Susan Blumberg-Kason » My family’s travels

Once upon a time in Hong Kong

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:25:16 +0000

Since booking my trip to Hong Kong, I’ve been thinking about the places I hope to see in those four short days this April. But I’ve also been recalling my first year in Hong Kong when I moved there as a 19 year-old in the summer of 1990.

This photo was taken days after my arrival. Here I am standing at Lok Ma Chau with China looming in the background. I’d visited China in 1988, but it still felt like a world away even in Hong Kong.

Lok Ma Chau, 1990

A month into that first year, I learned about the Mid-Autumn Festival. It quickly became one of my favorite holidays. I kept this lantern on my desk until the cellophane melted from the sunlight that poured in through my dorm room window.

My first Mid-Autumn Festival, 1990

I moved to Hong Kong to study, so here I am in the Office of International Studies Programme. This was well before e-mail, texting, and cell phones, so all my communication with the outside world came through snail mail. I had a mail box in one of those slots to my left. My dad wrote to me weekly.

Hong Kong, 1991

My first residence in Hong Kong was the Adam Schall Hall, named after a 16th-17th century German Jesuit who spent 47 years in China.

In front of dorm at Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991

To earn some spending money, I taught English under the table. Every Saturday I trekked down to Taikoo Shing to teach a Japanese housewife and her two young children. Here I am at their flat playing a pinata-like game, but with a watermelon.

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I also volunteered at a Vietnamese refugee camp in Kowloon, where I taught English to adults. I had to pester International Social Services before they’d let me volunteer, but it was worth every phone call and written letter. The classes were housed in old British barracks that once held POWs during the Japanese occupation. That land is now littered with luxury high-rises.

With Do'an at the Argyle Street Detention Centre, 1991

This is the Hong Kong I knew and loved from back then. Three years later, I moved back for what I thought would be for good. As fate would have it, I only stayed for four more years. And soon I’ll be returning for the first time since I left in 1998.

Postcard from Hong Kong, 1991

I can’t wait to see Hong Kong as it is today.

Looking back at Hong Kong 50 years ago

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:59:44 +0000

If you’ve been following this site much, you’ll notice I love anniversaries: the 100th anniversary of Double Ten, the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China, and the various anniversaries of the Fall of Saigon and the Hong Kong Handover. I suppose I’m into these milestones because they bring together my passion for history and Asia.

So as I think about anniversaries, I realize this year marks 50 years since my mom first stepped foot in Hong Kong. It gives me goosebumps just thinking how different my life would have been if my mom (and her family) had never traveled there. Here’s a little photo montage of Hong Kong back in 1962, the year my 20 year old mother first visited.

Hong Kong, 1962

Kai Tak Airport used to be one of the highlights of Hong Kong. I miss it like a deceased relative. Kai Tak was that special.

Kai Tak Airport, 1962

This photo shows the Central district and one of the world’s most beautiful skylines. This is my favorite view in the whole world, even with all the buildup since 1962.

Hong Kong, 1962

Here’s Central up close and personal. The police pagodas have long been replaced by traffic lights and the traffic has worsened considerably. It’s still just as glamorous.

Central district, 1962

Floating restaurants were a big tourist attraction even back in 1962. Stubborn and determined not to be a tourist in Hong Kong, I never set foot in one. But I wish I had, just for the experience. This Tai Pak was out in the countryside and left Hong Kong long ago.

Tai Pak, 1962

Aberdeen was another tourist spot back then, complete with other floating restaurants. My mom probably took this photo from the Aberdeen Tai Pak.

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By the time I arrived in Hong Kong in 1990, sampans were a thing of the past, besides the occasional tourist jaunt. Back in 1962, they were still commonplace.

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This photo was snapped a year before my mom stayed at the Sun Ya Hotel in Mongkok. From the photos I’ve seen from this area back then, not much changed between 1961 and 1962. Incidentally, I often hung out in this area some 30 years after my mom stayed here. I spent my 24th birthday at the Broadway theater.

Sun Ya Hotel, 1961

Here’s what the hotel looked like during the day.

Sun Ya Hotel circa 1965, posted with permission from www.gwulo.com

To put this trip in perspective, Hong Kong was developing quickly with a growing manufacturing industry while China was just coming out of the Great Leap Forward. The Hong Kong-China mail route was reopened in 1962 and in six short months, Hong Kong folks sent more than 6.2 million packages of food and clothing across the border to China. Refugees poured into Hong Kong from China–and were all settled. (Thirty years later, when I first lived in Hong Kong, tens of thousands of refugees arrived there by boat from Vietnam.)

Across the South China Sea, Chiang Kai-shek was still running the show in Taiwan under martial law.

May Hong Kong enjoy 10,000 years of prosperity. Happy New Year!

Treasures from my family’s old Southeast Asian slides

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:22:25 +0000

Looking back at my 2011 blog posts, I’m drawn to a handful of old scanned photos I came across this year. Scanning my mother’s and her family’s old slides was like opening a jewelry box full of sparkling diamond necklaces. These photos were all taken in Asia in 1965.

