Mahjong Culture In Hong Kong by Rainbow Chiu

Undeniable, Mahjong is a very popular game in Hong Kong. In the past, it has been see as gambling and not a good activity. As the times go by, there is a new perspective about Mahjong. Nowadays, it is a common social activity. For example, during a Chinese wedding banquet, guests will play Mahjong before the meal starts. People will play Mahjong when they are gathering such as the count down of New Year or during the Chinese New Year visits.

Most people have a Mahjong set at home, and most Chinese restaurants offer set of Mahjong equipment for their guests. In the 80’s Hong Kong movie, we always can see a group of women are playing Mahjong in the corridor of a public rental housing. However, this sight is hard to see again now. People would not play Mahjong in the corridor, because the living condition has been increased. The flats are bigger than before, so people would like to play at home.

However, home is not a suitable place for playing Mahjong for someone or sometime. So, there are many Mahjong Clubs (麻雀會) were found in these recent years. Mahjong clubs provide the guests a set of Mahjong equipment and a comfortable environment with air conditioning, food, drinks, television and a suite. Because of the excellence environment, young people would like to consume there when they want to play Mahjong.

Mahjong Club is an oncoming business in the Mahjong industry. In the past, there is only one place that people can play Mahjong in public place – Mahjong Guan (麻雀館). Different to Mahjong Club, the target customer of Mahjong Guan is not fun seeker, but gambler.

In 1871, Hong Kong Government interdicted gambling business in Hong Kong. Officially, casinos are illegal in Hong Kong. Since then Mahjong Guan was changed the name to Mahjong school, where the gambler still can play Mahjong.

Mahjong was created in ancient time, so what made it so attractive? Why it is still popular now, but not eliminate by other games?

Mahjong involves skill, strategy and calculation as well as certain degree of luck. It is fun because it requires both intelligence and luck. It is fun and healthy if people play for small/none stakes just for amusement. Base on that reason, elders are encouraged to play Mahjong as brain exercise in order to prevent senile dementia.

As the times go by, Mahjong is still popular. It attracts both elder and new generation. It is predictable that Mahjong will keep popular in the future decant years.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong

http://www.mj-king.com/

http://sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq21.htm

http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BA%BB%E9%9B%80%E5%8F%B2

The ideology of local newsapaper

Newspaper is the main print media in Hong Kong. Although the internet is more and more important in Hong Kong, the newspaper cannot be ignored too. The local newspaper has the different ideology. It is the good point to review the local media industry. In the following, the paragraph will introduce this part briefly.The media is affected by the political party. The media cannot exist independently in the any society. The newspaper has the different hidden ideology. If the audience does not sense it, audience may affected by it more easily.

The local newspaper’s ideology can grouping in a few groups. First, the newspaper is close to the China goverenment. It is the mainstream in the Hong Kong media.The Oriental Daily is the most poplaur newspaper in Hong Kong. The Sun, Tak Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po also are belonging to this party. In the important politicial event, they will support the government’s view.  The  sensitive politicial event will avoid to report, for example the case of 1989 Chinese student movement. Although they close to the government, the Oriental Daily and the Sun always criticize the Hong Kong government when it related to the people daily life. It is the minor different between this group.

The second group is playing the role of watchdog. It includes the Ming Pao and the Apple Daily. Their ideology may be not clear compare with the former newspaper. The most special thing is this two newspaper support the democracy more. When the topic is related to the democracy development, their roles are anti-government. The minor problem related to the daily life, they are as same as the Sun and Oriental Daily, plays the watchdog role. In the most time, this group is stand on the opposite role.

The third group is the capitalism ideology. It is not  easily to define in Hong Kong newspaper. The reason is all newspaper will define their stand point of supporting the capitalism. The newspaper cannot show it in the all time. We only can know that in the special time. The Apple Daily and Hong Kong Economic Journal are standing for this ideology. When the government’s policy is not suit the market rules or the rule of small government, they will stand on the opposite side. For example, the Asia finance risk in 1997, the Hong Kong government want to intervene the market. This two newspapers both anti-governement.

