User Comments - cinnamonfern
cinnamonfern
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 4, 2011 at 9:18 AMWell, there's good reason for that. Hong Kong Island was ceded to the British and became a colony in the 1840s after the Opium War with China. (I think China got rather a bum deal - opium addiction and loss of their territory in perpetuity). Great Britain also got Kowloon on the mainland in the 1860s and in 1898 Britain obtained a lease of another portion to the north - the New Territories, but they only had those for 99 years, to be returned in 1997. So Hong Kong was a territory of Great Britain until 1997 when Great Britain decided to turn the whole thing back over to the P.R.C., instead of just the New Territories so as not to split Hong Kong into pieces.
So technically, Hong Kong has only been a part of the P.R.C. since 1997. And they are also a Special Administrative Region which means that it is part of the P.R.C., but a great deal is quite separate. Separate Olympic Teams. Separate visas for Hong Kong and Mainland China. Flying from the Mainland to Hong Kong or vice-versa is considered an international flight (this messed me up quite badly in Shijiazhuang and Tianjin airports when I couldn't find my flight listed in the domestic area). And there's just a different feeling here. And it's just mentally easier to say China rather than Mainland - I don't know why. I forget all the time. But I've only been here for 7 months, so that is probably part of it too. Well, that was long. Hope you enjoyed the little history lesson. :)
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 4, 2011 at 7:41 AMYep - technically it is - though it's still separate in a lot of ways. I should have said Mainland instead of China. Thanks for the correction! :)
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 4, 2011 at 4:36 AMWelcome back Jenny!
Ah, the 保姆. 香港有很多保姆和阿姨啊！ On Sunday it is their day off, so if you go out, you will see all of them sitting in the parks and on the stairs near the overpasses, and under the overpasses. Most of the Hong Kong nannies and housekeepers are from the Philippines, Indonesia or Malaysia. I imagine this is different in China - most are Chinese?
My soon-to-be sister-in-law is Asian-Canadian and visited me here in Hong Kong with her young son who is half French-Canadian. So when we were wandering around, I think a lot of people thought I was his mom and she was the nanny. It was kind of funny.
Posted on: What's in a name?
April 3, 2011 at 11:59 AMI get to say 雪碧的碧 which always makes me smile on the inside.
Posted on: Awkward Silence
April 3, 2011 at 8:48 AMAh - I'm onto you now! Your awkward silence in response to my comment was because I had caught onto your scheme! Mwa ha ha. :D So now I have decided I am not, in fact, gullible but rather extraordinarily perceptive.
Posted on: Newbie News and Tomb-Sweeping Day
April 3, 2011 at 8:41 AMThanks for the explanation of Tomb-Sweeping Day! They're closing the library on me for Ching Ming, but I didn't know why or what the festival was. Now I do. And I get to figure out somewhere else to work. :)
Posted on: Newbie News and Tomb-Sweeping Day
April 3, 2011 at 8:35 AMI find it a bit 奇怪 that I upload new words to my vocab list and then they appear as lessons. I think this makes three in the past couple of weeks. Coincidence? Conspiracy? Hmm....
Posted on: Awkward Silence
April 1, 2011 at 4:04 AM我很笨蛋！我忘了今天是什么日子。哈哈。Well, you got me at least. :D
Posted on: Awkward Silence
April 1, 2011 at 1:39 AMWow! Starting up the newbies again? Must have missed the announcement somewhere. :)
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 4, 2011 at 12:07 PMI think psychoanalyzing yourself is generally a bad idea. I'd probably end up diagnosing myself with all sorts of bizarre complexes. :)