Do you know a rebellious, b.b.c. teen?

Readers, do you know any misbehaved, spoilt or downright out of control British Chinese teenagers?

Are their parents at a loss as to how to get through to them or change their behaviour? Perhaps you are one of these unruly teens yourself?

The BBC is looking for more participants for its successful reality show The World's Strictest Parents and would are inviting applications from the UK Chinese community.

In each episode two teens are sent to live with a ‘strict’ family abroad, where they are asked to live according to new rules, required to attend school, and get a taste of what it is to be a teenager in a very different, and often less fortunate culture. In previous programmes the show has sent teenagers everywhere from Jaipur to Jamaica, and Accra to Atlanta.

Do you know of anyone who would benefit from such an experience? If so, please contact the programme makers here.

Who knows, we might be seeing a b.b.c. face on this show in the future?

Link: The World's Strictest Parents

Baby milk formula shortages hit Hong Kong

Not nice for any parent... Incidents of toxic milk and rising prices in China have prompted many mainland Chinese to bulk buy baby formula in Hong Kong, creating territory-wide shortages.



It's not happening quietly either - there have been reports of mainlanders working in teams to jump queues in order to clear stocks, leaving local parents struggling to find supplies of milk formula for their babies.

Shenzhen becoming more expensive than Hong Kong

Not long ago, traveling to Shenzhen was a popular excursion for Hong Kongers wanting cheap deals on goods and services. The region became a synonymous with 'bargain' and some Hong Kongers even relocated there to take advantage of lower property prices and living costs.

But now inflation on the mainland plus the rising value of the yuan against the Hong Kong dollar mean prices are now often lower in the SAR.

The flow of shopping tourists is starting to flow the other way, with excursions from Shenzhen to Hong Kong rapidly increasing - especially in the run up to Chinese New Year. Shoppers are not just after luxury or one-off purchases. Even daily food shopping works out roughly 20-30% cheaper in HK. As the Hong Kong Standard describes:

In Diamond Hill's Hollywood Plaza, Shenzhen resident Irene Lai Yen-fen, 28, arrived with a busload of 40 shoppers yesterday, the third Lunar New Year shopping group to visit the mall.

In less than 30 minutes, her shopping bag was full with dried seafood bought for more than HK$1,000.

Looks like the days of cheap shopping trips to Shenzhen are over... for now, at least!

Story: Mainlanders bus to HK in blitz on malls

Related: HK Prices Now Cheaper Than Shenzhen: Shoppers Flock the Other Way

Big Spenders from the Mainland - two sides of a story

Just as the UK's Daily Telegraph publishes a wide-eyed article about the extravagant shopping habits of China's newly wealthy tourists, there comes a viral video from Hong Kong that shows a tour guide berating her party of Mainland guests for not spending 'enough' during their visit to the SAR.

The Telegraph article - which to be honest could have been written any time in the last 5 years - paints Chinese tourists as potential saviours of a struggling UK economy whilst at the same time pointing out some of the eccentricities of the new Chinese rich:

Nowhere is China’s confidence seen more clearly than in its demand for luxury goods. Last year the People’s Republic overtook the United States to become the second biggest market for the luxury sector; and by 2015 it will have overtaken Japan, with a market projected to be worth £11 billion annually.

...The eccentricity of Chinese buying habits takes other forms. Fine wine may be a status symbol in the high-end restaurants of Shanghai but many locals are not so enamoured of the actual taste.

“The Chinese used to water down the cheap wine they first encountered and now consider that the normal way to drink it,” says Mr Grant. “Which can be a bit of a shame when you’ve just opened a nice Margaux.”

The flip side of this story comes in the form of the viral video, in which a tour guide called Ah Zhen - thought by some commenters to be a Hong Kong based Mainlander herself - does a 'Bus Uncle' by launching into a long, insulting tirade against her clients who seems remarkably quiet whilst being chastised.

Some of the choice quotes being reported in the press are:

"It's you who owe me here, not me owing you. I provided you with food and accommodation but you people will not give."
"If you don't repay the debt in this life you will have to repay it in your next life."
"It's OK to be poor at home, but you can't act like this when you are outside. Don't tell me you don't need [the jewellery], I say you don't need to eat either. Tonight I will lock all hotel room doors, because you don't need accommodation."
"We don't do this for charity. Let me be responsible for charity. I donated 10,500 yuan [HK$12,027] for Sichuan earthquke victims."
"Why did you bother to come to Hong Kong?"

