We speak Tagalog in Hong Kong.

As all Hong Kong natives know, a significant part of Central is transformed into not-so-Little Philippines every Sunday.

The first picture showing a covered walkway is finely speckled by the ad-hoc gatherings of Filipino maids - they sleep, play cards, chat, eat and also pray for each other throughout the course of the day. While walking around, I come by several groups of maids practicing their coordinated pop-dancing - with one group having a very stern cantonese instructor.

Central is home to all the top international fashion brands found in Hong Kong - it is utterly incongruous to block out the public roads, so that the maids would have space to congregate. While it is no doubt to the frustration of the fashion boutique managers, there is a wonderful serendipity and respect for the rights of maids in this gesture.

Hong Kong has a certain sense of harmless chaos that does not inconvenience but adds to the cacophony of the city. This is most oft-found in the random aggregation of building and shop types amidst residences, small pockets of building projects in unpredictable spaces, and having an incredible density of people. Sure, non-cantonese speaking people still get ripped off on purchases, but encountering such an imageable manifestation of a sizable foreign population made me think about integrating foreign workers into Singapore.

Bad Lift Buttons

Another shot from China and I'll fast forward to transit in Hong Kong then to India, where I currently am.

This is the lift to the apartment where I stayed. Notice how the close-door button has been pressed, or punched, to the extent that the enamel coating has fallen off. People living in the area generally can get very peeved at small things - I've witnessed a very lithe lady abusing and slamming the door because she couldn't get it to open right the first time. There's definately a role for better and responsive design to sensitize people to the environment and to facilitate a healthy respect of the people around them.

Colour Me Bold.

The Chinese believe in the power of imagery repetition - the supermarket stores' offerings often have single brands occupying the entire shelf. For some consumer goods, such as shampoo, there are multiple brands to choose from. However, some other goods such as toothpaste have a very limited selection. If you can squint and see the first picture (taken on a bad camera phone), there are three brands of toothpaste to choose from - Red, Green or Blue. Go figure.

Things aren't the same so don't expect them to be.

Had my first experience of ShenZhen's supermarket. With the density of shopping centres around, and 24-hour outlets, it's clearly expat land. At some of the local supermarkets, the store is swarming with sales staff asking if they can help you. Averaging one sales staff per aisle is definately swarming.

Here's a shot of how Herbal Essence is displayed on the shelves - the bottles for the shampoo and conditioner were designed to have curves that fit together, but it's obvious in this case that something has been lost in translation. Perhaps it's the Chinese preference for order that all the shampoos have been placed together. It's a good thing in this case, because I spent some 30 seconds trying to figure out what 'conditioner' was in Mandarin. Yes - the bottle only carried Chinese words.

The great kick-off!

I've quit my job in Singapore and just moved into ShenZhen, China, for a 3-month corporate design and communications project for d.light design. The company has a great vision to replace every kerosene lamp used in rural households with solar-powered LED lights that are safe to use and affordable. It will help to increase educational opportunities and income for these rural families, many of whom earn only about US$1 per day.

On this blog, I will be sharing some of my thoughts on consuming household goods and food in Asia, as well as living in Asia. I move to India for a month next week.