The former view is not strictly. It is because this question cannot present clearly by the short form. It need using a much research to support the view.The relation between the media and the ideology is more complex. Moreover, the newspaper may not have the single ideology. It may includes the hybird ideology. However, the former paragraph can show the idology of local newspaper briefly. The economic event and the important political event are the hints for display the ideology of the newsapaper. It is the good way to review the local media.

what’s going on with nowadays fashion magazines in HK ? (by Felicia.P)

 

When I pass thro’ the bookstand in the convenience store, the most grab my attention is not the sleazy and disgusting tabloid magazine with a gossip-cooking story (usually accompany with obscene images and sensational cover line) of my favorite star but the fashion magazines’ cover with some not-Japanese nor Cantonese cover-line. Actually, I can read those single Chinese words but I just can’t grasp the meaning of them. Because they (the editors of the “fashion magazines”) are using some Japanese Kanji (漢字) combined with Chinese to form a weird expression, like「懷古定番，總力放送」、「大人風之定番著用」、「開催準備中，定番必注目」.

 The Japanese term kanji (漢字) literally means “Han characters”. Actually, they are the words borrowed or created from Chinese. However, while kanji are essentially Chinese hanzi used to write Japanese, there are significant differences between kanji (Japanese) and hanzi (Chinese), including the use of characters created in Japan, characters that have been given different meanings in Japanese. Due to the popularity of many Japanese cultural exports, many Japanese words have become commonplace in English (words such as sushi, karaoke, tsunami) and borrowed as a loanwords used in Hong Kong (卡娃伊 – kawaii【可愛い】 “cute”, 奸爸爹 - ganbatte【頑張って】”“do your best/good luck”, 人氣 – ninki【人気】“popularity”) In Hong Kong, you probably could recognize some of the Japanese words that widely used in different ways, like「優の良品」(one of the largest snack food franchises founded in Hong Kong),「XX放題」- XX houdai 【ほうだい】 Adding the word “houdai” on the end of a verb means to “do as much as you want”.  for instance, tabe-houdai (食べ放題(たべほうだい)) means to eat as much as you want. You usually see “tabe-houdai” signs outside some Japanese restaurant meaning that you pay certain money to eat as much as you want.  I can tolerate all those Japanese kanji which used in our Chinese society (at least I see them as a single loanword – adjective and noun), but this kind of sentence structure (compose a whole paragraph) is really disgusting! (Please refer to the note* below) 

As one of the best selling fashion magazines in Hong Kong, Milk magazine owns a wide range of readership from 18-35 representing the high purchasing power among other segments and also the brand consumption sensitive.  They are affordable to the brand addiction and willing to buy those high-price products.  Most of them are fashionable and trendy, they desire to buy much more fashion products as they can show off to their friends and to assert their personal identity through appearance (the clothes they buy). Milk concentrates on consuming culture that can provide the latest news and information to them. Most of the content of this kind of “fashion magazines” are related to information about entertainment and consumption. 

 

Joanne Finkelstein’s notion that fashion provides a short cut by which we enter another identity and join a subculture that insulates us from contamination by other styles. Hence, Milk is trying to supply for what it perceives to be what young people desire: the updated fashion trend and brand items information.  They particularly aim to the younger generation in the local territory by showing the latest street-fashion news, introducing hi-brand products. Each issue features with zoom up photos of the latest products (usually are the brandname clothing sell for thousands dollars that normal teens cannot afford) that are being portrayed, also with detailing information, product review to motivate the readers’ consumptions (so-called “what R you waiting for” column).  

We all know that magazines cannot survive without advertising revenue, so Milk magazine embraces a plenty of advertisements in different categories where make up two-thirds of their content.  They are different clothing brands, digital products like MP3, notebook, credit card companies, etc.  The local fashion magazines like <Milk>, <Tea> and <East Touch> are pushing this unhealthy practices toward the youngsters. Especially, the editorial team of <Milk> is likely to produce this “new trend” to their reader intentionally by mention a lot of weird phrases inside the content EVERYWEEK. (Please refer to the note* below) Regarding the desultory sentence structure, I would say the written discourse (usage of the Japanese kanji mixed with Chinese weird languages) will compose a harmful trend to the youngsters without using the correct grammar of both languages.