All this an not one person threw anything at her. What a polite group of tourists!

Who knows, if the UK economy were to decline even more maybe we'll start to see rants like this on the streets outside Prada and Gucci? Well, maybe not :)



Guide video via Living In Hong Kong

UK shopping article via The Daily Telegraph

Bad medicine: Deadly Chinese remedy may still be on sale in shops

The BBC reports that a banned product that has been found to cause cancer in those taking it may still be on sale in some Chinese herbal remedy shops.

The distributor, Ekong International (UK) Ltd, issued a recall last month, but more than three quarters of the stock has still not been returned.

Packs of the product, brought to the UK from China, have had a new English label put on to hide the original label which contained the Chinese symbols for Aristolochia, a banned toxic and carcinogenic derivative of a plant.

The medicine is packed in white plastic bottles, each containing 180 round white tablets.

Anyone out there who uses these types of products or knows someone who does - Beware!

Article about cheese by reporter with appropriate name

HK Magazine presents a rare round-up of places in Hong Kong where you can sample that very un-Chinese gourmet treat, high quality cheese.

And the name of the author? Johannes Pong, of course! :)

Article: HK Magazine

Jackie Chan's awkward position, and the controversy within a controversy

This is the video of Jackie Chan's recent comments about Chinese people needing to be 'controlled' that sparked such an angry response from many Chinese commentators. His comments were made during an interview about mainland media regulation.

In case you hadn't heard, Yahoo News (and others) have reported that:

A group of mainland Chinese academics and media professionals wrote an open letter calling Chan the "spoiled brat" of the Chinese race.

"You are born in Hong Kong, a free Hong Kong which provides you with excellent conditions to become an internationally renowned martial arts star," the letter said.

"You are now the cream of the crop, and yet you don't know the importance of freedom."

There have even been calls for boycotts of Chan's movies and concerts. The main part of what Chan said that caused such anger was:

In these ten years -I grew up in Hong Kong- I slowly felt, I don't know how much freedom we should have. Too much freedom and we'll be like Hong Kong right now, very chaotic. Or become like Taiwan, also very chaotic. I slowly feel like we Chinese needs to controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.

If we don't control things, we'll do things as we wish. Why can't I eat gum in Singapore? You would think that not being allowed to eat gum is correct. If I give you gum, some people might take the gum and stick it on tables, put it on chairs without self-respect."

It is hard to read such comments and not see them as being critical of Hong Kong, so I think the anger of people in the SAR is understandable.

But that initial controversy has spawned its own controversies with Chinese bloggers claiming Chan's words have been misinterpreted, with some even claiming that it is an evil Western conspiracy.

CN Reviews claims the furore is the fault of the evil 'Western media'

"Westerners look like they’re frothing at the bits to use anything they can to paint China in a negative political light: “Oh look, even lovable kung-fu funny-man Jackie Chan has betrayed his own, selling out both himself and his kind to the evil Communist regime!” To which the Western masses reply in unison: “Gasp!”"

That's an extreme reaction, I think. Chan's comments were indeed critical of Hong Kong, or 'his own', the place that made him a star. And I think most people would accept that Chinese entertainment figures are indeed very careful not to upset Chinese authorities in the interests of their career. I don't think that's a crazy invention of the Western media.

EastSouthWestNorth chose to interpret Chan's words differently, coming up with a translation that doesn't use the inflammatory word 'control':

If there is too much freedom, it becomes like Hong Kong today ... very chaotic ... furthermore, it becomes like Taiwan ... it is also very chaotic ... eh ... I have slowly come to realize that we the Chinese people need regulation ... If there is no regulation and we suddenly opened up, we can do whatever we want.

Even if that is a grammatically correct translation (and I'm not the one to judge that), I'm not sure if the meaning is exactly right as Chan actually talks about personal freedoms and behaviour before and after the quote in question - not the sort of things usually referred to in English as 'regulation'.

cfensi blog also chose to translate the line differently as:

"I slowly feel like we Chinese needs to control. If we don't control things, we'll do things as we wish."

i.e. not 'be controlled', but to do the controlling.

What seems to have been missed in all the analysis is that however you translate the comments, the point he is making is basically the same when you look at the entire speech.

