Hong Kong Braces for Super Typhoon Ragasa

Masking tape and vegetables at the wet market

Super Typhoon Ragasa is approaching Hong Kong, and the Observatory has just raised the No. 8 storm signal almost 30 minutes ago.

Ragasa, a Filipino word that means "rapid" or "fast motion" already crossed the Luzon Strait 

with winds clocking at 230km/h, making it the most powerful storm in the world so far this year.

Two shopping carts filled with instant noodles

People in Hong Kong are now rushing home, and bringing back whatever supplies they can find to survive at least two days.

Supermarkets and wet markets were swarmed by customers, with fresh vegetables and fruit to quickly disappear, along with eggs, meat and bread.

On social media there's a video of a man who filled two supermarket trolleys with around 70 instant noodle cups and several bags of frozen dim sum. Was he planning to eat that all himself?

One shopper described the mad rush as busy as before Lunar New Year. The 67-year-old woman bought more than 1kg of vegetables, including two cabbages, five dragon fruit and four oranges, that she believed would last till the weekend.

However, one couple that wasn't as quick to buy essential food items could only find snacks, though they did still have some food at home. 

Some people prioritised buying up toilet paper to ride out the storm...

Slim pickings for those not organised

And yet there were those who believe in using masking tape to tape up their windows. Lo Kok-keung, a former Hong Kong Polytechnic University engineer, says there are three major causes of window breakage during typhoons: strong winds that generate vibrations that cause cracks, high wind speeds that blow up debris that breaks glass, and strong winds that deform glass.

In a bid to minimise the risk of glass shattering, Lo suggests taping the Chinese character for rice (米) on windows, which he says provides more support points and reduces the likelihood of glass fragments shattering.

Shops were selling masking tape like hot cakes, with one renovation store in Hoi Wan selling 200 rolls in the past few days. 

"People have heard that this coming typhoon is bigger than usual, so they're stocking up just in case," the manager said, adding that most customers were buying more than two rolls and many were new faces.

"Some were buying as many as 10 at a time, especially those who live in places with many windows or are purchasing for high-rise offices."

Handmade Hong Kong Souvenir

My embroidered souvenir from Hong Kong 

Miru Wong gets her entrepreneurial genes from her grandparents. Now in her early 30s, she is the third generation to run a small business making embroidered slippers and shoes in a shoebox store in a rundown arcade in Jordan.

It was started in 1958 by her paternal grandfather, who learned how to make shoes and slippers in a factory and his wife embroidered them with traditional Chinese designs.

This tiny shop is located in Jordan, Kowloon

When she was in primary school, Wong began learning how to embroider from her grandmother and liked learning the craft. After graduating from Polytechnic University in visual communications in 2012, Wong took over Sindart from her parents.

One of her most famous customers was Iris Apfel, the fashion plate New Yorker who was known for mixing and matching accessories, and died in March this year at the age of 102. In 2017 Apfel visited Hong Kong and one of her shopping stops was to Wong's tiny shop where she bought several pairs of footwear.

On my recent trip to Hong Kong I made a quick visit to Sindart. Wong wasn't there, but the shop was busy with a mainland Chinese customer, who called her friend to come too. 

Fashion icon Apfel visited Hong Kong in 2017

Unfortunately there weren't many slippers in designs that I liked in my size, but came away with this pair of pandas. 

Glad the store is still around and happy to support it!

New Street Signs Stir Controversy

The calligraphic style of Wen Yue Type in Central

Some Hong Kong residents have taken pictures of recently installed street signs in a new font that has them riled up, and understandably so.

There are around 60 new street signs in three select locations that are, according to the Highways Department, a bid to beautify the city's streetscape.

The three districts are: the Outlying Islands Ferry Pier in Central, Tai Wai MTR station, and Lo Tak Court in Tsuen Wan.

Experts say the font hard to read for long periods

Called Wen Yue Type, the font inspired by the Ming dynasty, was designed by a mainland Chinese company that is meant to convey a sense of rhythm with its calligraphic features as it has thick and thin lines.

"The font aims to infuse a rich cultural ambience into the landscape and atmosphere of the community. It is well-proportioned, and its overall design is consistent with existing nameplates, effectively providing street information to the public," said a statement from the Highways Department to a media query.

Hong Kong currently uses the Avector Chinese TrueType Font (Hong Kong), which a design academic says may seem boring, but it's clear and straightforward.

