I don’t know that I ever had a pork bun in Hong Kong, but it is a place I used to love visiting whenever I could. I remember watching the handover on TV at work. Everyone was anxiously waiting for the Army to march in immediately after the ceremonies ended. Colleagues were swamped with passport and visa applications as people who could get to Canada made an exit (or at least made arrangements for an escape later, and sent their families ahead). Eventually things settled and many returned to Hong Kong, but I hear that is reversing again.
I watch China operate in Africa and Central/South America, and their policies are barely better than those of the Americans in the past; in some ways, they are worse.
My daughter is Chinese, and we have thought in the past about going back for a visit. I doubt it will ever happen, now.
I wonder about it too. In the past year or two while the crackdowns on freedom of movement have gotten especially intense, some of my former colleagues have contacted me - mostly to ask for help in finding ways out of the country. There is definitely a "brain trickle" going on, but at the same time it seems there are enough people from the Chinese diaspora being tempted back to balance it out. I don't know if it's the lure of high salaries for "sea turtles" (a pun for "overseas returners") or perhaps appeals to ethnic identity (sif ABCs and CBCs have anything in common with PRC citizens, but what do i know...) but whatever it is, it's not nothing
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It's easier to virtue signal when nothing is on the line. But I noticed this when living in the Middle East, that people in the Western world can sing a song about civil rights and human rights and various bogeymen but they won't, like, push for an embargo on Saudi oil because of the rampant human rights issues within the GCC. "Don't weigh in! Don't piss them off! We need our [cheap shit from China/affordable gasoline for our SUV/cheap coffee/abundant raw materials from Africa]!" I guess the World Cup might shed a bit of light on what goes on in Qatar, but maybe not. Tourists can visit an area and yet be completely blind to the actual local culture. The current scandal is that you might not be able to buy beer at the games! Not the thousand or so brown people who died while building all the infrastructure over the past decade.
Spouse does not think that the US would defend Taiwan if the Chinese invade all at once. Probably inadequate time to mount a viable defense force.
Here's a random interesting picture. My kids have
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Yeah, it's complex. On one hand, you could argue that as a person from a democratic country, going to visit (or even live and work in) these authoritarian nations is a small way of showing the people who live there that there is another way. But on the other hand, perhaps you're just reinforcing the message of the regime, which is that democratic countries aren't really all that different, because if people from democracies freely choose to come spend their time in an autocracy, what's so great about democracy anyway
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PS, i also don't think the US would do all that much to defend Taiwan if push came to shove. There's just not much in it for the US, unless they really want to maintain their position as Team America: World Police, which both the left and the right don't really want to do any more. If China takes Taiwan, they have open seas out to the Pacific, which is all they really want. Maybe Guam would go next, or maybe not, since China can just buy out whatever other Pacific islands are about to sink due to climate change. They'll do the same thing they did in South China Sea and build artifical islands all over the place, and before y'all know it, they'll be on your doorstep. It's only then that i think the US will wake up to what they let happen
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The thing is... I really want to comment on this... but I can't voice them (forgot to switch on my VPN, though I'm not even sure if that helps).
That's what I had been saying.
Back in 1998 or so, I was walking home from school and got interviewed by a Japanese news crew asking what I thought of the upcoming handover of Macau in 1999 and I said it then already. They promised 50 years of no change, but the changes were happening already even before the handover.
Not sure if that ever got broadcasted though LOL.
If you ever come to Macau to visit (when all the quarantining is over), I'll bring you to one bakery that sells oversized pork buns (around the size of... my outstretched palm)
I heard the other day that Hong Kong has stopped their quarantine. And Taiwan recently has too. So maybe Macau is on the cards! It would be real nice to visit colonial-area Guangdong again, even if it is being steadily and depressingly Sinified.
one can hope :') but Macau is the "obedient child" as opposed to Hong Kong being the "rebellious child". It all depends on China right now. There is still the 5+3 policy now (5 days in medical observation hotel, 3 days in self-managed isolation) The +3 days, you can go out in the open, but essentially can't go anywhere indoors except for your designated hotel and/or place of residence *rolls eyes*
Sounds similar to here up until recently. Now it's 0+8, so no formal quarantine, but you are supposed to test yourself and not go to any unnecessary public spaces. In reality i think most people just don't do anything aside from perhaps the initial test, and perhaps that's enough.
