“Sure, why not.”
It was all it took to find myself at the heart of Covid Panic Central. I was lucky – a return offer from HR with a catch. We need people in Hong Kong, not Seoul. I jumped.
I spread out my fingers and fold each one as I count what knowledge I have of this city.
“Chung King mansion. I think there’s a run-down complex named that.”
”Umm … the escalators? The the arterial escalators flowing through the heart of the city.”
”Wong kar-wai and who was that. uh. Tony Leung that’s right.”
”Aaaand uh Chinese .. I mean Cantonese. And they also speak English? I hope so.”
Most of my knowledge was from movies.
3-Week Quarantine
Back then I could not understand why this would be a deal-breaker for many expats.
I understand why this would be a deal-breaker for many expats.
The benefit of quarantining is that you gain a profound respect for livestock. They manage being locked up with minimal room for physical activity with a continued inflow of three meals a day with snacks in between. I had a hard time. Body becomes weak. Digestive system starts to fail making body more weak. Weak body makes the mind weak. Weak mind makes weak body frail.
There are windows that don’t open, so it’s technically just glass. Like supplements for livestock, I wonder if it’s just a little vitamin D corner in the regulators’ eyes. I worry that if vitamin D were not a thing, they would have been perfectly fine to rid of that as well. Some days are overcast.
There is a conscious element. Econ 101 introduces the concept of irrational consumer behavior. People would go stingy over a dollar difference when getting coffee, but they would not mind a hundred dollar difference when getting a car. This was labeled irrational so I guess they want us to do the opposite.
Three weeks may be tolerable, but my mind makes an effort to deem it significant. “You know the crazy things people would do to just live a year longer? Well, this is one seventeenth of that right down the drain. Just so you know.” My mind passive aggressively gaslights itself.
The City
The city of Hong Kong makes you put one leg towards the window sill, let out a gentle, deep, but not so deep a sigh, and murmur “The city …”
It’s a curious scenery. Japanese city pop or ominous mysterious ambient background music would both go well with it. In my head I always play the former. Maybe that’s why some people grow to like Hong Kong more than others. That includes me.
There is an underlying dystopian feel. Flakes of hardened paint surfaced along the exteriors of half century old buildings resemble tiles of baked soil covering a barren landscape. I can picture Jackie Chan climbing with smooth martial arts agility from one exposed pipe to another, eventually flying into laundry garment which slows him down to miss the villain by a margin. Drops of vaporized water droplets fall from AC units which hang dangerously outside of every flat.
People on foot, on taxis, on trams, and on two-story buses scramble busily.
Chinese Characters
What you cannot comprehend becomes art in its truest form. Hence, I did not bother to learn Cantonese. Same for Japanese. If I could understand all the lyrics of Japanese city pop music, I would lose processing power when I am listening to it while working, wouldn’t I?
The Flat Hunt
It was April 21 of 2022 that Hong Kong’s dine-in services were extended to 10pm. It was only until 6pm before then. That means it took 3 months since my time of arrival to have a proper dinner at a restaurant with friends. It also means that it was totally not weird to invite your date over to your place for dinner right from the first date.
Still, most dinners until April were lone and a little sad – unless someone was hosting an event at their place. Housing had a different meaning. It was the enabler of dinner gatherings, a quarantine ground if you were deemed a biohazard, a work place. Housing is very expensive for very small in Hong Kong.
Mi Casa
Two photos from the day I moved in. A studio with lots of recessed warm lighting. 16k HKD – around 2k USD – for 390sqf in central Soho. Hong Kong also has a Soho.
Written from scratch by Meston Ecoa
No assistance was received from any form of Artificial Intelligence.
No assistance was received from any grammar or vocabulary enhancing software.
Source
• All photos taken by Meston Ecoa
except for the one photo, a screenshot taken from the US version of “The Office”
