Neon Advertising Signs of Hong Kong

Big, bright colorful, neon advertising signs used to be a distinguishing characteristic of Hong Kong.  Anchored to the outside walls of commercial building, they extend across the sidewalk, and even across the street, hanging precariously over pedestrians and passing traffic alike.  

They used to advertise famous brands of electronics and appliances, cameras, Chinese restaurants, congee shops, bars, tailors, luxury clothing stores, department stores, jewellery stores, night clubs, massage palours, Chinese medicine practitioners, pharmacies, prawn shops, …, anything and everything.  

They fill every street, big and small. 

Often they stay in place even after the business had already gone out of business.  Perhaps nobody bother to take them down.  Or maintain them even when the business is still in business.  

They can become a nuisance or even safety hazard.  Hence there are legitimate reason for removing them.  

But there must also be ways to keep them, and keep them safe.  It will take some effort. But if there is a will, there is a way.  Multiple ways, perhaps.  

Many people in Hong Kong, and many tourists, would probably feel these signs are worth keeping around.  

Sadly, the people with the authority do not seem to think so. 

Today, you are lucky to find more than a few of them on anyone street.  Even then, practically all of them are small, and do not extend beyond the pedestrian sidewalk.  One of such streets is Portland Street in Mongkok.  

Such is the fate of many distinctive characteristics of Hong Kong.  Many of them have developed organically.  There was always a reason why they have developed.  Perhaps there wasn’t a conscious plan.  But there is always a reason, or multiple reasons.   And gradually, they become a phenomenon.  

Sadly, someone in authority found a reason to not like them.  Hence they have to go.  Perhaps they can use the space for another purpose.  Perhaps the phenomenon has deteriorated.  Instead of fixing the problem, which may require thinking and effort, people with the authority find it easier to just remove the phenomenon.   Soon, they realise that Hong Kong has fewer and fewer attractions to attract the tourists.  Then they frantically create new ones, or make (often) inferior, gaudy copies of what they have destroyed.  

Then repeat, and repeat, …

CEVC ISL

Service-Learning has been practiced often in a university’s own local community, at least in the beginning.  Only after much experience in SL has been gained, then one ventures into international projects.  And even then, only at a relatively small scale. 

At PolyU, however, when SL was beginning to be integrated into the formal academic program, back in 2010, we launched many non-local SL projects into Mainland China, and even foreign countries, while the vast majority of SL projects were conducted in Hong Kong. And the scale of non-local projects has been growing rather rapidly, and becoming a more and more significant portion of the overall program. In 2023-24, non-local SL (away from Hong Kong) represents 32 percent of all SL.  The target is to increase that to 50% by 2027/28 academic year.  

There are many reasons for this emphasis on non-local SL.  The biggest reason is perhaps that much benefit in cross-cultural learning have been noted, which align well with the university’s strategic objectives.  Non-local SL is obviously an effective way to cultivate global citizenship.  To render impactful service non-locally, or even internationally, requires well-planned, extensive preparation prior to the excursion.  Traditional wisdom tells us that, to achieve effective learning in a foreign culture, a long duration of immersion is required.  However, our own experience and rigorous research has also taught us that, even relatively short term (10 days), immersive international SL can achieve desirable learning outcomes - if it is supported by well-designed, extensive preparation prior to the excursion and strong support in the field.  That means short term international service-learning can be used to achieve internationalisation objectives - cultivating global citizens.  A very practical and effective strategy. 

All the original desirable outcomes for SL remain valid, for both local and nonlocal SL.  In fact, much deeper understanding have been acquired through experience. In university education in general, much learning is acquired cognitively, through abstractions, building and analysis of models of all sorts. In a class room, students can learn much about poverty through the study of information.  SL, on the other hand, educate experientially. Standing in the midst of someone’s house made of mud, passing one’s hand over the rough, crumbling wall of mud, soaking up the accumulated smell of human sweat and animal odour, and absorbing the meaning of 4 bare walls of a house, educates a student of the reality of poverty simply impossible on a nice and clean campus.  It can constitute the critical elements of the transformation of an intrepid student into a professional who truly understands the really needs of people, who can then develop practical solutions to those needs.  

Well designed SL identifies a specific social need, and then brings the students into close and extended contact with the service recipients, putting the student “in the other person’s shoes”.  Thereby the student begins to learn about the needs of social groups different from the student’s own.  Through the development and execution of practical solutions, the students leans to be effective, responsible members of a civic society.   Successful execution builds confidence.  Thus a university delivers effective and  “responsible citizens”. 

Choosing a social need to address, devising suitable solutions, and allocating the resources required to address the need are all decisions dependent on one’s values.  SL compels students to examine the priorities and the underlying values that determine these priorities - of the society and the student’s own.  These values are studied not in abstract in a classroom, but rather in the context of real life and real people.  Where the needs and one’s actions have real consequences.  Hence the students learn to examine their own values and how to make moral decisions based on their own values.  

International SL is now understood to be a confluence of cross-cultural, experiential, and value-based learning in a civic context.   Through which are cultivated moral, globally responsible citizens who can apply professional skills to solve practical problems.  

