I realized that while I have been relating everything we did in Hong Kong, I haven't really actually talked about my personal experience, about what it felt like to be in Hong Kong, and there's so much to say, hence this final post. Think of it as the epilogue to our adventures. Hehe.
Versus Taiwan
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| View of Taipei from Taipei 101: mountains, greenery, and city |
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| View of Hong Kong from the Peak: harbour, mountains, and skyscrapers |
In terms of the actual feel of the city however, I would have to say that the Hong Kong vibe is a lot closer to that of New York City's what with the bustling city that never sleeps sort of lifestyle and the busy streets and city set-up. There is even a large shopping center in Causeway Bay named Times Square after the one in New York City. As I mentioned in a previous post however, it's not quite the same (but can there be two cities that are exactly the same?). Plus while there were some areas of Hong Kong that sort of reminded me of some areas of New York City, I wouldn't say that being in Hong Kong is like being in New York. Hong Kong struck me as being quite technologically advanced, what with the moving walkways, computer internet access in the MTRs, the coordinated Symphony of Lights show. I guess in that way, it made it feel a lot faster than New York City.
Hong Kong: Asia's World City (香港 亞洲國際都會)
As I mentioned Hong Kong is deemed "Asia's World City," and, according to the official website, that entails:
- Non-stop intensity
- Fascinating contrasts between East and West, urban and natural, modern and ancient
- Compact variety in the diversity of experiences offered to visitors and in the ease and speed with which visitors can get around
- Distinct trendiness by adopting and adapting global trends to create a uniquely Hong Kong style in both products and experiences
I think that these points pretty much encapsulate my experience in Hong Kong: intense, fascinating, efficient, and trendy. Perhaps it was the novelty of being in a new place, but I definitely found Hong Kong very intense and exciting, not in an overly stimulated way, but in a can't-wait-to-get-out-there-and-explore kind of way. The contrasts were something that both surprised and fascinated me. I guess I was expecting Hong Kong to be entirely city-like and more similar to New York City with its concrete jungle, but there was a lot more greenery and natural areas than I expected. And while I expected a certain mixture of East and West, I was slightly surprised by how much global influence there was in Hong Kong, either in the people or the businesses or even the street names.
Going off of that last point, I was surprised by the amount of international visitors in Hong Kong, mostly Caucasians (remember the community of Caucasians comment?) and Southeast Asians. I don't know if it was because it was summer and so there were a lot of people there on vacation or if they actually lived there. It seems that there is large community of Indians living and working in Hong Kong, but I'm not so sure about others. While the Southeast Asians seemed more like they were in Hong Kong vacationing, visiting, and touring, the Caucasians seemed very much at home and at ease like they gathered in bars on a daily basis. A lot of them were in suits though so perhaps they were in Hong Kong on business. It was interesting to me because they were all in this kind of rich neighborhood, hanging out in bars and restaurants that I'm pretty sure were owned or run by Caucasians, mostly in the company of other white people. I hope I'm not coming off as judgmental because I understand being abroad and wanting to be in the company with people who speak the same language or share the same culture but it was almost like this bubble they had created for themselves. Furthering this contrast was the fact that we were mostly passing by this area on the moving walkway--along with a bunch of other Asians, all of us just passing by without entering the bubble.
I guess in part due to the large amount of Caucasian visitors and in part due to Hong Kong's history of being a British colony is why there is such a large English presence in Hong Kong (probably more so due to the latter than the former). A lot of places have names in both Chinese and English (and sometimes the Chinese name is just a transliteration of the English) and a lot of Hong Kongers speak Mandarin and English in addition to Cantonese (but maybe less English in some of the more traditional restaurants and establishments). The train announcements are also trilingual: in Cantonese, English (with a British accent), and Mandarin (with a Taiwanese accent I think).
On that note, I've never been spoken to in so many different languages before. I've mentioned that on Korean Air (and in Korea in general) I was spoken to in Korean, while on EVA Air (and here in Taiwan) I was spoken to in Mandarin. Being Asian means the locals don't really think twice about what language you might speak. But in Hong Kong, I have been spoken to in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. I think they usually start off in Cantonese but sometimes when they hear me speaking with my roommates in English they might use English too. But as my roommates also throw in a fair amount of Mandarin in their English, sometimes people will speak to us in Mandarin. But in Korea, sometimes people who start off speaking to me in English would continue to use English even if I've responded in Korean, whereas in Hong Kong they usually switch over to Cantonese if I do (or perhaps that is just a testament of how terrible my Korean is).