*（節錄自milk#325 hidden buyer TEXT/羅穎聰）
「今個秋冬，因為自分已訂立了 formal/ college 之着用流儀，所以近日已開始四出搜尋心中喜愛之items：其中今週間無印良品到着之全新cardigan服，碳灰色仕樣便帶來好感度之100%! 那些「偽起毛粒」狀態之粗冷製作，實在令自分想到今季度之N.HOOLYWOOD，於是無慮即決，每体定番價$320。」

 

 *（節錄自tea#69 客樣相談室 TEXT/迫爆必 & 聰）
「聰_迫氏對GOODENOUGH之愛慕，遠超僕對UC之情！迫氏穿衣之道——功能至上，態度正確，僕必學習。而迫氏跟《milk》誌之友達占米君之取向，完全天與地之別，占米君無慮浮誇，無悔虛榮，毎次都把僕弄得茫無頭緒，唯有交出「得成女傭」廖氏伉儷之一SHOT——笑住擰頭」

 

*（節錄自Milk# 218 期客樣相談室 TEXT/迫爆必 & 聰）

「 近日MTR之搭乘，直視之不可能。電梯側&車廂之內，連之成熟風造型SESSION之展開大發見！恆例之造型照對比之下，何度之異樣感大變……僕即定番觀察，一時驚愕感之炸裂！“CROCODILE”（ 鱷魚恤 ） FW05 PRINT CM全新之代言人，80’s之超BIG IDOL、“苗僑偉“氏之究竟華麗登場！“CROCODILE”，香港之超有名SHIRT品製作者！50年超之歷史，香港、中國大陸、海外持續之超人氣大熱賣！“香港製SHIRT之王者“之稱號認定。今season、CM人物苗僑偉氏之選用，logo之變更一緒之發布，高尚感之大爆發，brand 之形象&地位之更確認。……其之氣燄，新生代之idol完全無視之感！押忍！！！苗僑偉氏、僕今週“無視之野郎“無慮選定！」

 by Felicia.P 

The ideology produced by Hong Kong grand house advertisements (By Ron Chan)

“Absolute club at sea” – the slogan of Grand Promenade’s TV commercial which selling the European magnate life with excellence sea view around that building. The TV commercial demonstrating such noble lifestyle by having different nationalities actors and actresses telling and acting out what’s means by “absolute boy’s club”, “absolute energy”, “absolute romance” and “absolute beauty”. It is a little bit interesting that only the voice over is speaking in Cantonese in a local TV commercial with selling local building. This phenomenon not only found in Grand Promenade’s advertisements, but other same type of advertisements too.

By looking at these grand house advertisements, most of them present a magnate lifestyle by using some foreign actors and actresses in order to promote a high – class image to the ordinance. People nowadays are aspiring to live oversea, having a bigger space to live, having a better quality of life and the most important – presenting a high – class image towards others. However, when did people established such equation – European = magnate? There aren’t any outliers over there? It is an ideology that most of the local people have. From Grossberg, ideology means “a particular way of thinking and seeing the world that makes the existing organization of social relations appear natural and inevitable.” Those grand house advertisements are best examples that showing the class different between foreign and local culture, the dignity of French, the nobleness of European, and these concepts are all rooted tightly inside local people’s minds. It is a particular way of thinking and seeing of local ordinances towards the western culture that makes the advertisements make sense.

The grand house advertisements created an illusion that Hong Kong has no middle – class flat owners. It is a serious problem that the extinct of such middle – class family, are they disappear or get rich suddenly? It is also the Chelsea Court which placed in an industrial area of Tsuen Wan is now selling of it six stars clubhouse. In Hong Kong, telling others where you are living in is a sign. “Chelsea Court” two words can’t make you to be a magnate, but it can totally erase the image of living in an industrial area.

On the other hand, some grand house advertisements were screen at France or some foreign countries that make sure the “nobleness lifestyle” were being captured. However, it is some kind of misleading that drive the ordinances to have a illusion about that is the house they want, that is th clubhouse they want, that is the swimming pool they consuming, but they finally will notice that everything are not placed in Hong Kong.

In conclude, nowadays people’s thought is partly or even mainly develop under public broadcast. Some ideologies are created simply by publishers and advertisers in order to keep their product or services are in a good selling or establish a significant brand image. However, I think it is more important that publishing with truth information than any other goals.

