I remember Deutschmark was worth RMB 6 at some point, Euro is less than RMB 7 now
Sent from my iPhone using GeoClicks
I remember Deutschmark was worth RMB 6 at some point, Euro is less than RMB 7 now
Sent from my iPhone using GeoClicks
I remember when Hong Kong was the Pearl of the Orient. Now, it's just another Chinese slum.
To explain: one Euro is equivalent to two Deutschmark. So at the old rate €1 would be buying RMB12.
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I remember that market traders used another way of writing numerals, not the standard way. One, two, and three were the corresponding number of vertical strokes, four was an X shape. It is called the mercantile system, and can be seen here: Chinese numeral | Britannica.com.
I remember an egg hawker in the market who held every single one up to a burning light bulb, to show you that it was fresh.
*
I saw that a fish hawker in a wet market had taken a live fish, put a hook through the very top of its body, and hung it up to die. There it was, dancing and convulsing to death.
In 1991, a plausible rogue persuaded some minor actress/models that he was a film producer and would give them major film parts if he could have sex with them. When they realised they had been duped, the girls (to their credit) went to the police, and at the trial were allowed to give evidence anonymously.
For some reason, the case attracted enormous interest in the local and international media. I think it is true to say that there was not much sympathy for the girls: it was felt that they had freely sold their bodies, in effect; and if he was such a big businessman, why was he taking them to such cheap hotels? On the contrary, there was admiration for the cheeky chappie who had almost got away with it.
He was sentenced to 3 years 11 months imprisonment. He had some previous convictions.
More here: Hong Kong's Seductive Trial - NYTimes.com.
On the topic of eggs, I remember when even in supermarkets eggs were sold loose, with the price always given for 3 eggs. As in the wet markets, there was always a bright light available to "candle" your own eggs.
And I remember my horrified fascination to discover the expat wives teaching in the first school I taught at here really DID spend an inordinate amount of their time in the staffroom complaining about the trials and tribualtions of finding, training and retaining good maids. FDH were called maids then, and most of them wore uniforms.
Would love to see an 8 month old in Chinese Armour
I guess 1980s maids weren't "worth" photographing - the google goggles don't seem to be working too well. But a lot of the maids who came to collect their charges from the international school where I worked were outfitted with something that looked much like a nurse' uniform of the same era (but without cap and graduation belt): button-trhough shirtmaker dress with short sleeves, usually in narrow, pastel and white, vertical stripes, and self-belted, sometimes with white cuffs/ collars and/ or pocket trim.
There's an interesting thread at present titled 'Neighbour installed CCTV in building'. Someone wrote: " CCTV is a fact of life in Hong Kong, it's everywhere outside. Get used to it or go home :-) lol"
Pre CCTV
Pleasant
I remember you could kiss in a lift.
Unpleasant
If a woman entered a lift on the ground floor alone with an unknown man, for security she might not press the button for her floor until he had pressed his. (For what it was worth. You can probably work out which floor a crafty man would press.)
I tried not to mind when a woman behaved in that way with me.
Pleasant
It was mid-afternoon, I was having a late lunch. At another table, there was a young couple who couldn't keep their hands off each other, couldn't stop caressing and kissing. There were booths along the wall and they were a couple of booths in front of me, so I never actually saw them (except from the corner of my eye when I was leaving), but it was easy to deduce what was going on. The waiters, laughing, called out to each other, "They've just got married!"
If things had been a little different it might have been awkward, but it was the opposite. Everyone, waiters and customers, seemed to share in the celebration and (I'm being fanciful) joy pervaded the restaurant.
Unpleasant
I was in another restaurant, late in the evening. Again, this was years ago.
At the next table a young man was sitting alone, slowly smoking. A girl came and sat opposite. With HK efficiency, a waiter came at once for her order, and she briskly ordered an iced tea.
She had taken his free hand and was bent kissing it, again and again. She was silently weeping. He was smoking slowly, as before. He did not speak.
Perhaps my imagination was inflamed, but I thought she had just done something shameful for his sake, that she had prostituted herself for him.