Thursday, December 29, 2011

花航還未轉紅時 The Timed Journey

那是一個另付機場稅的年代,那是一個沒有三通的年代,華航也還未"紅梅揚姿"。
兩岸開放未久,爺爺總是搭乘華航到香港轉機,入境中國大陸。

It was a time we paid airport tax separately, a time there was no direct flight cross-strait.
The martial law was recently lifted, and my grandpa used to take China Airlines to Hong Kong and transfer flight to enter mainland China.

Chungking Mansions in the end of 2011 - New Face, New Phase (?)

Chungking Mansions after renovation. Taken on 22 December 2011.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Whose Chungking Mansions (誰的重慶大廈)

Source: Eslite Bookstore
(I AM NOT A BOOK REVIEW)

We see Chungking Mansions in Wong Kar Wai's movie, we pass it by shopping along TST, we've been told of a plethora of adjectives attached to this building - mysterious, complicated, exciting, cool, among negative ones.

For a HK fan like me, I want to know about its whereabouts - so as soon as I knew of the publication of "Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong" I ordered it from Amazon (as a Taiwan local you may check on Eslite bookstore). This book indeed provides explanations for a lot of my preliminary doubts. 

At any given night you may find some 4,000 people of 129 different nationalities staying in Chungking Mansions. The majority of the people there are traders, business owners, temporary workers, asylum seekers, and tourists. Together, these people form a net of activities which the author, Mr. Mathews, describes as "low-end globalization". Different from the gleaming HQs of MNCs representative of "high-end globalization" (something our concept roughly equals to "globalization"), "low-end globalization" is formed by small traders and illegal workers engaging in the exchange of small amount of cheap goods. The economic activities of "low-end globalization" are what maintain the livelihood of most of the world's population.

Mr. Mathews accounts 3 reasons for the modern representation of Chungking Mansions: cheapness, Hong Kong's loose visa regulations, and China's emergence as the world factory. 

A night's stay at Chungking Mansions may be as low as just HKD$100 whereas something similar across the street costs 3 folds. Reasons are the lack of unified ownership of this building and its negative image deeply connected with South Asian and African presence - and hence, with a budget of 300 per night you'd probably rather stay in the building down a few blocks or across the street, leaving those 100 dollar budgeted go for Chungking Mansions.

The relatively loose visa regulations allow the majority of the world's nationalities to enter Hong Kong visa-free (see Hong Kong visa-free country list); they come to Hong Kong to work temporarily or proceed to China to buy goods and bring back home for sale. 

The book provides an account of one food stall: a meal costs HK$20-50, they serve about 100 customers per day, and the restaurant may gross HK$100,000 a month. After subtracting from the the rent (HK$23,000 per month) and raw food costs, if the owner is to make HK$30,000, the monthly salary paid to the 8 workers has to be dwarfed to HK$3,500 per person. The economics of this food stall refrain the owner from legally hiring a Hong Kong resident for a minimum monthly salary of HK$8,000, meaning, in order to survive, they have no choice but to hire temp workers, illegally.

Having gained a preliminary understanding of Chungking Mansions, you'd see that if any node is to be altered, the building's whole eco-system is broken. For example, if all business owners hire only legal workers, prices of house rent, food, and products may all double, and once doubled, traders from Africa and South Asia are no longer able to afford coming to Hong Kong for business. If this happens, Chungking Mansions may be yet another commercial building harboring HK standard shops and restaurants just as everyone else in its neighborhood.

這是一本香港迷不可錯過的書。因為研究主體本身的性質,這本書注定親民好讀。和一般學術研究不同的是作者無法將細節公諸於世,不然重慶大廈的非法移民、非法勞工、性工作者、販毒者也不會同意接受作者的採訪。

作者形容重慶大廈為"低階全球化"的代表。當前全球化的論述主要圍繞著全球的商業經濟活動,而從事這些經濟活動的是穿梭在各大城市的富麗堂皇的辦公大樓裡的菁英階級,這是"高階全球化"。出入重慶大廈裡面的人主要是來自非洲和南亞的小生意人,他們到香港或中國帶貨回國販賣,還有一大批人是來香港非法打工賺錢,他們每個月掙的3500港幣,以香港標準來說固少得可憐,卻能讓他們撐起一個家,成為出國賺錢的英雄人物。

三個因素成就了今日的重慶大廈 : 便宜、香港寬鬆的簽證限制(可免簽入境香港國家名單)、以及成為世界工廠的中國。

重慶大廈是由一個非常複雜的人事時地物的網絡所維繫的,任何一個節點被破壞都將改變重慶大廈的面貌。若香港的免簽政策緊縮,許多國家的國民便無法進入香港非法打工,重慶大廈的商家若無法雇用非法勞工,便須花費多出一倍以上的成本聘請本地合法勞工,旅館房費、餐廳、商店的一切價錢皆需調漲,使得來自非洲及南亞的商人無法負擔,經濟活動無法持續。