Reference:

Grossberg, Lawrence. Et al. “Ideology,” Media Making: Mass Media in Popular Culture, 2^nd ed. (London:Sage, 2006). 193-216.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqzEk7DBt7o

http://www.admango.com/hkej/Residence1.htm

‘This is ATV World!’ By Iris N. Y. Yip

Asia Television Limited (ATV) is having a revolution this week. New logos and programmes are published in order to show the audiences a new feeling. The new logo is designed by Sandy MacMillan from an famous UK design company, Red Bee Media. Idea of the logo comes from the letter ‘a’ and the infinity sign ‘∞’. ‘a’ represents Asia and class-A (i.e. the best). ‘∞’ shows the unlimited creativity of the company’s programme producers. The orange colour of the logo is used to make the image of the company younger and more positive. A new and young image is given to the audiences. What is the reason for a television company of making such a big change? TVB is the answer! Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is always the direct competitor of ATV. Since the very beginning, when TVB first appeared, these two companies started their war.  In this competition, ATV is always the loser and it has been lost for forty years. Audiences tend to watch TVB more than ATV. How do we know that? We can know that the number of people who watched a particular programme by ‘audience rating’. (refer to reference 3 and 4 for the explanation of audience rating)

Several reasons are raised in why the audience rating of ATV is always lower than that of TVB.

Some people think that watching ATV is outdated and old-fashioned, and they also think that the programmes of ATV are not as interesting as those of TVB. However, there are quite a number of the programmes from ATV that got many appreciative criticisms and on the other hand, the programmes of TVB often got some bad comments as they were too naïve and monotonous. Also, it is very hard to define which programme has a better quality and a programme that has good quality does not means that its audience rating would be high. (This can be proved by電視節目欣賞指數調查 – Din Si Jit Muk Yan Sheung Chi So Diu Cha, refer to reference 5)

Other then the above reason, there is also one reason that is accepted by a majority of Hong Kong people. That is the ’accustomed audience rating’. From psychological and marketing perspective, there is a mode of accustomed behavour among the consumers. Consumers especially like to purchase something that they got used to. This is where the ’accustomed audience rating’ come from. Though this explanation is adapted by most of the people in Hong Kong, this reason still cannot explain the differences of audience rating between that two television companies.

No matter what the reason is, it is a fact that the number of people who watch TVB is more than the people who watch ATV. The success in market shares of TVB enlarges the size of the company. And this growth increases the profit of TVB (i.e. more people watch, more advertisements; more advertisements, more money/profit). ‘Competition makes improvement’. Competition does not exist anymore if any of the competitors always wins. This phenomenon leads to a decline in quality of programmes and also the limitation of diversities of choices.

This new war between ATV and TVB has just started and the result is not yet known. However, no matter who win, audiences still get the largest benefit. As competition would push the companies go forward and get better.

Iris N. Y. Yip

References:

1. Television Boardcasts Limited (TVB) http://www.tvb.com

2. Asia Television Limited (ATV) http://www.hkatv.com

3. 收视率(Sau Si Lut) – Wikipedia http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%94%B6%E8%A7%86%E7%8E%87

4. Television content rating systems – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_content_rating_systems

5. 電視節目欣賞指數調查 (Heung Gong Jit Muk Yan Sheung Chi So Diu Cha) http://www.rthk.org.hk/special/tvai/2007/

6. 香港的「慣性收視」 (Heung Gong Dik Gwan Sing Sau Si) – Wikipedia http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%85%A3%E6%80%A7%E6%94%B6%E8%A6%96

7. 無線亞視大戰進入白熱化 (Mo Sin Nga Si Dai Jin Jun Yap Bak Yit Fa) http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40740&Itemid=91

8. 特別策劃：香港電視恩怨史 無線亞視大戰40年 (Dak Bit Chak Wak: Heung Gong Din Si Yan Yuen Si Mo Sin Nga Si Dai Jin 40 Nin) http://news.sina.com.tw/ents/sinacn/cn/2007-09-26/103435175162.shtml

9. 亞視台徽比無線年輕 (Nga Si Toi Fai Bei Mo Sin Nin Hing) http://news.sina.com.tw/ents/mingpao/cn/2007-09-24/052112709532.shtml

7-Eleven (Carol Yam)

「There is always a 7-Eleven next to you.」I believe that everyone has heard this advisement slogan before. 7-Eleven is the biggest convenience store in Hong Kong. It was first founded in the United States in 1927 in Dallas, Texas. It is the world’s largest convenience-store-chain operator and franchise owners, and the largest independent retail petrol stations in the United States. 7 – Eleven early produced and retailed ice business, but for the convenience of our customers, gradually provided fresh milk, bread, eggs and other daily commodities, developed a wide range of goods for the convenience store prototype.The name “7-Eleven” comes from the store business from 7 to 23. Today, in order to provide better services, 7-Eleven has been changed to 24 hours business mode, which sets a milestone for the convenience store business. Its unique brand Big Gulp, Big Bite, Slurpee, and hot coffee were well-known all over the world. Over the years, 7-Eleven constantly opened up new fast-food, hot food, fresh bread and other projects, to serve customers for diversified tastes. In addition, 7-Eleven also facilitate a variety of services to meet the individual needs of customers, including automatic remittance service, photocopying and fax services, automatic bank teller machine services and telephone cards.

