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Expat's Eye
Print Edition> Expat's Eye
UPDATED: September 26, 2012 NO. 40 OCTOBER 4, 2012
Getting Catty in Hong Kong
By Karmel Schreyer
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(LI SHIGONG) 

There is a lot to love about Hong Kong. For a city so well known around the world, it is actually an endearingly provincial place once you get to know it. Nightly news headlines range from the latest high-level talks in Beijing to the increasingly high-level price of pork per "catty"—a word I Googled after hearing it for the first time. According to Wikipedia, catty is the English word for the traditional Chinese unit of mass, commonly used in wet markets. The actual weight varies from country to country, rounded up to 600 grams in Taiwan and Thailand and rounded down to 500 grams in the mainland of China. Here in Hong Kong it is 604.78982 grams.

I also get a kick out of Hong Kong public service announcements, which exhort us to: wash vegetables thoroughly; remove stagnant water in the dishes under plant pots; be optimistic (even on rainy days); and my personal favorite, ending with this refrain: "Love your family. Say it! Do it! We are a family." How can you not love Hong Kong when you hear THAT on television?

But the city's thriving conspicuous-consumption industry is not so charming. There are at least four thick, glossy monthly magazines dedicated to luxury timepieces. I see them in the reading room at the "Residents' Club" (another thing you don't often see in my home country of Canada) of the housing development where I live. One day I gathered them up, along with the 20-page Special Report on Watches and Timepieces in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and a magazine called Allure: Watch and Jewelry best picks 2008 published by the Hong Kong Economic Times. Then I took them home—and weighed them. I know: Get a life!

The timepiece industry has historically been big for Hong Kong, and now the enclave is winding up to beat Switzerland—the world leader in luxury timepieces—in terms of dollar sales (it has been far ahead in terms of unit sales for years now). I understand that the industry employs thousands while supporting other businesses indirectly (such as printing and publishing). It's about jobs, yes—but there is something not quite right when people are employed making something that they will never be able to afford to wear themselves. And what are all these magazines aiming to do? I opened up Montres to the last page, and the last line gave an answer. A watch brand CEO ponders the following question: What is the function of the watch today? His answer: "A watch today is all about self-expression. We want to reinvent the interactivity between the watch and the user. Whether it is mechanical interactivity or optical interactivity, it is of fundamental importance to have this link between user and watch, because this is what creates an emotional link."

In letters to the editor of the SCMP, I've teased property developers for their giggle-inducing ads that want us to believe that buying a Hong Kong flat will make us feel like European royalty. I hope, someday, public relations companies and their clients will get this message: Money and material things can't buy the emotional link needed for true happiness, but using money to help others certainly can. Go ahead! Buy that watch since you can afford it, but do it because you can do a good deed (like fund a scholarship or build a school through Room to Read) at the same time, not because you have been convinced that the watch itself makes you a better person.

Well, you may be wondering just how much those five glossies and 20-page section of the SCMP weighed. The answer: 5.4 kg. That's 11.88 lbs. If you live in China, you may better understand this as 10.8 catty. That would be 8.9287217 catty here in Hong Kong, but I don't think you'd be finding any of these magazines—or the subject of their contents—at any wet market.

The author is a Canadian living in Hong Kong

Email us at: zanjifang@bjreview.com



 
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