INTERESTING THINGS IN HONG KONG

SNOOPY - For some reason, Hong Kong is crazy about Snoopy. There are so many peraphernalia such as birthday cards, music boxes, photo frames, etc... Of course, there is also those twenty something so figures that McDonalds gave away. During the month of September McDonalds was selling a different Snoopy every day based on different places in the world, such as the Japan Snoopy would have a kimono, the Wild West Snoopy would be a cowboy, and the Hong Kong Snoopy would be a fisherman. This was so popular that there were very long lines to buy these figures. Often they ran out, especially the more popular ones such as the Hong Snoopy, Japan Snoopy, and of course, the England Snoopy. Some people had to wait for hours. In fact my friend waited in line for an hour for the England Snoopy. There were even people fighting in line and arguing over these figures. Another friend was really scared that she lost a Snoopy because these Snoopys were collector's items and there was a different one each day, meaning that if you miss one day, you cannot have the entire set. Many of those little stores in Sino Centre or Allied Plaza would proudly display all these little figures in front of their window. I am very sure that this Snoopy promotion created havoc on the health of many people for an entire month. Anyway, this fad had ended several weeks after the last Snoopy was released. There is even a reorder plan to get the Snoopy's that you missed. I guess this whole episode sounds very ridiculous. However, Snoopy is still popular because there are always other paraphernalia. I even bought 2 Snoopy notebooks! Don't ask why!

JAPANESE TV DRAMAS - Many people like to watch Japanese TV dramas in Hong Kong. You can find the VCD of almost any of the shows, and of course, fan ban. When I came last year, I only noticed Die Sterntaler, Long Vacation, and Hitotsu Yane no Shita. But now... there is just too much to list! Well, they are Japanese with Chinese subtitles. It is very cheap and these type of stores can be found in small stores, such as at Sino Centre. They are usually packaged as a box set. I am sure that any young person would know what Long Vacation and Love Generation is. As a result of all this, Takuya Kimura, Takako Matsu, and Ryoko Hirosue are very popular in Hong Kong. In many stores you can hear the theme songs and music of Cagnet from Long Vacation and Love Generation. In fact, I have noticed that so many university students make some sort of reference of my friend Toshi to Takuya Kimura! However, the Japanese exchange students tend to disagree...

JAPANESE T-SHIRTS - This fad was booming during the summer of 1998 and was dying when I got here. Basically some Japanese is printed on a single colored T-shirt and then sold for a really cheap price. It looks quite good. However, according to my Japanese friends, the Japanese on the shirts is nonsense! This sort of parallels the English on the t-shirts in Japan!

CUHK CANTEENS - In the Chinese University of Hong Kong, there are 14 Canteens: Shaw Canteen, Shaw Staff Canteen, UC Canteen, UC Staff Canteen, NA Canteen, NA Staff Canteen, CC Canteen, CC Staff Canteen, Franklin Canteen, Coffee Corner, Snack Bar, Franklin Staff Canteen, Medical Canteen, and Post-Graduate Canteen. The food in staff canteens are much more delicious than the food in the student canteens. In fact some of the staff canteens, like CC Canteen, look like a restaurant. As for the most delicious and cheapest canteen, it is CC. As for the most bad and most expensive canteen, it is Shaw! Doesn't make sense does it? The Medical Canteen's lemon pie is also very famous. I have tried it once and it was really delicious. It somewhat reminds me of ice cream, as it is stored in a freezer.

ICQ - A lot of people have ICQ here in CUHK. Some people use it casually while others are absolutely hooked on it! Many people use it in the CPU labs and many people use it at their dormitory. I have heard about people spending so much time, maybe 3 hours straight playing ICQ. As for me, I use it casually, and rarely for such long lengths. My number is 18749716 by the way. Feel free to add me to your contact list.

MOBILE PHONES - Practically every university student either has a pager or a mobile phone. It is extremely popular, especially with the low costs. In fact, it is cheaper to get a phone than a pager! There are 3 networks: GSM, CDMA, and PCS. GSM is the oldest but has the best coverage. It is also the most expensive. CDMA is new and quite cheap, but the coverage is bad, as it cannot penetrate the computer room nor ILC. PCS is really improving and is nearly as good as GSM but the phones are quite expensive. The normal cost now is about $100 HKD for 100 minutes! There are so many different types of sounds of the mobile phones. Also, a common occurence would be for some people to talk very loudly on the phone in the MTR or KCR. This is my phone. It costs $138 HKD per month. I must thank my roommate for helping me get it!

HAPPY CORNER - It seems that only Hong Kong people know what this is. This usually occurs during a birthday. A group of people would grab the birthday boy. (note: this is only done between men!) The very minimum is four. The people would grab him and then carry him to a pole or something of the sort. They then spread the person's legs and ram the in between against the pole. Quite brutal, yes. I have seen this quite often, especially at the 1000 people parties where so many of them occur. Sometimes ice water is poured down. I still remember once some people were doing happy corner using a tree and running around in a circle! Ouch! Anyway, some people do it for fun and some people do it seriously. Here are some examples:
Junichi in Happy Corner
Michael in Happy Corner
Michael in Happy Corner (sequence)
Michael in Aruba
Yoshi in Happy Corner
Yoshi in Aruba
Takuya in Happy Corner
Marco in Happy Corner
Suo Jia in Happy Corner
Ryuhei in Happy Corner
Shinichi in Happy Corner
Junichi & Ryuhei in Happy Corner (sequences)
Chang Ki in Happy Corner (sequence)
Me in Happy Corner
Toshi in Happy Corner
Toshi in Happy Corner
Shinichi in Happy Corner
Shinichi in Happy Corner