現在的重慶大廈是這樣一個特殊的地方: 它是處於耀人眼目的東方之珠裡的貧民窟,但這個貧民窟卻是維繫著所謂南亞、非洲、和中東的許許多多商人以及消費者的商業活動的一個經濟中心,對這些人來講,重慶大廈就是他們的世貿、他們的華爾街。


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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

這些年,Quietly Brilliant的你我

我常想htc的slogan - Quietly Brilliant - 是否翻自"曖曖內含光"。在國外打滾好些年,與其說更清楚外面的世界是怎樣,其實是更瞭解了自己,還有自己出身的地方。我覺得htc那句slogan很能表現台灣人的精神 : 相對的謙遜、內涵重於外在。

這幾年越來越多大陸遊客到台灣旅遊,聽說有些人對台灣感到很失望,市容雜亂,一點都不摩登;很多韓國人來到台灣,覺得台灣很破爛,機場啦市容啦,比一些發展中國家還差。我對持這種評價的人有兩個想法,其一,他很可悲,只能看到事物的外表;其二,他很土,台北桃園機場是很破沒錯,因為他已經很老了,去過歐美大城市好比巴黎、芝加哥、斯德哥爾摩啦,肯定都知道,他們的舊航廈也是破到不行,破航廈代表的是發展得早,而不是落後,一些開發中國家的城市(例如中國的二、三線城市)有嶄新機場多是因為發展得晚。

小學的時候,學校有幾個外省籍的老師,兄姐爸媽皆已舉家遷美。這幾位老師常在班上說美國哪裡哪裡比台灣好,搞得我從小便有種崇美情節,總是從負面角度看台灣。這種意識型態到大學時代才有所轉變。有一年,瑞典跟英國朋友來台北,在大稻埕沿岸,我說,我覺得台灣的樓房蓋得好醜,沒有美感,沒有精神,更沒有歷史感。前往桃園機場的國光號駛出台北西站,上了高架橋,放眼望去全是破爛樓宇(台北郵政總局那一帶)、菜市場和停車場,心裡正擔心朋友把台灣想很落後,他卻說,看橋下這些房子、還有前方的河流,Spectacular! 自此,我的思想開始慢慢轉變。

一位香港記者說,"台北不像巴黎、香港,或者上海,它沒有漂亮耀目的街景,很難讓人一見鍾情。只是,台北的好,不在於見,更多在於感受。"我對這句話感受份外深刻。在外地滯留久了,才覺察原來我以為理所當然的事情、我在台灣所享受的既有一切,在很多地方都得不到;韓國很光鮮亮麗,也有其歷史餘韻,但當代韓國的內涵就像廢止漢字以後的韓文失去靈魂、無法變通,當代的韓國文化有骨無肉,精神則無所依憑(基督教進來得剛剛好XD);新加坡富庶繁華,種族多元,卻雜而不精,舉世膚淺(單純描述事實,無貶意,thanks)。放眼東亞,能和歐美文明媲美的,我認為台灣居首 - 我們有自己的精神食糧、文化共識。我們的語言裡有豐富的詞彙以表達複雜情感,我們通曉成語及歷史典故、得以進行深度溝通,我們熟悉中文語言的今古流傳而得以將之活用(例如,創造新詞而非直譯/音譯外來詞彙)。當代台灣文化的深度與高度已非國家或民族的籓籬可以概括;台灣也不是中華文化的代言人,因為它畢竟沒有大江大海,只是盡可能利用既有資源,找出自己的一條活路。

昨天我姊從台灣帶來幾樣我媽給我的東西。

檀木做成的小玩意,每個木珠上寫著一種食物,不知道今天吃啥,拿到哪顆就吃哪顆吧。









故宮紀念品之"青花矽緻杯套"。






台北花博的浮花綻影製冰盒(牡丹花)。










統一生機的餅乾。


以前我會覺得這些東西沒什麼大不了,現在在追名逐利的國度待久了,這些小巧思都是奢求。小巧思賺不到什麼大錢,有時卻能散發軟實力的光芒;珍奶非珍饈,但新加坡人就是做不出來,貢茶等台灣人開的珍奶店才能橫掃天下、馬玉山比起其他台灣品牌也沒多養生,在新加坡這個沒健康sense的地方,比台灣貴一倍也賣得嚇嚇叫、從不覺得"我的美麗日記"在我臉上做過什麼功德,但它精緻的包裝和新奇的口味卻是新加坡人眼裡的名產,藥妝店和超市架上必備商品、"海角"或誰誰誰一起追的女孩算不上台灣文學的曠世巨作,卻能撥動凡塵眾生內心裡的一根弦,全城熱播。

Quietly Brilliant,我還在繼續探索它的意涵。