WanChai Blue House

This is the famous Blue House in WanChai. It is just a couple of streets to the south of the Wanchai wet market, another landmark that the government wants to tear down. It was built before the Second World War, and there are not too many of these houses around anymore.

Recently I saw a TV commercial for the Rugby Tournament showing someone selling Flying Olives (飛機欖). From the street, a guy throws a tiny 飛機欖 up in the air. As another guy on the roof of the Blue House catches it, the 飛機欖 miraculously turns into a rugby. The rugby is passed a few times, and eventually a guy runs through a human wall and puts the rugby down for a “try”, and the rugby turns back into a tiny 飛機欖.

What a creative interplay of two cultural icons of Hong Kong, yet achieved in the service of a totally foreign sport. How many of use actually play rugby or even watch it?

What a shame to those of us who claim to treasure our culture and heritage. Why can’t we come up with more imaginative uses of our cultural icons, making them more valuable and thus giving people incentives to preserve them?