I would suggest that what Chan actually meant in his off-the-cuff remark was that Chinese people need rule of law. If we don't have rule of law, we'll do things as we wish. I base that on the fact that he talks about freedoms in Hong Kong immediately before, and laws in Singapore immediately after the comment in question. Is that simple statement something many of us would dispute?

My take on this whole thing is that for Chan, being asked about Chinese media regulation put him in an uncomfortable spot because he recently had a movie banned in China for being too violent. The journalist may have been hoping the actor would make a comment about his own movie being denied a release but Chan chose (perhaps diplomatically) not to do that and instead broadened his answer to make a generalised statement that ended up being in favour of control (or regulation).

To me, it seems he was just performing a difficult balancing act whilst in an awkward position - something Jackie Chan is very used to doing!

Related: The journalist who asked the original question responds

Red face syndrome more serious than first thought?

Photos: Various via Flickr

You know how it is: You're out with a bunch of friends (of varying ethnicity). You down a couple of drinks and someone looks at you asks "Have you been out in the sun?"

Yes, the dreaded Asian Red Face strikes again. But on a more serious note, the New York Times reports that Red Face Syndrome isn't just a cause of embarrassing photos, in some cases it might be related to an increase risk of oesophageal cancer:

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry — Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde.

People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer.

But those with only one copy can develop a tolerance to acetaldehyde and become heavy drinkers.

It seems that the most at risk group are those who used to go red very easily early in their lives but who now don't - as this suggests they have lost the 'early warning system' of going red.

As ever, the safest response for Asian drinkers would seem to be 'everything in moderation'. Keep your alcohol consumption down overall (less than 16 drinks a week) and you'll reduce the risk of cancer significantly.

Campaign against bad behaviour seems to be aimed mainly at Chinese people!

Photo: Blogtrippers

Together for London is a so-called 'passenger engagement campaign' that aims to stamp out annoying, anti-social behaviour on public transport such as playing loud music, talking loudly on mobile phones, being inconsiderate other passengers and so on.

It's hard to avoid the cutesy, Sanrio-inspired posters that are plastered all over London. Whether the campaign is effective or a waste of money is debatable but every time I see one I can't help thinking - Is that character meant to be Chinese? Check out the campaign website to see more:

Together for London

Trying to tell us something, Transport for London?

The bbc blog diet: Cha Cha Moon

Don't believe the (bad) hype. Cha Cha Moon is actually quite good.

When this Alan Yau 'casual dining' restaurant opened, there was a special offer of any dish for £3.50 which is no longer available but it's still worth paying a visit. My duck noodle soup with plump goji beans was very nice and the Hong Kong style milk tea was fine although it didn't seem as strong as the real thing. They even do warm Vitasoy in bottles just like in HK.

Could this be further evidence that Western food critics don't really know how to assess Chinese or Asian restaurants?

Related: Cha Cha Moon, Alan Yau's new restaurant getting mixed reviews
Link: ThisisLondon review
Link: London Eating reviews

What the year of the Ox holds in store for you (if you believe in that sort of thing)

There's not long to go until Chinese New Year and for those of us who believe in such things, Hong Kong's BC magazine has commissioned an expert astrologer to predict what the coming Year of the Ox has in store, based on your Chinese zodiac sign.

One interesting thing about the article is that it talks about being born either the hot or cold parts of the year as a factor in your horoscope which I hadn't heard of before.

I remain a skeptic but I guess people will always find horoscopes entertaining - whether they are of the Eastern or Western variety. Over to you, Russell:



Related: Did 2008 disprove the luckiness of the number 8?
Related: Feng Shui Foolishness

Hong Kong Halloween

Ghosts, ghoulies and other assorted characters come out to play in Lan Kwai Fong.



Related: Halloween Special: Top 5 Scary Chinese People!

China's approach to car design

We've all seen made-in-China, imitation brand cameras and gadgets... but cars?

It seems that China's car industry also goes to extraordinary lengths to make products that look like those of Western manufacturers.

Visually, they vary from being passable lookalikes to way-off-the-mark imitations. But as for performance and safety.. well, I shudder to think!

via Blame it on the Voices

Cha Cha Moon, Alan Yau's new restaurant getting mixed reviews

Photo: The Times

Cha Cha Moon is the new dining concept from Alan Yau, arguably the leading Chinese restauranteur in the UK. Specializing in noodles, it is supposedly an attempt to create a Hong Kong style 'mein dong' experience in London.

