Lunar New Year in Mongkok

My wife and I heard that the cooked-food vendors who would traditionally open for business on Kweilin Street 桂林街 in Shumshuipo during Lunar New Year were chased away by the government.  We went there to have a look on the 3rd day of the new year, and indeed the vendors were no where to be found.  

Disappointed, we went to Saiyeungchoi Street 西洋菜街 in Mongkok to have another look.  The crowds were thicker than usual, but nobody felt pressured.  By and large, it was festive and fun. 

You can get yourself photographed.  We wondered why people would want to pose like that in the public, for the world to see.  Then we think of what people have been doing on Facebook, and we realised that we should not have been surprised. 

There were many groups singing, some of them quite well.   

You could get yourself sketched. 

You could buy a wallet made with money.  Not real money, of course. 

You could also watch this man, without fingers, doing calligraphy in a way that put us all to shame.  He  certainly deserved (more than) a big red-packet (lai see 利是).