Mention ‘Hong Kong’ and people are likely to conjure up images, first of Kowloon, its streets thick with signs stretching out over the roadway fighting for the attention of passersby, like tree branches fighting for sunlight, and then perhaps a bird’s eye view of the north shore of Hong Kong Island,  its mass of skyscrapers rivaled only by that of Manhattan.  Yet Hong Kong is a Territory of 33 kilometers (21 miles) on a side and only half of its nearly 7 million people live

Financial gain and charitable dysfunction are met,
With oscillations of equanimity and turbulence.
Through a film real mirrored in your mind,
Frames of blankness and uncertainty flash for a second,
An effect that is not forgotten as you wait for the bus to work.
But pondered and remembered,
For when all certainty will be blank.
A shadow; a promise; a curiosity; gladly not to be satisfied.
Seismic waves pulse from chambers.
Recurring through propaganda,
And solidified

Some time ago, Giacomo Puccini transformed an American play into one of his many operatic masterpieces.  It was about an American man and his exotic, beautiful, tragic Japanese love.  The richness of its score and, more importantly, the intrigue of its plot made Madame Butterfly an epic success.

Asian men have been angry ever since.

I call it the WeGAG—WhiteGuyAsianGirl—syndrome.  And lest you think this is a recent phenomenon, Puccini composed Madame Butterfly one hundred

Apart from a momentary glimpse of the sun setting against the Hong Kong skyline before heading south, there is nothing particularly special about going home after work on Citybus route 99.  You go straight down King’s Road from Shau Kei Wan, through the Aberdeen Tunnel, then pass Wong Chuk Hang before making the rounds on Ap Lei Chau.  The just-full crowd is made up of disengaged passengers, tuning out the day at the office with their earphones or literally nodding off, their

From every angle, at any time of day, Hong Kong can blow you away.  You can be crossing the street in Causeway Bay with what I think are literally thousands by your side, and the sheer chaos of it all—not to mention the highest pollution ratings in Southeast Asia—suffocates you.  But it’s almost a good suffocation, because when you end up on the other side of the road you’re smitten with the intimacy.  So you take a minute—and a breath—and then you say, damn, where else in the