My first impression is, if you want to recreate that 'mein dong' experience, you need to have those small, glass-topped tables with menus slipped underneath not long, trendy wooden benches. But anyway...

Press reviews have ranged from okay - to bad - to very bad whilst the feedback from ordinary punters is decidedly mixed. Check out what people have been saying on london-eating.co.uk

Best comment of all must go to 'Ms. Wing Wong', who points out that:

I am Chinese, and I can really translate the name of the restaurant to you all in Chinese! Read the name backwards, i.e. Moon Cha Cha which means someone who doesn't know whether 'they are coming or going', and that's exactly how the staff of this restaurant are!

After reading that, it's going to be hard not to refer to the restaurant as 'Moon Cha Cha' :) I'm hoping to try it out for myself soon and will post a review when I do.

Related: Hakkasan decides shark's fin is too much to stomach

How things change...

Check out this vintage HK TV commercial from youtuber 'vcrbase'. Even by TV commercial standards, the cheer cleanliness, perfection and innocence of the characters seems quite funny now.

Those were the days :)

Hakkasan decides shark's fin is too much to stomach

Photo: Singapura Daily

Hakkasan, Alan Yau's Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, has decided to remove shark's fin soup from its menu.

The restaurant has been serving its version of the Chinese delicacy since 2001 but decided it was time to stop after lobbying from animal rights groups. There is also a suggestion that the same groups may take their protests to Chinatown in general:

Story: Indymedia
Related: Mad Mermaids anti-shark's fin campaign

Reading some of the material on the campaign website, it's certainly hard to justify the killing of sharks purely for their fins to make soup. It does seem cruel and unnecessary, especially when you consider that the fin itself is tasteless.

However, I have to admit that I've eaten shark's fin soup and would probably still eat it if offered. For me, it's a clear case of Western sensibilities conflicting with Chinese traditions (and Chinese tradition winning).

Shark's fin soup is a dish that is almost expected at Chinese banquets (such as at weddings, for example) and whilst it looks like it will become increasingly rare in the UK and Europe, it will be hard for diners in Asia to break with this long standing tradition. Is some form of sustainable fish farming the answer?

Rice - To wash or not to wash.

Photo: axiemeluv

Washing rice is one of my least favourite chores, and the other night I thought I would actually do some research to try and find out if I really need to do it.

For years now I've been rinsing rice before cooking. I generally just give it one, long rinse, pour away the cloudy water and then add clean water to cook the rice in.

I've read that in Japan, washing rice is a must and it is done until the water runs clear. I've also heard it said that washing rice "removes the goodness" so you shouldn't do it. So what's the truth?

After just a little searching, I found that there are diverging opinions out there, with as many people saying you should wash rice as there are saying you shouldn't.

With regards to the idea that washing rice gets rid of nutrients on the outer coating: This seems to only apply to enriched, American rice.

Rice grains are normally milled to remove the outer husk and bran layers, leaving the translucent white grain that we are all familiar with. Brown rice has had the husk removed, but still has the nutritious bran layer attached.

In the US, there is a law that obliges producers of milled, white rice to add nutrients back to the grains to make it as nutritious as brown rice (with its bran layer). This means a dusty coating of vitamins and minerals is added to the rice before it is packaged and sold.

This kind of rice should not be washed if you want to preserve those added nutrients. However, if you do wash it, you would just end up with normal, natural, white rice since those nutrients were artificially added in the first place.

Enriched rice is mainly an American product and should be labelled as such, with instructions not to wash it before cooking.

Rice from Asia, such as jasmine rice from Thailand tends not to be artificially enriched and is simply sold as milled, white grains. With non-enriched types of rice, washing should make no difference to the nutritional content.

I've read some comments that rather than containing 'goodness' the dust coating on rice can actually contain unhealthy stuff such as talcum powder or chemicals. It sounds unbelievable but apparently talc really is used in some countries to give raw rice a cleaner, whiter appearance but this is gradually being phased out in favour of glucose powder. In both cases, the powders are added on the assumption that the end user will wash the rice.

It's also true that fungicides are used a lot in rice growing, as rice is vulnerable to certain fungal diseases. Some of these fungicides are actually designed to 'stick' to the rice plants to maximise their effectiveness. I haven't found any information on whether these substances can get into the actual grain of rice that you eat but it seems plausible that some traces of them might be left on the rice. I would guess that these fungicides are harmless otherwise they would be banned but if you're like me, you won't want to take the chance!