Globalization refers to the continuous expansion of the global links, in the global scale of human life on the basis of development and the rise of global consciousness. Among countries in the political, economic and trade on the close interdependence. Globalization can also be interpreted as the compression and the world as global as a whole. 

7-Eleven is a good example of globalization. It was originally a foreign enterprise; now it has branches in all corners around the world. Almost everyone knows it. When you pass through it, you will stop for a while, take a look in it, it becomes inseparable in our daily life. People are accustomed to its existence, in life they cannot live without it. They can buy many different types of daily necessities in 7-Eleven, such as food and drinks, newspapers and magazines, sweets etc. The most important thing is its 24 hours business mode; it establishes a strong image of “convenience”. If people find that they are hungry in the mid-night, need not to say, they will go to 7-Eleven. No one can imagine what happen if 7-Eleven closed; it’s meaningful to Hong Kong people. 

To protect our unique culture, we should think globally, act locally. How to explain the concept? In culture, the environment, human rights, consumer boycott of capitalist globalization, and other aspects of the adverse effects. In order to protect the identity and characteristics ourselves, we are better adding more local elements in the shops. In fact, 7-Eleven in Hong Kong is quite different comparing with foreign countries. It put our street food (e.g. curry fish balls) into the shop and sales them with a medium price. So that we can buy fish balls in a clean place, not only in the street. Also, it introduced a limited product exchange policy: when you consumed a certain amount in 7-Eleven, you could get a free product afterward. This policy was first used in Hong Kong 7-Eleven, and it was very popular. 

To sum up, a multi-functional convenience store like 7-Eleven is successful. It brings us an easier lifestyle. “Sparrow may be small but vital.” Not only Hong Kong people love it, people from different counties love it too. Hope 7-Eleven can develop more interesting thing that surprise us.  

http://www.7-eleven.com.hk/b5/shop711/Index.jsp 

 

Whose wrong?

These years, there are a lot of news which are about foundlings, and most of the parents of the foundlings are just teenagers, how can they do like that? Last week, there is a foundlings found in the dump, and it was dead. The parents of the baby is just teenagers. It is their baby, how can they abandon their baby in the dump? Is the teenager’s wrong? Their parent’s wrong? Or the society’s wrong?

 

Nowadays, the society is free and open, teenagers can receive different information easily. But if they use it in a negative way, they will get some wrong knowledge about sex. This is because the mass media has exaggerated the pornography, the family, the school, the social welfare has not send a correct counsel to the teenagers, so they try to have sex with their curiosity. Therefore, there are lots of single girls and women facing crisis pregnancy. At the same time, because of ignorant, dread, the girls are afraid to tell their family she is pregnancy, they don’t know how to face it, and so they choose the way to evade. Besides, most of them will ignore the prenatal checks, the girl doesn’t know what she can eat or not, and it will make the baby cannot get enough nutrition, therefore the baby will too thin, premature delivery, or abort.

 

On the other hand, some of the girls don’t know they are pregnancy, they just think they get fat only. So, when the baby born, the only thing that the girls can do is to abandon their baby, because they are too frightened, they cannot afford the expense of bring up their baby. Besides, in most of the cases, the father of the baby will shirk their responsibility, or they may think that to get marry with the girl can solve the problem, they never think about the further of their baby.

 

So how can we solve this problem? Firstly, school is a very important platform to sent the knowledge of sex, let the teenagers know consequences they will have if they have sex when they are too young, what safe sex is, and how to face the crisis pregnancy. Secondly, the parents need to have more communication with their children, know more about their friends, what kinds of friends they have. But the parents cannon push them too much, because the teenagers will get some bad feelings, and they will not listen to their parents any more. Thirdly, if the girl become pregnant, they have to face it; they have to find some ways to help them, for example, the mother’s choice and the family planning association of Hong Kong, they will provide some workshop and course to the girls, and teach them how to be a mother, and what things they must face after the baby get birth, and they can give the best solution to the girls. But, the most important thing is, the girls have to tell their family, their family will always stand behind them.

