Easily Amused » HK

Why I Wouldn’t Live in Hong Kong

David Xia — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:02:10 +0000

"For creature comforts, Hong Kong is unsurpassed, but Hong Kong is culturally barren. Living there is something like living inside a cash register."

Anime-Comic-Game Hong Kong (ACGHK) 2009

David Xia — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:31:01 +0000

I have never before found myself immersed in something so utterly foreign and bizarre. The manga fans I know in the States are mere wannabes compared to the 600,000 plus enthusiasts who flocked to this year’s ACGHK sporting imitation M41 carbines, full sets of samurai armor with matching katanas, and hair of every conceivable unnatural color under the sun.

Tai Mo Shan, Done

David Xia — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:12:19 +0000

A sign reading "No Trespassing," a ten foot high fence wrapping all the way around, barbed wire everywhere? Sounds like an unambiguous invitation to me.

“It’s like all the Mexicans in NYC just stopped working one day.”

David Xia — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:29:31 +0000

Imagine every Sunday all the Mexicans in NYC with low-skilled jobs stop working, go to Wall Street or Times Square, and just throw one big street party.

Hong Kong Ivy Ball 2009

David Xia — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:08:24 +0000

Ivy Ball is a social extravaganza for Ivy League alumni who live in Hong Kong. Every summer, hundreds of men in tuxedos and women in evening gowns enter the Grand Hyatt ballroom for professional networking and auditory/gustatory entertainment. Centerpieces of freshly-cut flowers and seven-armed candelabra holding two-foot-long candles tower over guests. A chandelier of glass spheres sparkles above a hardwood dance floor. This year’s theme was “Take a Chance.”

Citadels of the Almighty Dollar

David Xia — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:49:18 +0000

HK's Central district is the analogue of NYC's Wall Street. It is here that multi-billion dollar banking giants like Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and Standard Chartered Bank stake out their territories. Garden Road and Cotton Tree Drive are mere slivers of pavement wedged between the towering high-rises of Bank of China and Citibank. Between these two buildings lies the oldest Anglican church in the Far East. Even though St. John's Cathedral has been here since 1849, it's dwarfed by the neighboring financial skyscrapers and looks strangely out of place. Its stone frame, rose window, lancet arches, and trifoils contrast jarringly with the surrounding urban jungle made of glass and steel.

What Is a Trowel?

David Xia — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:05:39 +0000

From: David Xia To: CEO HK interns Subject: DID YOU SAY HIKING?!?! Dear fellow CEOs, A question first: are any of the guys bothering with getting a tux for the Ivy Ball?

Massive, Harmonious Madness

David Xia — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:53:52 +0000

A day spent experiencing HK's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is enough to put any urban-dwelling American to shame.

Megamalls and Clumsy Change

David Xia — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:33:56 +0000

When I left NYC there was no evidence that the Sun exists. When I landed in HK, there was still none. The first ten days of my stay were filled with cumulonimbus clouds and grape-sized rain droplets. Stepping outside is like entering a sauna or breathing with a hot wet rag smothering your face. The CEOs here are taking three to four showers a day to gain short-lived relief from all the humidity-induced stickiness. Some brief musings about HK:

HK (and China for that matter) is not ethnically diverse compared to NYC. The city’s 95% Chinese.
There are so many mega-malls that look exactly alike. Armies of cleaning staff ensure they are all freakishly clean.

CEO HK Interns

David Xia — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:48:59 +0000

Columbia University's Center for Career Education (CCE) will, no doubt, post on its website photos of Columbia Experience Overseas HK interns who look like they're having way more fun than anyone has a human right to by being treated to free Cantonese food and an open bar at an upscale bar/lounge. (You know Philia Lounge will be a nice place even before you go because of its website. There's no way a bar that's not doing well is going to deck out its website with Adobe Flash and eerie techno music.) But here are some additional flattering pictures of the CEO contingent.