Angkor Wat in all its beauty. In this photo, my mother’s friend approaches the old temple. (I’d visit 26 years later.)

Angkor Wat, 1965

I love old flight boards. From the various scheduled flights here, I deduced that my mom was in the Phnom Penh airport when she snapped this photo. Tres magnifique, n’est-ce pas? As shown on the top, this photo was taken on June 25, 1965.

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No photo collection would be complete without one from Hong Kong. My grandparents shot this one in Central, complete with the traffic police pagoda.

Central, 1965

Back in 1965, Taiwan was referred to as “Free China” by people whose country didn’t have relations with the PRC. Here’s my mom and her father.

Taiwan, 1965

I also loved this Macau shot for its architecture.

Macau outdoor cafe, 1965

And finally, here’s one my mom took in Japan on New Year’s Day, 1965. She lived in Nagoya from 1964 to 1965, thus the fabulous travel opportunities around Asia back then.

Miyajima, 1965

Happy New Year!

Book of the week–Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:26:24 +0000

My holiday season has been nice and quiet, allowing me to plow through a few novels and memoirs since my kids went on break 10 days ago. One memoir I recently finished was Ma Thanegi’s Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy (ThingsAsian Press, 2010).

The title refers to the defiles (gorges) on the Ayeyarwaddy (formerly Irrawaddy) River in Myanmar. Ma is a spunky narrator and chronicles her travels from the top of the river all the way south to the ocean.

A painter, diplomat’s wife, divorcee, political prisoner, and now a writer, Ma is unusual in that she travels alone, which isn’t common for women in Myanmar, especially those in their 50s and 60s. She’s careful not to tell her friends she’s going to travel by boat alone until she’s about to leave for the pier.

And it’s not like Ma travels on luxury cruisers. Some of the boats have proper cabins and berths, but often Ma sleeps on the floor of a deck, sandwiched between other passengers like sardines. Her mantra is to never feel sorry for herself because others live under worse conditions. In 2008, she helps with relief work after Cyclone Nargis, which she writes about in one chapter.

This book is a beautiful tribute to Myanmar, its people, arts, and sites. It’s also interspersed with colorful photos Ma snaps on her travels down the river.

My mom and her friends are headed to Myanmar and the Ayeyarwaddy in late 2012, so I’m going to send this book to them pronto.

The Road to Mandalay

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:25:02 +0000

Now that Hillary Clinton will visit Myanmar next month, will we see an increase of US tourism to that country? After all, it’s been 50 years since a US Secretary of State has visited Myanmar (the country formerly known as Burma).

To celebrate this historic event, I received two books today about Myanmar. The first was a travel guide, To Myanmar With Love (ThingsAsian Press, 2009) by Morgan Edwardson and Steve Goodman.

And the second a travelogue, Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy (ThingsAsian Press, 2010) by Ma Thanegi.

I have a cute story about Myanmar, which was still called Burma, from 20 years ago. I was planning to cover most of Southeast Asia the summer before my 21st birthday. I chose some places like Vietnam and Cambodia, which were off the beaten path back then. And Burma. It was really only possible to enter Burma with a package tour, so I was willing to shell out a chunk of cash for a quick trip to Rangoon and Mandalay.

But when my mother and one of her best friends found out, I received a letter (only snail mail in 1991) from my mom strongly advising me not to go. The repressive government, the dislike of foreigners (Americans), and so on. So I caved and instead used my money to ride a train for seven days without a shower.

Twenty years later, guess who’s booked a trip to Myanmar?

Bon voyage, Mom (and her friend).

Do you know anyone planning to travel to Burma in the near future?

Book of the week–Ghetto at the Center of the World

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:07:38 +0000

When I lived in Hong Kong, I always got a kick out of taking friends and family to Chungking Mansions for the first time. You should have seen the looks in their eyes when we strolled over to the elevators in the C block. They must have thought I’d gone mad in Hong Kong, and that they might not make it out themselves.

Chungking Mansions

And then we’d enter an Indian restaurant on an upper floor and they’d lose themselves in curry and wonder why they ever doubted me.

So it was with great excitement that I read Gordon Mathews’ new book, Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong (University of Chicago Press, 2011), this week.

Part narrative, part anthropological study, with a smidgen of memoir thrown in, Ghetto shows how this one building is not only a third world microcosm in a developed world city, but also that it’s responsible for much of the clothing and mobile phone sales in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Back in the 90s when I went there for Indian food, I loved the diversity of the Mansions. Africans, South Asians, Caucasians, and Chinese all mixed together. But according to Mathews, the Mansions’ demographics have changed since then. There are many more Africans and mainland Chinese. He also writes that it’s tamer than its heyday hippie years, which spanned the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

One thing I couldn’t believe was that drug use had tapered off apart from a slew of Nepalese heroin addicts who are Hong Kong permanent residents thanks to their Gurkha fathers (who served the Crown during HK’s colonial days).

