What's that blue inflatable object in Victoria Harbour?
Some days ago, I read a post over on Bluesky (which I'm now also on!) from a man living in the USA complaining about how he's already seeing lots of Halloween decorations up in stores and such in his area. I've already seen some here too in Hong Kong but, for the most part, their numbers (still) pale in comparison to the decorations for two other events that will take place before October 31st comes along.
The first of these is variously known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Lantern Festival and Mooncake Festival and is one of my favourite Chinese traditional festivals even though Hong Kong's temperatures whenever it comes along never strike me as autumnal, never mind mid-autumnal! I do love mooncakes though, and also the lantern displays that are set up in locales such as Victoria Park. An added bonus for this mid-autumn: the fire dragon will be parading through the streets of Tai Hang again for the first time since September 2019!
A few days after the Mid-Autumn Festival will come an anniversary that I'm not all that inclined to celebrate. Some people and organizations are though -- or, at least, seek to look to be -- and have opted to bypass putting up lantern displays in favor of those involving the flags of the People's Republic of China (and sometimes -- but not always -- the flags of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region). On even an aesthetic level alone, I tend to find this disappointing and, often, horrifying.
Maybe my mind's playing games on me but I can recall a time not so long ago when, even on October 1st, PRC flags weren't flying or hanging about in so many parts of Hong Kong. In any case, as I told a few friends yesterday, I am planning to celebrate World Sake Day on that day since it also falls on October 1st, and -- let's face it -- I would be lying if I were to deny that I love sake far more than I love the People's Republic of China!
No comments:
Post a Comment