Friday, January 04, 2008

Old Rice-selling Shop (米舖) in Kowloon City

In the 1960s, there was a popular saying “There are now more banks than rice-selling shops!”It was a proclamation of the large number of banks. With the implication that rice-selling shops were numerous in the first place.

40 years on, it is now quite difficult to find shops still selling rice in wooden tubs like these. There are still a few of them in older neighbourhoods such as YauMaTei, Kowloon City, SaiYingPun, etc. But they are disappearing quickly. Soon there will be no more.

Banks are still numerous. However, they are less and less about deposits and withdrawals. But more and more about buying and selling of stocks, foreign currencies, and other types of speculations. A sign of progress? Or the replacement of a simpler life style by more and more greed?


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