I wouldn't mind to quarantine to visit another country, but only if i could work through the quarantine. Right now taking a week off would eat up a big chunk of my annual leave, which isn't really worth it, especially for visiting a "close" places like Macau that could otherwise just be a long weekend trip.
I've been interested in China, namely its history, culture, and society since I was 15 or so, but I have yet to visit. I enjoy your posts on China.
It seems most of the high school students I teach who moved here from China are from Guangdong.
I'll have to check out that documentary.
Maybe I already mentioned this once, but in Japan I met a Japanese man who visited Hong Kong several years ago and loved it. He learned English because he wanted to live there, but now that China has cracked down, he doesn't want to go there anymore. I can't blame him.
Hong Kong surprised me in that it had a rougher, older look to it. I think I expected something more like Singapore. I visited Hong Kong in 2016. Honestly, it struck me as a bit of a dump, but it was enjoyable. I guess I could say the city has character.
I sincerely hope Taiwan will be okay. If China tries anything major, it would be a bigger deal, and I think the U.S. would have to get involved somehow.
Guangdong is interesting. Maybe in an alternate reality it could've become its own country, together with what is now Guangxi and Hainan, plus HK and Macau too. They're south of a mountain range, they all speak a similar language (Cantonese family), but they've been conquered by various northern despots on and off for over a thousand years, so perhaps it's hard for anyone there to imagine what kind of identity they could have outside of China
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Yeah. Between the Nationalist conservatism in China, and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, it's a lot to deal with...but I still try to stay hopeful that everything will work out for the best someday...
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I watch China operate in Africa and Central/South America, and their policies are barely better than those of the Americans in the past; in some ways, they are worse.
My daughter is Chinese, and we have thought in the past about going back for a visit. I doubt it will ever happen, now.
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It's easier to virtue signal when nothing is on the line. But I noticed this when living in the Middle East, that people in the Western world can sing a song about civil rights and human rights and various bogeymen but they won't, like, push for an embargo on Saudi oil because of the rampant human rights issues within the GCC. "Don't weigh in! Don't piss them off! We need our [cheap shit from China/affordable gasoline for our SUV/cheap coffee/abundant raw materials from Africa]!" I guess the World Cup might shed a bit of light on what goes on in Qatar, but maybe not. Tourists can visit an area and yet be completely blind to the actual local culture. The current scandal is that you might not be able to buy beer at the games! Not the thousand or so brown people who died while building all the infrastructure over the past decade.
Spouse does not think that the US would defend Taiwan if the Chinese invade all at once. Probably inadequate time to mount a viable defense force.
Here's a random interesting picture. My kids have ( ... )
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That's what I had been saying.
Back in 1998 or so, I was walking home from school and got interviewed by a Japanese news crew asking what I thought of the upcoming handover of Macau in 1999 and I said it then already. They promised 50 years of no change, but the changes were happening already even before the handover.
Not sure if that ever got broadcasted though LOL.
If you ever come to Macau to visit (when all the quarantining is over), I'll bring you to one bakery that sells oversized pork buns (around the size of... my outstretched palm)
Reply
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I wouldn't mind to quarantine to visit another country, but only if i could work through the quarantine. Right now taking a week off would eat up a big chunk of my annual leave, which isn't really worth it, especially for visiting a "close" places like Macau that could otherwise just be a long weekend trip.
Reply
I've been interested in China, namely its history, culture, and society since I was 15 or so, but I have yet to visit. I enjoy your posts on China.
It seems most of the high school students I teach who moved here from China are from Guangdong.
I'll have to check out that documentary.
Maybe I already mentioned this once, but in Japan I met a Japanese man who visited Hong Kong several years ago and loved it. He learned English because he wanted to live there, but now that China has cracked down, he doesn't want to go there anymore. I can't blame him.
Hong Kong surprised me in that it had a rougher, older look to it. I think I expected something more like Singapore. I visited Hong Kong in 2016. Honestly, it struck me as a bit of a dump, but it was enjoyable. I guess I could say the city has character.
I sincerely hope Taiwan will be okay. If China tries anything major, it would be a bigger deal, and I think the U.S. would have to get involved somehow.
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