May 5, Day 4 in HK

This morning Tracey and Marie met me at the hotel to work together on the global ed research. I am realizing how enjoyable it is to work in a team. It adds to brain-storming ideas and to our motivation and enthusiasm for the work. I am finding the interview transcripts so interesting. I am working on the research done at an international school in Hong Kong, primarily made up of students (nearly half from the US) whose parents are truly part of the financial elite - world bankers, heads of multinational corporations, etc. As one teacher said (paraphrase here), "They may look different, but they're not very diverse. They are all children of the global elite." I have been wondering how/why the rich parents would reconcile sending their kids to a school where they could learn subversive education; that is, where they could question the ethics of extreme wealth, among other things. Turns out, the teachers ask themselves the same questions. One teacher reflects my cynicism as he talks about their social service projects and social consciousness raising as bandaids to make them feel better about jobs that perpetuate the income gap. I am so wishing I could pay a consultant to brainstorm my research with me!

After several hours, we made plans for going forward with the work, get Dick, and head off for lunch. Because we are with Marie, a native who is, of course, fluent in Cantonese, we go into a small  local place for lunch. With my wary pickiness, I choose a "chicken steak" in noodles. It is a chicken breast in a bowl of noodles and hot water. The others are more daring and choose "Four famous noodles," or something like that. It was noodles and dumplings filled with various meats - fish, pork, beef, and chicken. One piece of something looked like some kind of an organ. Glad I passed...

Then we walked through the subway station, up an elevator and to the University of Hong Kong in search of a blank DVD so Dick could copy a documentary for Greg and Sean. We ended up at the UHK bookstore. There were many books in English, so Dick and I spent time there after Tracey and Marie left (Marie insisted on buying the DVDs for Dick and a book of Chinese children's tales for me). I found two more books - one, a woman's autobiography about escaping from North Korea, and another about the huge gap between the ultra-wealthy and the poor in Hong Kong. I am sensing that HK is a small microcosm of the US and a diminishing middle class, with increasing super wealthy and very poor people, so I want to read more about it.

HKU is built on the side of a mountain, so it is a terraced campus

A sculpture that reminded me of Dante's Inferno

It turns out that it is a memorial to Tiananmen Square

A water element in the student union building

After a couple hours' rest, we met back up with Tracey to go to Empire City Roasted Duck Restaurant in the K11 Mall in Tsim Sha Tsui (in Kowloon, across the harbor from where we are staying). We also met up with Tracey's friends Benji and Jenni. The Peking duck was delicious - crispy skin and tender meat.

Dick, me, Tracey, Benji, and Jenni at Empire City Roast Duck Restaurant

K11 Building

We took a walk after, and Tracey said she wished that the city would complete its renovations because the mess was blocking the view. "What's behind all this?" Dick asked.

"I'm not going to tell you," Tracey said and smiled.

The same Q & A repeated. Dick then said, "Oh, come on! Why won't you tell me?" as we kept walking. Then Tracey said, "This."

The waterfront at Kowloon at night is beautiful! We walked along it and took more photos:

Then we took the Star Ferry back to our side of the harbor where we headed back to our hotel, and Tracey to her apartment. A great day, overall!

NOTE: June 2018 date on post is republish date, not date of the event.