Hong Kong

The picture says it all, really. Yes, I continue to be a child, long after I should be, with full intention, a child. Our week in Hong Kong was everything I could have hoped for. The city itself, equal parts amazing and terrifying (OZ and Blade Runner), provided so much stimuli that it has taken me this long to write about it, or perhaps I'm lazy. I mean it about that OZ and Blade Runner bit. HK is the furthest extent of consumer capitalism--Veblen would have a field day describing its conspicuous consumption. I have never seen so many Gucci, Prada, Rolex, etc. stores in such close proximity to each other. There were some places where you could see from one Prada to the next, and they are all busy. The millionaires of Hong Kong (a staggering 7% of the population) control 70% of the zone's wealth and it shows. For every Prada store, there are two or three high rise apartment buildings where life is undoubtedly less grand. In keeping with the Blade Runner model, the higher up you are in this city, the higher up you live. The streets are chaotic, small and crowded, and, in keeping with today's theme, the people speak a mix of English and Chinese that sounds like it came directly out of Blade Runner--or did BL come out of HK? In any case, the city is as much a wonder as a sign of the end times. We loved the food, the sights, the shopping at Temple Street's night market, the booze (there was plenty, the locals don't drink very much). I even got to love the Octopus, HK's transit system, and its crowded but efficient trains. I wasn't in love with the pollution, or its decided upon fix--surgical masks. I can only imagine what things are like on the less environmentally conscious mainland. But we weren't there for the booze, the trinket obtaining or even the sights. We were there to see a friend. I was there to spend time with two of my favorite people, who, despite my own dark visions of impending planetary doom, make me laugh and smile and want to go on living. I am reading Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House again as I just assigned it for my incoming English 3 students. I like Vonnegut, whose characters keep finding ways to defy the coming new world order. He gives me hope, in the same ways that Julie and Robert do. That's the best thing I found in Hong Kong.