Smuggling Mooncakes to China
“Parallel traders” ferry goods across the border from Hong Kong into Mainland China for a small profit. They’re taking advantage of differences in price, availability, and (perceived and real) safety...
View ArticleExpat Bar to Grassland Yurt: One Stolen Phone’s Journey
After jesting that my lost phone ended up in Nairobi, this morning’s South China Morning Post reveals the swift international journey of a similarly lost phone: “Theft reveals how far mobiles can roam:...
View ArticleHong Kong as “the great Chinese experiment in freedom”
“No one knows how long Hong Kong will exist, or how long it will prosper.” This quote is from the 1950s, but it could have been said at many different points in Hong Kong’s history: Upon its...
View ArticleHong Kong Baby Milk Powder Wars: The Only Winners are the Infant Formula...
Hong Kong and Mainland parents have been pitted against one another in an advertising-fueled fight over infant and toddler processed milk formula. Hongkongers are dismayed because they can’t always...
View ArticleUgly Americans, Ugly Chinese: the tourist trap
The original bad tourist: “The Ugly American” in 1950s Cuba. Bashing Mainland Chinese tourists is rather fashionable in Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post is always eager to print something...
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