Was sagst du? 樣樣都德

Hong Kong’s winter doesn’t seem so threatening at first glance of the numbers, but those numbers belie how the weather actually feels. 香港的冬天，數字上看來比不少國家溫和，實際上的感覺卻是另一回事。 A cold spell arrived on Sunday last week and brought 4 successive grey chilly days afterwards with daytime maximum temperature struggling to make it to 10 degrees in the urban area. My second hometown of Melbourne doesn’t even see such a long string of such weather – usually 2 days maximum – in a typical winter despite it being in the southernmost part of the Australian mainland with a latitude of 38°S (Hong Kong is only 22°N). I went home on Thursday evening and was looking forward to a warm home to give me a bit of respite from the 7°C night and its slightly chilly air. But little did I expect a gush of cold air rushing out as soon as I opened the door, and it felt colder than the outside! 上週一至四，一連四天陰陰沉沉，市區最高溫才勉強升至十度，連第二故鄉墨爾本——差不多是澳洲大陸最南端，緯度38度（香港是北緯22度）——這樣的天氣也甚少超過連續兩天啊。星期四晚回家，外面7度，空氣有點冷，想著回到溫暖的家有多好，但甫開家門時卻讓我吃了一驚：...

September marks the beginning of the academic year in Hong Kong – as well as the beginning of many new things. 九月是新學年開始，有一番新「氣象」。 At the start of the month a new Mainland student came to join the lab. He originates from Shanxi province and has studied in Tsinghua University before. It was his first few days in Hong Kong, and he was already greeted by some typical local weather: continuous rainfall for days with heavy downpours from time to time. He asked me how there could be so much rain in Hong Kong, and honestly I haven’t experienced this for a long time myself either! 月初實驗室有個新來的國內學生，山西人但在清華唸過書，他剛到港，又遇上連續幾天連綿下雨，偶然還傾盆而下，叫他納悶，問香港怎麼會有下不完的雨？說實話，這樣大雨我也好久沒經歷過了！ One day another colleague of mine and I took him to lunch,. The colleague suggested to him a dish of beef briskets and shrimp wontons with dry noodles (specifically for mixing the noodles with the sauces of the accompanying food) so that he could try a few typical examples of Cantonese cooking all at once. The student was cur...

It’s quite a funny feeling living in my first home again after 20 years’ of absence; it’s a mix of familiar and new experiences, and those new experiences can be ‘fascinating but sometimes bizarre’ as quoted from an interview that I read from a newspaper last Sunday. After all I’ve spent most of my life in Western societies! 回到離開了二十年的家定居，既覺熟悉也有點新奇，那種新奇也可上星期日前在報章一篇訪問中那句 fascinating but sometimes bizarre （引人入勝卻奇異）來形容——畢竟我在西方社會浸淫太久了！ Then let me begin from my experiences shopping in the pharmacies, occasionally still called dispensaries here in Hong Kong. 那就先從我到藥房（藥店）購物的遭遇說起吧！ I arrived in the bright hot days at the end of July. Having lived in Australia for ages, sunny summer days naturally reminded me of sunscreen lotion. I decided to buy a couple of bottles from a local small shopping centre as I didn’t bring any with me. The shopping centre had two pharmacy chain stores and 4 smaller independent pharmacies. I first poked my head into those smaller pharmacies, and they all had ...

內地和香港矛盾加深，不少港人尤其覺得內地人掠奪資源、爭奪機會，挑起港人的仇視情緒，但罪魁禍首，不一定祇是內地來港掃貨的旅客和水貨客，香港本身「幫兇」也不少。   就以鬧得滿城風雨的奶粉短缺問題來說，內地人「搶」奶粉的範圍遍布世界多國，誠然遠赴重洋買奶粉的人遠到香港的少，但在外國「奶粉荒」往往很快便平息，其中一個原因就是在零售層面實施限購，不論是當地居民或中國遊客都一視同仁，反觀香港不但沒有全面限購，更有商人寧可囤積然後以高價大批賣給內地客或水貨客，也不願以正價少量賣給港人，全世界絕無僅有。試想外國的商人也可依樣畫葫蘆圖利，但為何他們沒有這樣做？ 負責運水貨的，內地人和本港居民也有，但能夠在香港統籌物資採購、運輸和分配的不可能是內地人吧，因為他們哪裡有網絡、人脈和資訊呢？當然香港是自由經濟，從事水貨活動的任何環節並不犯法，但沒有這些行為，奶粉供應何來緊張？ 「螞蟻搬家」式搬運水貨過境需大量人力，保安局數字便指出水貨客中港人佔六成，而最近水貨商為增加貨源而聘人在藥房排隊買貨，這些排隊黨不少便是各區居民。水貨客和排隊黨有的是時間，為的是金錢，每次過境或排隊，為賺數十元花上兩三小時也在所不惜，這些報酬誠然在香港仍有購買力和吸引力——在外國一個漢堡包隨時不祇那些價錢，可謂微不足道——但有這麼多人參與其中，究竟是那些人大多生活拮据，還是貪錢？ 港人看得多內地食品和其他產品的醜聞，都會說內地商人為了錢甚麼都做得出，但我想港人祇是五十步笑百步，且看多少港人為了這場國內奶粉誠信危機而趁機發財，祇不過香港和國內最大的分別，就是香港人還不致於會做出例如在奶粉加添三聚氰胺出售的犯法事而已。港人貪錢本色，比五十年不變更有保證，在發這場「國難財」時表露無遺，但正是這些貪錢行徑，造成一場貽害社會秩序和公共健康的奶粉荒。 Hong Kongers are feeling increasingly threatened by the mainland Chinese on a daily basis as they witness a fight for common daily items on a daily basis and perceive further competition for other resources and opportunities in...