Brian Kwok Sze-hang, associate professor at the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University says the new font is more decorative and that it "can be tiring to read for an extended period".

In addition he questioned how the font would infuse cultural ambience.

"When we talk about culture, it should be linked to the history of the city or neighbourhood. Changing the font on a street nameplate does not necessarily instil cultural awareness. While they may have selected a font to represent the culture, they have applied it to the wrong subject," Kwok said.

The current font is straightforward 

Meanwhile Gary Yau, founder of the Road Research Society, wondered if the new font had adequate traditional Chinese characters for some street names with advanced characters.

"I question whether this classic font, mainly applied in simplified Chinese, can truly represent Hong Kong's distinctive features," he said, noting there are fonts designed for Hong Kong that use traditional characters.

The Highways Department added there were no immediately plans to have the new street nameplate designs throughout the entire city. 

Then why do it? And why these three locations?

It's a mystery that has more nays than yeas.

Tragedies Highlight Underprivileged Need More Help

The bodies of two brothers were found at Sau Mau Ping Estate

Underprivileged people in Hong Kong are falling through the cracks, a problem that has persisted for decades, but now has become more acute.

The latest is the death of two middle-aged brothers who apparently starved to death because they depended on their mother's care, but she had gone to hospital.

The siblings, 53 and 55 years old were intellectually challenged and were more dependent on their elderly mother in recent years but she had gone to hospital in May this year.

The brothers apparently died of starvation

The brothers' decomposing bodies were found in the flat at Sau Mau Ping Estate in Kowloon after officers came to investigate a strong odour.

Apparently the younger brother of the pair tried to visit the flat on June 8, but they did not let him in, and he tried to contact them by phone but they did not answer.

What more could have been done? Why didn't the mother say something to someone about her sons needing help? Or the younger son call the Social Welfare Department for help in helping his brothers? 

It is believed that the family did not reach out to any organisations or the government for assistance.

The department has now commissioned a 24-hour hotline to provide help on the phone and direct callers to organisations according to their needs. 

The hotline won't be ready until the end of the year, and professor Hector Tsang Wing-hong of Polytechnic University who suggested this along with other recommendations says these initiatives should be speeded up.

Tsang of Polytechnic University

"The department should learn a lesson... the Social Welfare Department needs to speed up the pace," he said. "It is a very unfortunately event that happened in the transitional period."

Tsang said the tragedy underscored that underprivileged elderly carers had little knowledge about accessing existing social services.

This is one of several tragic incidents that have happened in the last few months:

In June, firefighters found a severely dehydrated and weak 75-year-old woman bedridden with lymphoma in a flat in Happy Valley. That's because her younger brother and carer, who was 71, was found dead in the bathroom.

On May 15, a skeleton of a 69-year-old man was found in a public rental flat in Sha Tin after Housing Authority employees visited. The man apparently lived alone and there was no sign of a break-in.

A day earlier, a 59-year-old woman and her 86-year-old father were found dead in their home at Mei Foo Sun Chuen in Lai Chi Kok after a family member called for help after no one answered the door on a Mother's Day visit.

Civil society is fast disappearing in Hong Kong as many social organisations have been forced to close following the implementation of the national security law; sadly there will be more of these tragic incidents to come.

Patriots Come out to Party

A sea of red flags for National Day are hung around the city

It's October 1, National Day, and all the patriots are out in force to celebrate.

At the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre by Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai, senior government officials all wore maroon-coloured masks for the flag-raising ceremony.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu was there of course, along with familiar faces, such as former chief executives Leung Chun-ying and Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor were there, though Tung Chee-hwa was absent.

Flag-raising ceremony at Bauhinia Square

There was another flag-raising ceremony held at Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- perhaps to show the world that the tertiary institution -- that was the site of a siege by protesters three years ago -- is all cleaned up and under full control of the government.

People on social media have pointed out that all these guests can gather together in public without violating social-distancing measures which has limited people to groups of four...

Meanwhile some local patriots came out to the Tsim Sha Tsui harbour front and donned patriotic masks and some even wore Han dynasty robes complete with headdresses and waving Chinese flags. 

Patriotic maidens wearing Han dynasty robes

Why they did that is strange, considering the Communist Party wanted to get rid of the "Four Olds": old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits.

Perhaps they belong to some pro-establishment group promoting traditional Chinese dress? They sure caught the attention of the media as they seemed to be the only local residents to be genuinely celebrating the day...