Halloween invades HK – by Winnie Lai

In the past years, Halloween was an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most common in Canada、the United States、Puerto Rico、Ireland、the United Kingdom、and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand. Halloween originated among the Celts in Ireland、Britain and France as a pagan Celtic harvest festival. Irish、Scots and other immigrants brought versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

In the recent years, the most popular and the largest carnival to celebrate the Halloween in Hong Kong are the “Ocean Park Halloween Bash” and “The Dark Side of Hong Kong Disneyland”, they were being famous in Hong Kong in these few years. Many people would like to experience the Halloween atmosphere. So they will go to the theme park in Hong Kong – Ocean Park and Disneyland. In October, these theme parks will decorate the park and employ the people to dress up the exotic costume. This is the selling point that attracts more visitors to join and play in their park.

  

In Ocean Park, they have been mixed all kinds of the ghosts together, it did not like the before. For example, “Chung Kwai’s Ghost Gourd” (鍾馗捉鬼), Zhong Kui is a figure of Chinese mythology. Traditionally regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings, his image is often painted on household gates as a guardian spirit. The second one is the “Dementia” (東瀛凶間), “Ring” was a 1998 Japanese horror mystery film, it was very famous since 1998, and the film was the highest grossing horror film in Japan at 15.9 billion yen ($137.7 million) and is also considered the most frightening horror movie in Japan. And the third one is “The Last Stop” (冥通大靈堂), it is about the Chinese mythology that while the people dead where they stayed. Through these three ghosts houses, we can see that the atmosphere to celebrate for the Halloween isn’t similar with the traditional one, because in the past it just occurred in the western countries and as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century. But now, in Hong Kong, it combines with the Asian features inside there, it can help them attract more to come and experience the Halloween atmosphere.  

According to MacDonald, mass culture poses a threat because of its homogeneity, its capacity to level down or debase all culture, and remake it in its own image. It is revolutionary force, breaking down the old barriers of class, tradition, taste, and dissolving all cultural distinctions, it mixes and scrambles everything together, producing what might be called homogenized culture. (MacDonald: 1957; p. 62)

 

Ocean Park is the one of the world’s biggest Halloween Bash. There are over 40 new Halloween attraction throughout every dark corner, and different fighting themes from all around neither world, and this is the 7^TH year to promote the Halloween and they want to increase the profit, they have set up some plans for the visitors, one of the plan have also include the Halloween set dinner for the visitors. Also, to attract much more people, there are also some programs for the children- “Creepy little Party”, “Family Trick-or-treat”, it can attract much more family to come and join. At now, we have been adding much more elements inside, Halloween then being commercialized.

And in October, Ocean Park also tries to use their characters, and mixing with the Halloween features to produce the souvenirs. Mass culture is throught to arise from the mass production and consumption of cultural commodities, iot is relatively easy to identify America as the home of mass culture since it is the capitalist society most closely associated with these processes. (Leavis:1932; p. 190).

  

 When we see the Jack-o’-lanterns, we can very easily to identify it does not mean eat the pumpkin. This is the Halloween symbol, code is a system of meaning – a systematic organization of signs. Meaning is located within the codes of soiety.

Winnie. L

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
http://www.halloweenbash.com.hk/index.asp
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhong_Kui

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_%28film%29

Canton Pop music – Are singer simply a singer?

Do you enjoy Canton pop songs? I think lots of the youngsters in Hong Kong like to consume Canton pop songs. Actually, Canton pop songs are not just related to the music industry in Hong Kong, but also other cultures as well, such as materialism. Canton pop songs are viewed as the mainstream in Hong Kong music industry. But recently, some other forms of music are found, for examples, Hip Hop music and rap. These have been regard as subculture before. However, these become more and more popular. According to Raymond Williams, popular is well liked by many people. And we can see that as more and more people welcome these types of music, these elements are then being added to the Canton pop songs.

 

The content and main theme of Canton pop songs are always about love, especially sad and failure in romance. This is because these theme and content can successfully fit in to what youngsters think. Besides the content, the melodies and lyrics are easy to remember. Sometimes, the melodies and lyrics keep repeating in only few minutes. As the companies need to produce a number of songs per year. These productions help to reduce the production time and cost so as to make sure them to make the greatest profit as they can. It also contributes them in other way. Because of the easily remembered melodies and lyrics, it contributes to the karaoke culture, too. Recently, we can find out that those karaoke centers are actually working closing with those music production companies. This ensures constant flow of customer would spend money in these karaoke centers.

