Tuesday 24 November 2015

Pearl of the Orient

It's been almost two months since I last updated the blog – apologies! A mixture of serious infections chased away by multiple doses of antibiotics (one month) plus extra-busy commitments to various volunteering roles (another month) explains the gap.

Now, I'm on extended holiday in Hong Kong, true pearl of the Orient (the other contenders for the title are Manila and Sri Lanka). No question, Hong Kong is my favourite location on planet earth.

My last visit to Hong Kong was nearly two years ago and there have been a few changes, including two unfortunate developments in areas that particularly interest me – books and photography. Before every trip I salivate at the prospect of browsing in the city's excellent range of English-language bookshops and window-shopping at the dozens of excellent photographic stores, freshly stocked with the latest offerings from Japan.

...However, Dymock's, the Australian-owned chain of English-language bookshops, has closed down, as has the massive Singapore-owned Page One bookshop in Times Square mall. Why? Because expensive up-market restaurants and fashion retailers have offered more money – up to 30% more allegedly – for the rental space when the bookshops' current leases expired...and that's the story of Hong Kong, money talks - in fact it roars.

To compensate, the Taiwanese-owned chain Eslite has opened two massive bookshops, in Causeway Bay and TST. The vast majority of their stock is in the Chinese language, which guarantees a much better footfall and is also in line with the city's gradual Sinoization after 1997. The stores also house a variety of third-party merchandise, such as fashionable crockery, high-end luggage and niche electronics in a bid to attract the wealthy illiterate or those whose money is burning a hole in their pockets. (Those searching for new English-language books still have Bookazine, Kelly& Walsh, Hong Kong Book Centre and Swindon Books...but that's about it.)

The other sad development is the decline of photography outlets. Camera sales have fallen off a cliff since people discovered that their mobile phones could take perfectly decent photos. The latest data on Japanese camera exports that I have seen from the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) is for September 2015, when 3.2 million units were exported, which is less than the same month in 2014 (4.0M) 2013 (5.9M) 2012 (7.4M) 2011 (13.6M) and 2010 (12.9). Imagine: in five short years camera exports during September have fallen by 75%.

That fact is not particularly evident in Brighton where camera shops continue to sell a variety of cameras. However, in Hong Kong many camera shops have closed down; there used to be several in Stanley Street in Central - now there are just one. The large department stores near where have I live (APiTA and Sogo) have given up selling cameras, the Broadway and Fortress chains no longer sell compact cameras, numerous other independent camera shops are gone and the malls that specialised in photographic equipment now only sell high-end DSLRs or the like.

Nevertheless, there is hope for the industry in that CSCs (compact system cameras) continue to innovate and introduce new technology at a bewildering rate that has flummoxed the complacent duopoly of Nikon and Canon. (No mobile phone can hope in the foreseeable future to match the output and convenience of the new Sony A7R ii).

Apart from these two 'blips', Hong Kong is functioning quite well. Tourist numbers are down and the mainland tourists' propensity to fill suitcases with expensive watches has been tempered somewhat by President Xi's war against corruption. Rental prices are slowing and there are warnings of a pending housing 'correction' in the mainland but that has not quietened Hong Kong's national bird – the jackhammer; construction continues at its usual frantic pace.

A housing correction is overdue. PwC's recent 'Building Better Cities' report of 2015 ranked Hong Kong only 11th out of 28 cities in the APEC region that were evaluated for 'livability.' The telling statistic was the comparison of housing costs versus income; incomes have risen by 42% since 2007 but home prices have soared by 154% over the same period. Someone has done well – but clearly not the one million of Hong Kong's 7.1 million population who live in poverty.

While, for many, the city is a materialist heaven where any conceivable desire can be met – at a price – for others, particularly the elderly, unemployed and homeless, it must be hell. I am reminded of these lines from Charles Kingsley's poem 'The Buccaneer':

'Oh England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high;
But England is a cruel place for such poor folk such as I...'

There is a trend to renovate shops and restaurants to make them increasingly up-market and appealing to wealthy mainland tourists but, at the same time, there is resentment of the mainlanders' voracious appetites for housing and schooling, driving up prices and reducing supply; for consumables such as baby milk, causing shortages; and for creating mayhem, trailing their suitcases and failing to queue politely in the Hong Kong way.

What do you do when the mainland authorities forbid dissent and demand compliance as proof of patriotism? Well, the Hong Kong response was Occupy Central, an audacious but naïve student-led mass demonstration for freedom, democracy and the Hong-Kong-way-of-life that lasted for about nine weeks, morphing into the Umbrella Movement before it petered out. The spirit of Tiananmen Square inspired many but, as the demonstrations dragged on, the transport gridlock infuriated others, particularly businessmen and taxi drivers, dividing the city into two camps. The city is increasingly divided as this week's District Council elections showed with pro-democracy and pro-mainland parties both making gains at the expense of arguably more moderate parties.

So, is the rebellion completely over, have the mainlanders steamrollered all visible dissent? Not quite...this week the Chinese national team played the Hong Kong football team in a qualifying match for the World Cup. Officials let it be known that there should be no repetition of previous occasions when Hong Kongers had loudly and unpatriotically boo'd the Chinese National Anthem. This time all was quiet as the anthem played...except that quite a few Hong Kong fans held up placards that read 'Boo!'  

This is a city and a people to love, like no other!  

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