The sun has made only a few appearances during my two weeks in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year. My only Saturday there (28th January) was one of such days, so I made good use of it and continued my rural explorations . 年初六那天，是我回港度歲兩周中少有的大晴天，所以便把握機會繼續 「下鄉」 。 The West Rail line that runs through the north-western part of the New Territories separates the district of Tin Shui Wai, where I stayed for my visit, into two parts. On one side stand many tall buildings that form the main residential area with less than 20 years of history. On the other side there are several villages of hundreds of years old, all connected together with other historic monuments with the Ping Shan Heritage Trail . Although this Trail is only about 1 km long and walking the whole trail would normally take only 15 minutes, I spent one hour that day and have only seen half of the trail. I had to turn back half-way because I had to meet two other friends for the next excursion; otherwise it would have been nice ...

Hong Kong is after all not a particularly big city but there is a big part called New Territories which is an unknown quantity to me. My impressions on New Territories all come from bits and pieces from TV programmes, but I finally had some first-hand experience and impression on this part of Hong Kong when I stayed in the district of Tin Shui Wai over the Lunar New Year holiday. I have never thought that rural landscape and charm can still exist in an ultramodern ever-changing Hong Kong! 雖說香港地方細小，但新界對我來說一直是個陌生的地方，印象完全來自電視零碎的片段，直至過年時在天水圍住了兩星期，我才體會到新界原來另有一番景象，更意想不到這轉變急促、高度現代化的城市還容得下一點鄉土氣息！ On the second day of the Lunar New Year (24th Januray) I followed my brother and his family to the village at Wang Toi Shan where his wife’s family used to live. I didn’t have the faintest idea of where the village was, until my brother’s father-in-law started pointing out to me some landmarks along the road, such as the Shek Kong Airfield and the former location of Choi Yuen Tsuen, a village that ...

Recently foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong have launched a judicial review against a law which disqualifies them from permanent residency in Hong Kong regardless of how long they have resided in Hong Kong. Many Hong Kongers oppose to it fiercely, much as they do to migrants from mainland China in recent years. Last week one of my mum’s friends came from Hong Kong to visit his son who is studying at a university in Melbourne, and we talked to each other on the phone. He asked for some career paths that would help his son to secure permanent residency in Australia. My dad saw some parallels between the domestic helpers and my mum’s friend. There are conceivably plenty of Hong Kong families who send their children abroad for education and employ a domestic helper at the same time. While some of the families would see their children abroad as a foothold to possible future emigration, they will on the other hand probably object if their domestic helper managed to gain Hong Kong’s re...

Hong Kong is well known for its intense and pressurising work conditions. Now a survey on the finance, accounting and human resources sectors in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand has added weight to this reputation. Many employees would stay in contact and continue working through their supposedly ‘leisure’ times, while many employers expect the employees to be reachable outside normal working hours. The hard-working ethic is no doubt a cornerstone of Hong Kong’s economic success, and working long hours and being constantly in touch with colleagues or bosses are facts of life when there are deadlines to meet. But when Hong Kong employers become over-reliant on placing exigent demands on employees all the time, one has to wonder if they have overlooked other important factors in lifting workplace performance and business competitiveness, such as improving efficiencies in certain processes or the overall workflow. There are many other effects of such demanding workloads. T...

Australia has a place called the Surfers’ Paradise; very soon it will add another place called the workers’ paradise! So what is keeping everyone happy? Firstly there is the rather generous minimum wage of more than A$ 15 (approx. US$ 16, 11 euros, HK$ 120) per hour, which is among the best in the world. There is also the labour union which will campaign for a higher minimum wage regularly. While the minimum wages in many countries are set at subsistence level, in Australia it is clearly more than that – an hour’s minimum wage will enable the worker to buy a typical meal in a fast food chain with a comfortable amount of money to spare. Australia’s minimum wage can indeed provide a basic guarantee of livelihood and dignity to the worker. Also unlike many other countries, the other end of the pay scale is not monopolised by those working in the government and big corporations. Notably, many are tradespersons or are involved in manual work. When I had a chat with a neighbour some time ago...

It was only a brief one and a half months before I flew out of Australia again shortly after the turn of the new year and went back to my old lab in Munich for a couple of weeks of work. Before I knew it, now I am back in Melbourne. 返歸澳洲才一個半月，新年伊始，我又再次從地球一角的澳洲飛往另一角的德國，回到我在慕尼黑的實驗室公幹兩週，現在終於返回墨爾本了。 I saw the four seasons come and gone in two months instead of the normal full year, albeit in a rather unusual sequence. The brilliant golden brown of autumn changed abruptly to the lush green of spring. Then after a few sizzling summer days, I had to acclimatise to the coolish winter days of Hong Kong and the icy snowy days of Munich. Fortunately it wasn’t too unbearable in Munich and I coped rather well even with the last couple of days there when it was also the coldest. 一年四季，完全濃縮在短短兩個月， 金黃的深秋 一下子變成綠油油的春天，經歷過幾個大暑天後轉瞬是香港清涼的冬天和慕尼黑冰天雪地，可幸還不是太冷，臨離開慕尼黑最冷的兩天也總算頂得住。 Pretty snow scenery near my institute in Munich (left) and the town of Geislingen an der Steige (right) en route from Munich to Frank...