Secondary School Service-Learning

Our team at PolyU has been running a program to equip secondary school teachers to teach Service-Learning, for several years.  As part of the program, we have set up a number of projects, in which secondary school teachers practice supervising secondary school students in SL projects. In the past summer, two projects were run in Hong Kong, one on collecting and writing life stories for the elderly, and another on teaching STEM to primary school students.  A third took 40 teachers and students to install solar panels in villages in Rwanda, in parallel with the PolyU teams.  

On this past, Saturday, the secondary school students and teachers presented their experiences and learnings.  What struck me the most are the students’ excitement in learning about Rwanda, satisfaction in overcoming the challenges, eagerness in sharing their experiences, and pride in doing such a good job.  In Hong Kong as well as in Rwanda. 

The teachers, likewise, seem very happy in the experience.  They seem to have re-discovered their original motivation for wanting to be a teacher.   One described the experience as: “not relaxing, but re-charging”.  It is very gratifying that the teachers find the experience enjoyable and useful.  We are hoping that they will continue to create existing projects for their students.  

I cannot help but think.  Hong Kong students have long been said to be: examination-driven, key word memorising, passive, dis-engaged, not knowing what they are interested in, without passion in learning.   Of course, that is not their fault.  But that of the designers and perpetuators of the education system. 

However, the experience and performance of these students demonstrate that they can also be energetic, eager, creative, and engaged.  Well designed Service-Learning is one way to achieve that.  There are, of course, other ways.  It is up to us, the administrators, the government, and the teachers to provide them with the opportunities and the environment to be like that.  Are we willing?  Can our society afford not to?

Walled City Replica

The replica of the Kowloon Walled City set up at the arrival hall of the Hong Kong International Airport is quite impressive.  

It is actually a replica of the setup for the movie “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In 九龍城寨之圍城” which was quite popular.  

The original Walled City was torn down in 1994, 30 years ago.  Many people have never seen it, let alone being inside. 

I passed by the place often in the 1970s, when I was studying in Kowloon Tong.  We would often eat our lunch in Kowloon City, and walked by the Walled City.  

The one thing that stuck in my mind was the numerous dentists.  Apparently, you don’t need a license to practice dentistry inside, since the colonial government did not enforce the law rigorously there.  

A lot of effort went into making the set for the movie, giving it an authentic feel for the old days. 

There are a lot of details that are quite worth a look. Not just to take a photo, but to study the details of the ice-shop, roasted meat shop, barber house, TV repair shops, myriad cables hanging everywhere, …

Circuit of Cemeteries

Grave sweeping is customarily done twice a year. I often take the opportunity to visit other cemeteries around Hong Kong. Often to pay my respects to people who have my respect.  Such as my own teachers, relatives, friends, famous people in history.   Sometimes my runs also take me pass, or through cemeteries.  

Gradually I realize one can learn a lot about Hong Kong through the cemeteries.  

Starting from the obvious - the burning of incense and candles in the Chinese Cemetery in Aberdeen.  

Treasures, valuables, and necessities in the underworld.  Made of paper.  Sent to the dead by burning.  

Is dim sum a necessity?  At least it is food, such an important part of Chinese culture.  

But, On the other hand, at the St. Raphael Catholic Cemetery, in Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon, burning of incense and paper products are banned.  

People are warned to not leave food behind. 

In Happy Valley, five cemeteries line up in a row: Muslim, Catholic St. Michael, Hong Kong, Parsee and Hindu. 

There are a lot of people surnamed Ma in the Muslim cemetery.  

To the north west, the Muslim cemetery overlooks the Sikh Temple. 

To the south, the Muslim cemetery overlooks the Catholic St. Michael cemetery.  

Several of my teachers, brothers and fathers of the Salesian order, are buried there.  Some of them made deep impressions on me and my fellow classmates.  

The Salesian mission to the disadvantaged youths is one of the important formative factors in my life.

Many interesting people rest there.  Including one of the most famous actresses in the 1960s, Ms. Lin Dai 林黛.   

So many different religions co-exist in Hong Kong, peacefully. They may not be friends. They may not even like each other.  But there is respect.  Live and let live. 

Beyond St. Michael, is Hong Kong Cemetery.  With its colonial, Christian heritage.  Many soldiers of the British Navy are buried there.  Also quite a few missionaries.  

A husband and wife, Frederick and Elizabeth Cookson, died within 2 days of each other, in a Cholera outreach in 1883. 

Sir Ho Tung, one of the most famous, and richest person in early Hong Kong history, was buried there. 

There are also many Freemasons. 

The Parsee cemetery is beautiful, but not open to the public. 

There is a Christian (Protestant) cemetery on Junction road, in Kowloon City.  Originally kind of a distance outside of the city, no doubt.  But now surrounded by buildings.  At the top of the hill, the tombstones are at the same level, and blend in very well, with the high rise apartment blocks behind them.  

One of the many differences between Chinese and Western burials.  Western cemeteries tend to be on flat, open spaces.  Some are shaded by trees.  

The Chinese like to bury their dead on hill sides, perhaps even on top.  There may be small trees to decorate the place.  But not big trees that loom over the grave.  The best is to have the grave look out into open space in the distance.  Preferably towards open water. 

In Hong Kong, however, open space tend to be built over, eventually.  Hence many cemeteries are now hemmed in by tall apartment blocks.  So many graves, laid down decades ago, now look towards apartments with people living in them.  And vice versa. Such is life in Hong Kong.