taking a shower or bath first. It seems as though they considered it disgusting, and they wish you had brought your own bed sheets.  First of all, I don't think every Westerner takes a shower in the morning. I guess it depends on the person and the mood. I, for example, usually take a shower in the morning, but when it's hot outside, I prefer to take a shower immediately after coming back

Chinese New Year can be a pretty boring time for a foreigner. All of my friends were celebrating with their families, and since I have no family here, nor have I a girlfriend whose family I could join, I had nothing special to do. Shops and cafes were closed - apart from big chains like McDonald's or Starbucks, which were overcrowded anyway. So I had a lot of time to think. On Saturday evening I went out to buy my dinner. While I was walking around, I heard the voices of the people inside their homes, the sounds of their New Year celebrations. Then I suddenly asked myself: "What on earth are you doing here? Why are you still in Taiwan?"  Before I came to Taiwan, some Taiwanese friends of mine had recommended me their country, highly prasing it and going so far as to say that Taiwan is a "paradise for foreigners" (bear in mind that when I say foreigners I mean 'Westerners').  "It's easy for foreigners to find a job," t

A few days ago The New York Times reported that Chinese hackers attacked their computer systems and stole the passwords of some of their staff members. According to The New York Times , the timing of the attacks suggests that the purpose of such attacks was related to the investigation by the newspaper of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's and his family's wealth. The Wall Street Journal also reported that it fell victim to cyber-attacks originating from China. The evidence gathered by the newspaper allegedly shows that the China-coverage was the target of the infiltration. However, as CNN reports , the security experts hired by the newspaper could not find proves that files concerning Wen and his family were accessed. On February 1st, Twitter announced in a blog post that an attack on its system was detected and that " the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passw

Thanks to the economic growth of East Asia and China's opening up in the Deng Xiaoping era, from the 1980's onward the relationship between the Western world and East Asia has fundamentally changed. As a consequence, the contact between Western and Asian people has been steadily intensifying. Business people, students, professionals, tourists are among the protagonists of this new era of exchange, which is more and more 'democratic', in the sense that while in the past the movement was mostly from East to West, now the opposite case is not a rarity any more . The 2008 financial crisis even prompted a new wave of expatriation of Westerners towards Asia, in search for jobs that the troubled Western economies seem unable to offer to their young population.  Traditionally, economic power has attracted the interest of Westerners more than culture. When Japan was growing at a pace the West had never dreamt of, media were obsessed with Japan. When the Japanese economy c