The perks of being a 'ghost' during Chinese New Year in Hong Kong
Updated: 2014-01-30 07:40
By Stephen Vines(HK Edition)
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One thing foreigners learn about living in Hong Kong, even if they have been here for many decades, is that they will always be gweilos. With the approach of the Lunar New Year, we gweilos are sometimes made to feel that extra bit foreign, left out of things and maybe even isolated, but I am not even vaguely complaining. Indeed there are positive advantages to being a gweilo in Hong Kong over Chinese New Year.
Let me just pause here because some readers might not be entirely familiar with this strange term: gweilo. Literally translated from Cantonese the two characters for gweilo mean: ghost person.
Anyway being a ghost does not worry me unduly, especially over the Chinese New Year period when we gweilos are excused all manner of duties, do not have to eat some of the more dubious traditional foods dished up at this time of year, and can enjoy the wonderful quiet that settles over Hong Kong for at least three days.
Throughout the year Hong Kong-based gweilos benefit greatly from the very low expectations showered on us by even the most well meaning of people. Thus when a gweilo manages to put together a few words of Cantonese we are told how ho lek, or how clever we are. When we manage the simplest level of dexterity with chop sticks we are, again, ho lek and when Chinese New Year dawns and we dish out laisee, known more prosaically as lucky money, we are heartily congratulated for our mastery of local customs.
What's to complain about here? Personally I can testify that I tend to do very well when people expect the least from me. So I'm more than satisfied to be in a place where a little goes a long way.
When it comes to Chinese New Year you can happily pick and choose how much you want to go along with the festival. You are, for example, exempted from the wholesale dishing out of laisee that is expected of anyone who is Chinese. And when it comes to the matter of decorating your home, you can go big or small because it is widely understood you have no idea of the symbolic meaning of these decorations.
Then there are New Year gatherings, times for big family parties and everything that is part and parcel of intensive family encounters. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against families, indeed, despite being a gweilo, I have a family of my own and some experience of large family gatherings. They can be quite marvelous but they can also be mightily taxing and I have had occasion to search for a reasonable excuse for an early exit from some of these gatherings, often without success.
As a gweilo you can be invited to New Year family events but you don't need to get too involved and, generally speaking, you are quite oblivious of the intense family relationships that determine how these events develop. So you are grateful to be invited and even more grateful not to have to get too involved.
Meanwhile, a vast number of Hong Kong people have families on the mainland and so they have no choice but to join the massive throng of travelers at this time of the year. There is no worse time to be travelling but a family reunion is a must so there is no choice but to join the exodus unless you happen to be a gweilo. So here's another plus.
When I first came to Hong Kong it was just before the Chinese New Year and I had no idea that everything would shut down quite so comprehensively, though this is not longer the case. So I found myself without sufficient food supplies, and because I was new I was at something of a loose end. My neighbors in the small village where I lived somehow discovered my predicament and were kindness incarnate, not only feeding me but also inviting me to join their events. Thus, I quickly discovered the generosity of Hong Kong people and have continued to rediscover this experience ever since. So, thank you New Year for giving me an early heads up on what to expect.
So kung hei fat choy to anyone reading this, it's an invitation to greater prosperity and who doesn't want some of that?
The author is a former newspaper editor who now runs companies in the food sector and moonlights as a journalist, writer and broadcaster.
(HK Edition 01/30/2014 page1)