According to Chris Thrall in his breakthrough memoir, Eating Smoke, Chungking Mansions is the place to go to for drugs. I can still picture Thrall’s vivid description of wealthy American teenagers getting high off meth in a cramped Chungking Mansions guesthouse.

Gordon Mathews lived in a guest house at the Mansions once a week for several years and conducted extensive research, not only there but also in the home countries of merchants who frequented the Mansions. Some interesting observations of his that stood out include:

* Goods are cheaper in China, but third world merchants trust people in Hong Kong more;

* People in Sub-Saharan African can enjoy first world goods like mobile phones because of Chungking Mansions;

* If you return your mobile phone before the warranty expires, there’s a good chance it’ll end up for sale in Chungking Mansions;

* Indians and Pakistanis work side by side as friends and colleagues in Chungking Mansions with little problem;

* Of all the many restaurants in Chungking Mansions, only one is Chinese;

* English is the lingua franca of the Mansions;

* Although Chungking Mansions is a seedy building, the third world merchants who do business there are not poor because they had enough money to leave their home countries; and

* Chungking Mansions won’t be around forever, and its lifespan depends on how many Africans move their business from Hong Kong to China in the coming years.

Ghetto is a fascinating look into one of my favorite places in Hong Kong. I can’t imagine Hong Kong without Chungking Mansions, so the last bullet point is hard for me to accept. Thanks to Gordon Mathews, Chris Thrall, and Wong Kar-wai’s film Chungking Express, memories of Chungking Mansions will live on.

100th Anniversary of Double Ten!

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 01:01:08 +0000

Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising, otherwise known as Double Ten. Taiwan celebrates it as their National Day. But it’s more than just that. It marks the beginning of the Republic of China and the end of thousands of years of dynastic rule.

This photo was taken 100 years ago. The Iron blood 18-star flag represents the Wuchang Uprising.

Double 10 is close to my heart because of all the time I spent in China, much of it was in Wuhan. So I think it’s kind of cool the Republic started there.

And as for Taiwan, I’m very impressed with the progress it’s made in recent decades. This is how Taiwan celebrated Double 10 45 years ago (a year after my family first visited the ROC):

Quite scary, huh? But 1966 was a tough year for everyone in Greater China. After all, this is what was going on across the Strait that year.

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Sadly, Double Ten has remained a political day for many. But I think it should be a proud day for all.

Double Ten

A glimpse of Vancouver

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:04:48 +0000

In my little absence from blogging, I’ve been to Vancouver and back. What a great getaway. It wasn’t my first visit there, but considering the previous time was 24 years ago, I wasn’t exactly returning to familiar territory. I love comparing this postcard I sent to my maternal grandmother in 1987:

with this 2011 postcard I sent to my daughter last week:

In Vancouver’s case, I think urban development has been a good thing.

Some highlights of my trip. Every morning my husband went out for coffee (and tea for me) and breakfast. He brought it back to the room and we ate while sea planes took off and landed just outside our window.

I also enjoyed Vancouver’s public art and architecture. Sculptor Yue Minjun’s A-Mazing Laughter was one of my favorites.

We spent a few hours in Chinatown one afternoon. I love how Vancouver hasn’t torn down old buildings like this one:

But I also enjoyed the city’s modern architecture, like this residence near Yaletown:

We viewed waterfront buildings from the comfort of this cute ferry.

One day we drove up to Whistler. Here’s a shot of me on the ride there.

I can still picture the crisp, fresh air.

What a delightful trip.

A summer of dim sum

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 00:03:28 +0000

Now that school is back in session, I’m sad to leave summer behind. Besides swimming, my summer was consumed with many trips to Chinatown for dim sum, which my kids love. And what’s not to love?

How a propos that I just received Liza Chu’s awesome Dim Sum: A Survival Guide (Blacksmith Books, 2010)! The photos and descriptions are amazing, but my favorite part is the list in back of dishes sans pork (I ate way too much pork in China and swore it off 10+ years ago. Good riddance!).

This book reminds me of Grace Lin’s Dim Sum for Everyone (Knopf, 2001). It’s for ages 4-8, but kids of all ages love it.

All these dumplings bring me back to dining in Hong Kong dim sum stadiums. Here’s one of my favorites:

With my uncle back in 1996 inside the Treasure Floating Restaurant in Shatin, which I’ve since heard has lost its touch.

Where’s your favorite place to eat dim sum?

Return from Bishkek

Susan Blumberg-Kason — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:09:22 +0000

So yesterday my niece returned from a three-week trip to Kyrgyzstan. She’s 8 years old and visited her maternal grandparents for the first time. The best thing about hearing of someone’s travels is actually to see her photos. And here are a few she snapped:

yurt

This yurt is pretty cool.

And since mutton is the national dish, one would only expect to see flocks of sheep.

Baa.

And here’s a wandering cow. I just love the red doors.

I’ll see my niece in a few days and can’t wait to hear about her trip. Now that I’ve seen the photos, I’m all ears.