Cantonese versus Mandarin
I often have non-Chinese friends ask me if there is a difference between written Cantonese and written Mandarin. Both yes and no. No in that there is a Standard Chinese writing system that allows you to understand the writing despite what dialect of Chinese you speak, but yes in that if you were to transcribe spoken Mandarin and spoken Cantonese and compare the two, you would see a lot of differences. For one thing, sometimes the grammar and word order is a little different between the two and for another, there are certain words and phrases (sometimes even characters) that are specific to one dialect or the other. Here is a nice video from YouTubers, Off the Great Wall, which talks a little about the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin: |
| I actually didn't manage to get a picture so I had to find this on Google |
望右/左 (mong6 jau6/zo2) - Look right/left
I don't actually know if the use of 望 to mean "look" is exclusively Cantonese, but I have never heard it being used that way in Mandarin (correct me if I'm wrong!), but it was interesting that it was written that way on the streets.
的士 (dik1 si6*2) - Taxi
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| Another picture that I had to find off Google |
I know for sure that 的士 is an exclusively Cantonese word for "taxi" because the Cantonese pronunciation is in fact based off of the English and if you were to read it in Mandarin (dí shì), it sounds nothing like the English word, "taxi".
士多啤梨 (si6 do1 be1 lei4*2) - Strawberry
If you couldn't tell from the jyupting, this is another one that is based off of the English pronunciation. When I was younger, I used to think that this was just the English pronunciation but with a Chinese accent--I didn't realize that this was actually how "strawberry" was pronounced in Cantonese (likewise cherry, which is 車厘子 ce1 lei4 zi2 is also the actual Cantonese and not English with a Chinese accent--although I guess that's technically what it is).
This isn't an actual idiomatic phrase or expression but I took a picture of it because it captured two differences between Cantonese and Mandarin. The first is a difference in character usage. 食, which can be used to mean "to eat" in Cantonese is more commonly used in Mandarin as part of food related words: 食堂 (shítáng) for example is a cafeteria or dining hall, while 食物 (shíwù) means food. 食 in Cantonese is similar to how 吃 in Mandarin might be used, so for example, 食飯 in Cantonese and 吃飯 in Mandarin to mean "to eat" or 好食 in Cantonese and 好吃 in Mandarin to mean delicious.
The second difference I wanted to point out was the last character, 啲, which is an exclusively Cantonese character, usually added after an adjective such as with 好 (good) above as a modifier (similar to how -er is added at the end of adjectives to create adverbs such as faster, louder, fewer). The interesting thing about this character (and some other Cantonese specific characters) is that they don't exist in some input systems (my jyupting input does not in fact have this character and I had to write it out on Google Translate) and so sometimes Latin letters/simple romanizations are used instead, such as D in place of 啲.
香港 or 台灣?
"So do you like Hong Kong better or Taiwan?" I was asked by both my mother and one of my roommates. While I was not actively comparing the two, I have to admit, there were several points during my trip where I thought, "xyz is so much better in Hong Kong/Taiwan." For one thing having grown up in New York City Chinatown which is majority Cantonese people, I'm more accustomed to Cantonese dishes and really missed it while I was in Taiwan (and no I'm not just talking about 點心). I enjoy Taiwanese dishes, but admittedly it's a little hard to get authentic and cheap Cantonese food in Taiwan (I once ordered a 港式蝦較 at a night market in Taipei thinking it was the translucent shrimp dumplings, but it turns out that they were just normal dumplings with a shrimp-meat filling. Such disappointment). For another thing, having grown up hearing a lot more Cantonese than Mandarin (my Cantonese was a lot better than my Mandarin before I started formally learning Mandarin), I feel more familiar hearing Cantonese. Also and you can laugh at me for this statement, but Cantonese has to be my favorite language--there's just something about the way it sounds that I find really nice. I've heard people say that Cantonese sounds harsher than Mandarin, which really surprises me because I've always thought Mandarin sounded harsher. Another thing is that, like I mentioned above and in a previous post, Hong Kong has a very similar atmosphere to New York City, to the point that while I didn't think I was back home, I certainly didn't feel like I was in an unfamiliar place.
Thus far it looks like I prefer Hong Kong a lot more right? I guess for me, being in Hong Kong was a lot like being home without actually being at home and though I profess to love nature (I wanted to live in the mountains, then the forest when I was younger), I think that at heart I'm a city girl--or maybe what I need is that right mix of urban and natural. Yet at the same time, it's hard to compare when the time span I've been in Hong Kong was so short and going somewhere for fun and with friends is different than going somewhere to study or intern by yourself. I wondered to myself if I would have enjoyed Hong Kong so much had I gone by myself or had I been there to study (I did want to study there actually, but it was more logical for me to go to Taiwan to study because of CISLA and my language studies) or if it was the novelty of being in a new place that I enjoyed so much. Honestly I don't know, but I will say that being able to go to Hong Kong with my roommates and friends has been a fantastic experience. I really enjoyed everything that Hong Kong had to offer from the food to the sights to the culture and the people. Hopefully I get the chance to go back to Hong Kong (for longer than just a weekend please!) and explore further (although maybe not in the summer)!
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