Scenes from Piggish Hong Kong Lunar New Year Fairs at Victoria Park and Fa Hui Park

As in the past, Hong Kong recently held Lunar New Year Fairs in 15 locations for a period of seven days. Five years ago I shared a number of scenes from the Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair and the Fa Hui Park Lunar New Year Fair in Hong Kong. This year I had the chance to visit both again. Below is a set of photos capturing a variety of scenes from the two fairs. I visited Victoria Park Saturday evening and Fai Hui Park Sunday afternoon just before the Lunar Near Year. In general, the fairs were much as they were five years ago with the exception that were many more pig-themed items for sale — not surprising since it is now Year of the Pig. Like before, the photos capture a variety of stalls and the large crowds. And of course there a few scenes from their respective flower markets. One thing is deliberately missing though. The politically themed stalls at Victoria Park, which I featured five years ago, will appear in a later post.

Fa Hui Park Lunar New Year Fair

One of the entrances to the fair

A dense crowd

Basketball is off limits

Pigs and more

Giant stuffed ancient coins

More pigs

One of the locations to get some fair food

Ah Tak - the green “keep clean ambassador” for Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department

Some of the many flowers for sale

Not all flowers found a home in time

Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair

Simply making one's way from one side of the aisle to the other through the very dense crowd proved quite challenging.

Yes, pigs

Some Hong Kong pride

Bubbles abounded

Slower than a crawling pace

Shirts with messages of some sort

Putting ladders to use to sell pigs

One last pig-themed stall

The trash overflowed

Non-trashy and unwilted colors

These flowers sold shortly after I took the photo

And that's all for now. For Lunar New Year Fair photos taken in other locations, last year I visited the Taipei Lunar New Year Festival at Dihua Street and Macau's Lunar New Year Festival at Tap Seac Square.

Islam in China: Some Scenes from Zhaotong, Yunnan

Previously, I posted some of what I've seen of Christianity in China here and here.

Like my observations of Christianity in China, I was not specifically looking for instances of Islam in China.  However, I've had the opportunity to observe a small slice of of it.  One of China's numerous ethnic groups is the Muslim Hui people.  While Yunnan isn't one of the major regions for the Hui people in China, in Zhaotong it is impossible not to notice their presence.

I'll share a light selection of what I saw in Zhaotong.  Nothing deep here, just providing some color on Muslims in China (see here for more details about the Hui people).

While walking around Zhaotong one day I came across this mosque with a Muslim school and dormitories next to it on the right:

While prayer sessions were ongoing two younger boys invited me into the classroom & dormitory building to chat.  Their dorm room wasn't very different from some college dormitories I've seen in Southwest China:

When the prayers were finished numerous students and teachers came out of the mosque to return to their classrooms and dorms:

Hui people can be seen in many other parts of Zhaotong as well, typically doing the same things as other Chinese -- such as working in stores or attending college.  Here is a scene from a shopping street:

Also, there were numerous Hui people selling food in some street markets.  This lady was selling a tofu snack and an assortment of eggs:

I had several very enjoyable conversations with Hui people.  Probably the most memorable was this lady:

This was the 3rd photo of her trying to make her best face.

She struck me as someone who had no fear of being different and her strong sense of humor readily displayed itself.  She definitely provided an enjoyable change of pace.

Before I came to Zhaotong I was not aware it had any Muslim influence.  Now, I'll definitely never forget it.

Complicated Romances and Bloodthirsty Pencils: Two New Chinese Movie Posters

Two of the movie posters outside a theater at the Fengdu Road Pedestrian Street in Shaoguan especially caught my eye during recent days. One, for the poses and expressions:

Youth Never Returns (既然青春留不住) premiered at the Montreal Film Festival, which provides this synopsis:

When Wang Jinhui enters university, he immediately becomes one of its most popular students, certainly to the girls. But not Zhou Hui. When he asks her to help him cheat in exams, she reports him instead. Still, she does help him study, and eventually they warm to each other. They become a couple. An unsteady couple, with ups and downs -- lovers, enemies, lovers again. And finally a breakup. Years later, having become a successful restaurant operator, Wang Jinhui learns about Zhou Hui’s ill health. He comes to help, but once again they separate. Is there one more reconciliation in the cards?