There is also the issue of stickiness. Rice grains will naturally be coated in starch dust and washing the rice will help to get rid of it, otherwise that starchy dust will mix in with the cooking water to produce sticky cooked rice. We can be fairly sure of this as risotto rice is deliberately used unwashed in order to create that gloopy, thick texture. Therefore, washing rice thoroughly is a good way of keeping the grains separated after cooking.

Taking everything into account, my conclusion is this: If you buy enriched American rice don't wash it if you want to keep the vitamins and minerals that have been added.

But if you buy non-enriched rice, you should wash it as it will help prevent stickiness and will remove any stuff like talcum powder, glucose or traces or fungicide that may be on the grains.


I think I'll give the last word to Korean website Kimchi Mamas. The author says she thought washing rice was pointless until her own child started helping out in the kitchen:

"Then it suddenly dawned on me, the real reason why Korean mothers have been telling their children to wash and wash and wash that rice.

For ten minutes I heard nothing but the sound of swishing water and softly crunching rice. But more than the fact that I did appreciate the few moments of quiet during a normally frenzied time, I loved seeing Bunny so focused on doing her best to complete her task.

Smart mamas."

Related: The Food Network: Washing rice


Related: Cook's Thesaurus: Rice

Wanted: Chinese Women Pt. 2

Here's a slightly funny, and slightly sad, footnote to my earlier post 'Goodbye, Oriental City'.

As I was walking around taking pictures on my last visit to Colindale, I spotted this strange advertisement stuck on the glass door leading to the car park (if you're familiar with OC, it was right near the durian shop).

I had to double-take to make sure it was real. This is a personal ad from white male seeking a Chinese female.


Cheaply printed and crudely stuck onto a window, it is a desperate and yet, in a way, quite disrespectful lonelyhearts ad. The man who did this is employing methods more commonly used to locate lost cats or sell used cars to find what is meant to be the love of his life - a Chinese woman.

The full text of the 'ad' reads:

CAUCASIAN MAN SEEKS ORIENTAL LADY
For serious long term relationship

Him:

• Age 59, considered handsome & looks 10 years younger.
• Blond hair, blue eyes, medium build, 1.75m tall.
• Reasonably fit & in good health, a non-smoker & occasional drinker
• Star sign Taurus DOB 1948
• Professional and resides in Hendon Central, with own house and car.
• Divorced after 27 years, has 2 adult daughters who have their own homes.
• Not looking to father a new baby.
• Seeking sole mate (sic), friend, lover & equal partner.
• Share fun and laughter plus life's ups and downs.

Her:

• Age 35-45, long hair would be nice, non-smoker, speaks English.
• Good home-maker, honest, attractive, sensual and likes to dress well.
• She may have children, no problem, depends on circumstances.
• Gold-diggers definitely not welcomed so no time-wasters.

If interested, please call 0779....

So many questions...

What kind of personal skills does a person have, who thinks that this is an appropriate way to find a wife? A 'sensual' one, at that!

Are the standards of Chinese women so low that someone would seriously consider such a request for marriage? Imagine if he actually got together with someone; Imagine telling the 'how we met' story to friends and family!

What do you think?

Related: Wanted: Chinese Women

Street food, Shanghai-style

I love these photos of Shanghai street food stalls from nwoT eikgnoH Hongkie Town. You can almost smell the barbecue smoke...

Goodbye, Oriental City (my last visit)

It's not closing until June 1st, but this was probably the last time I would ever see Oriental City.

Even though there are still a few weeks of trading left, there was an unmistakable air of 'the end is nigh' about the place. The mall seemed grubby and in need of renovation. There was more graffiti than usual and generally the place was in a bit of a state. However, I can confirm that standard of the food in China City and in the food court was as good as ever.

Discount signs were all over the place but how true they were I'm not sure. I wouldn't recommend going there to bargain hunt (not until the very last days of trading anyway).

One shop had a sign saying that it was going to move to the new Wing Yip 'superstore' opening further south on Edgware Road. I wonder if a lot of the OC businesses will be relocating there?

Sorry for the low quality of the photographs, they were taken on a camera phone.

Goodbye, Oriental City.
























Related: The bbc blog's coverage of Oriental City