woke up in hong kong ✿

part 1 of china diaries!

Aug 26, 2024

China diaries have arrived~~~ (◕‿◕✿)v

Read the prelude here if you haven't. Excited to share (finally! just nine months late) my field notes from Hong Kong last November, with a photo log of Lamma Island at the end.

I think back to Chinese writer Fang Fang's Wuhan diaries during lockdown in 2020. But here there's no public emergency or service, just me, writing as a person encountering loss.

11.11.23 — The fracturing begins

The elderlyish woman next to me on my Cathay Pacific flight shares she's going home to Fujian. Her elbow is in my space 67% of the time and she keeps trying to talk to me for 14 hours, long after I stop responding. I cannot resent her.

I choose ginger scallion cod congee and HK milk tea at breakfast service. I eat and finally sleep in the final hour. (´ω｀)

11.12.23 — Primal needs

Skip dinner to sleeeeeeep. At 9:15pm I walk into the hotel gym locker room to an elderlyish woman walking out. She clocks my athleisure and starts talking, switching to Mandarin when it's clear I don't speak Canto. Go ask for a key to a locker and two you’ll need two towels, go back and strip and rinse and then towel up; that’s how you do the sauna right. I obey and lay down to bear the heat.

At 10pm, a hotel room dinner of leftovers my parents bring back for me: abalone, arctic surf clam, crab, fried noodles, unidentified seafood object, and lobster congee. Dessert: XXL green grapes. They're the biggest grapes of my life; just two are enough. (˘︶˘ )

11.13.23 — why is daughter like this?

We make our way to a cha chaan teng for breakfast. It's not the cool looking one I was looking for but we’re hungry. Here there are no tourists, only solo men on their way to work, scarfing bowls of noodles and scrolling on their phones.

My parents are confused at the menu, why is there macaroni? why is daughter so particular about average things? I get my HK milk tea in the iconic cup with the illustrated cow and Dutch looking windmills. The food is okay, not great, which is great!

On the walk to E.'s office, I find the perfect metallic marker pens at a stationery store. The interior glows utilitarian, crammed walls with endless rows of product. Like a record store without the charm. It's not one of the pink Sanrio or Morning Glory-esque ones I beelined for when I was younger. I'm older now.

Except we only have Chinese yuan, no Hong Kong dollars yet. The gruff Cantonese man behind the counter shrugs. maybe I lead with English from now on? A Chinese Canadian man witnesses our encounter and pulls out his wallet, offers to exchange us the money we need.

Mom spots a tea shop across from E.'s office. The Cantonese man switches to Mandarin for us, losing no enthusiasm in the process. We leave with a lovely milk oolong that I will steep for many more months.

Mom and dad are off to a pharmacy while I visit E. at his office. He points to a spare pair of XL inside sandals for me to slip on. 50 minutes is not enough for 8,000 miles of chat backlog but we make do; our conversations have always began in media res. I leave and acknowledge the growing puddle of shoes outside the door as his team arrives. when was the last time you saw boss in their socks?

E. goes into unplanned surgery so C. and I have dinner to ourselves. We share assorted izakaya snacks and copious amounts of hot water. We joke we've already sublimated into Asian grandmas dimsumming together. I unload things only she would understand without explanation, as a rare hybrid of 姐 and art friend. Mostly full, we get XS orders of kakigori for dessert. E. sees the picture and wonders aloud is that kakigori for ants??? when was the last time you were an Asian girl with another Asian girl inside Asia???

Only after will I realize how easy today was. (๑ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑)

11.14.23 — 可爱 / kawaii but road rage

On the highway I see a car with a Hello Kitty bumper sticker. She has her angry face on with her middle finger up. I love her.

I don’t speak much on the road but I like hearing our driver answer mom and dad’s questions. He’s emphatic yet unemotional, carries a Chinese professionalism. I feel nostalgic already.

When crossing the border from Macau into China’s Zhuhai, I ask our driver why are there tiny jet streams of water spraying the bottom of the car wheels? like a car wash for ant cars?

He explains it’s 消毒水, water to remove poison.

is it a covid thing? He smiles. No, it’s just a thing.

(≖⌣≖)