And if Wang Jinhui now becomes ill, will Zhou Hui run the restaurant in his absence? Or given how the cheating incident worked out, will she instead report him for tax evasion to help rekindle their love yet again? Indeed, more ups and downs could be in store. Youth Never Returns opens in China on October 23. If offered free tickets, popcorn, and really good beer, I will consider going.

The other movie poster caught my attention because it reminded me of the Death is Here 3 movie poster I saw last year in Zhanjiang. Yes, folks, the terrifying giant pencil is back.

In addition to gratuitous cleavage, other movie posters for Campus Mystery (笔仙魔咒) include gratuitous gore, upskirt views, and water. I haven't yet seen them displayed in Shaoguan.

For reasons I can't explain, this movie did not premier at the Montreal Film Festival, so I will not share a proper synopsis. Instead, I will share a guess about the plot:

After Wang Jinhui enters university, an evil giant pencil convinces him to cheat in exams. But Zhou Hui, his occasional lover who has an interest in tax law, discovers it isn't a number 2 pencil as required and . . .

Wait, maybe I shouldn't confuse films. Anyway, whatever the real plot, if any, presumably a really big pencil appears in the movie, which is all you can ask for. Campus Mystery opened in China last Friday, and I will consider seeing it as well, assuming similar conditions. Given my curiosity about the pencil, though, I am willing to forfeit the popcorn and beer in a plastic bag is good enough.

These two movies probably don't best represent the overall state of movie-making in China today, but they still remind me of a recent conversation I had about Chinese movies with a high school student in Zhongshan. She said she used to only enjoy foreign movies. But now she was finding more Chinese movies she enjoyed and believed they were getting much better. She is definitely not alone in her opinion

On its opening weekend in China, Campus Mystery didn't captivate as many viewers as a number of other movies and only grossed U.S. $840,000. Recent domestic success stories for the Chinese film industry, comedies Goodbye Mr. Loser and Lost in Hong Kong, fared much better though. And showing that ants can trump pencils, even in a market clearly gamed to benefit domestic films, the foreign film Ant-Men, also opening in China this past weekend, came in number one grossing over $43 million.

Lunar New Year Fairs in Hong Kong

Leading up to the Lunar New Year holiday, Hong Kong holds fairs in 15 different locations for a period of 7 days. A section of the fairs are dedicated to flower markets but much else is also sold. A large number of stalls are run by college students to gain sales experience and to hopefully make some money.

I recently visited two of the largest fairs--one at Fa Hui Park in Sham Shui Po the night of the opening day and another at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay several days later. I also briefly stopped by a smaller fair in Kwun Tong. The Hong Kong fairs reminded me of a Lunar New Year fair I visited in Guangzhou 3 years ago. However, some of what I saw in Hong Kong reflected a culture specific to there and one set of stalls in particular was strikingly unlike anything one could expect to see at a fair in mainland China. I'll save that topic for a later post.

Below are assorted scenes capturing a small taste of the Hong Kong fairs. The first 10 photos are from Fa Hui Park and the second 10 are from Victoria Park. The fair at Victoria Park was larger and, at least when I went, the crowds were far denser. In some sections it required a significant effort simply to cross an aisle from one booth to another. Several Hongkongers said that's part of the experience which draws them there.

These college students at the Fa Hui Lunar New Year Fair tried their best to sell me a stuffed toy.

Fortunately, they found a more appreciative potential customer.

If stuffed toys weren't your thing, perhaps some German Magic Goo would do the trick.

Locally-made spicy XO sauce

Also spicy: Korean kimchi

A small sample of the flowers for sale

Pinwheels are a popular part of the holiday.

If you wanted a giant "no smoking" stuffed cigarette, this was your place.

Like an American fair, food was available.

Although many of the options differed.

Sections of the Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair seemed completely packed during the day, but one vendor told me it would become even more crowded that night.

High perches were needed by some.

One of the more pragmatic offerings

Shower water filters

More flowers

And more stuffed toys

Many of the signs and names for the students' stalls incorporated a horse theme in recognition of the Chinese zodiac sign for the new year. In this case, they also played on the fact that Barack Obama's name in Chinese includes the character for "horse".

Some college students sold their own creations which they said reflected Hong Kong culture.

A blue-haired man handing out free items had no problem drawing a crowd.

Two friendly high-school students seeking customers in a less crowded area