 

On the other hand, we can read from newspaper that local Canton pop music industry is declining. This is because of the frequent download on the internet. People choose to download songs they like instead of buying the whole CD. As a result, these music production companies have to use different tactics to attract people to buy their production. That is why we can see lots of coupon and free gift in the CD. Sometimes, these Canton pop song singers are not singing well. They are being invited to the industry simply because of their appearances. Besides, it seems that the singers in Hong Kong are no longer a singer only. They work in different aspects as they cannot simply rely on music industry. They at the same time are actors/actresses, models, DJs, writers and even engage in the production work. Taking I Love You Boyz as an example, they are DJs, singers, writers. And you can also see him when you are watching a TV program.

 

To conclude, although many people criticize that Canton pop music are low culture, but we cannot deny that it is really popular in Hong Kong. Many people would like to consume it. And, who decide what it high culture and low culture and who have the power to do so? I think this is strongly depended on our own taste and preference. And this is the unique traits of our music culture in Hong Kong that we should respect and treasure.

Crystal Lai

Specific Tours

    

      In the past summer holiday, I went travelling to Vietnam with my family. Before I considered joining which travel agency for my trip, my mother and I had watched many different pamphlets for our references to choose the most suitable trip for us. At first, we chose what kind of trip that wanted to go, e.g. for sightseeing, entertaining or shopping. After we had made the decision, we then searched for the prices of different travel agencies. Although we didn’t think that the price was really important, I noticed that there were some differences e.g. the prices, quality of hotel or extra services of the tours that had similar places to visit.       

      In these few years, there is an upsurge of using the artists as a promotion to sell the tours. The agencies may invite some famous artists to have the trips with their customers for bringing the effects of enjoy wonderful tours. Although the costs of these kinds of trip are more expensive than the normal trips, people are willing to spend money on them. In my opinion, people may think that when they are going with some famous people, they can enjoy higher standard of their journeys and also they won’t forget these memorable trips as it is usually difficult to meet the artists or go travelling with them. The demands of these kinds of trip are always full, but they have limited supply for people to join. Therefore, as the spaces are scares, my family decided not to join these kinds of trip and of course we didn’t consider travelling with the famous people good for us.       

     In addition, when I looked at the pamphlets for getting more information about the trip, I found that there are also many ways to attract the customers for emphasizing some particular trips. For example, there are some colorful sheets that the normal introductions of the trips are only white in colorful and usually no pictures on them. As there are colorful pictures and texts, customers are often attracted by these advertisements. Moreover, these sheets may put the word “Enjoyable”(至嘆) on them, thus the customers will think that when they join this trip, they can enjoy a higher quality of services, e.g. the tourist guides, food quality and hotels, etc., and they think they are more upper-class than the others. These trips may provide them a high standard of spending their nice trips. In Hong Kong, people are willing to spend more money on entertaining as they want to have higher standard of their journeys.       

      I remembered that in few months ago, a super star Mcdonna sang a concert in Tokyo, but she didn’t sing in Hong Kong. It made many Hong Kong fans disappointed since we didn’t have a chance to listen. People tried to buy the tickets through the internet auction, however, the lawless people raised the prices as much as possible and not every person was affordable. At that time, some of the travel agencies thereby used this opportunity to make profits. They designed a specific tour to Tokyo and the super fans not only could see their idol and watch the concert, but they could also have some shopping and sight-seeing. I think it was just the same tour that we have in Japan. Indeed, the fee for each person was much more expensive than the normal tour. However, people were willing to spend it and the tour was very successful too as it attracted many super fans to join. In 2008, there will be a royal international activity in China and it is Olympic Games. As it will be the first time of establishing in China, I think that the travel agencies may use this activity for the selling point to promote their trip to Beijing. This circumstance may be more serious than Mcdonna super fans.        

     In fact, most of the travel agencies have similar or same tour in each country. How can they compete with the others? I think that the easiest way is to reduce the fee and then more customers may come to the lowest cost agency. However, lower price may not provide a better service to people as the company wants to balance their cost, so that the quality of the services may not reach the standard. I had seen from the news that some companies want to attract more customers, they reduce the prices as low as they can. But the services are not good or even cheat them. In the few years, there are lots of complaints about these things. I think before signing up for the tour, we should think careful of it. We can’t not only consider the price or the influences from the artists, etc., but also be the willing of ourselves and make us the happiest since we just want to take a break when we go travelling.

References:

http://www.hongthai.com