Christmas in Hong Kong

Season's greetings!  You might be wondering what Christmas is like in Hong Kong.  There's no simple answer!

At one level, Christmas is huge, as you might be able to tell from the holiday decorations in the mall shown at right.  And this is not unusual--lots of both indoor and outdoor lights, displays, decorations, Christmas sales, and so forth.  And it's a holiday from work, as is the day after (though not for Barbara, as she's teaching these days partly because it's a time when her students have the time off to attend a class that runs from about 9-6 each day (most of them have jobs).  

But much of the observance is a reflection of the relative affluence of Hong Kong, its long history (until 1997) as one of Britain's last colonies, the draw
of glitz and glitter and gift-giving, and shopping.  But on Christmas Eve, when we were wandering back to our youth hostel, we enjoyed stopping to listen to a group of perhaps thirty folks singing carols (with all the verses!) in Chinese, but we also noticed that almost no one else was stopping to listen (photo below).  

On the other hand, Christmas does seem to be a religious holiday as well as a cultural one for at least a minority of Hong Kong folks (such as the carolers, likely one of the many church groups in town).  I chose to join the Christmas Eve (day) services at two of those churches, while Barbara was teaching.  

One was the service at St. John's Cathedral ("the first Anglican cathedral in the Far East").  They have several services during the day, and I chose the one in Tagalog (a primary language in the Philippines).  Nearly all of those at the service were Filipinas (perhaps around 500 women, mostly in their 20's and 30's).  They come to Hong Kong as "domestic helpers," who clean, cook, and sometimes are "child-minders" for more affluent Hong Kong families.  There are about 200,000 in Hong Kong (along with another 150,000 Indonesian Muslim women who do the same work).  Many have left a husband or children behind--partly in order to earn enough money to pay the children's school fees in many cases.  But they are far from home, and a service in their own language with a Filipino priest may be especially meaningful.  

Before the service began, I took the photo at right, of the communion table set with the wine (each chalice covered to keep bugs out) (no photos during the service!).  When the church bells called us in, there were perhaps eight young Filipinas straightening out their white robes for each other, who would process down the long aisle with candles.  I took my seat towards the back, in a pew full of women.  

I was moved when the women's voices (no male voices to be heard, and I just listened --can't speak Tagalog anyway!) rose to fill the large cathedral space.  And moved again when later a woman with a new baby brought it forward to be baptized on this special day, along with perhaps 20 of her friends, perhaps in place of the relatives who would have gathered around her were she back home.  When it came time for communion, some of the women with 
whom I was sitting gestured to see if I would come up as well, and I did.  At the end, the temporary congregation dispersed slowly, as most of the women stopped at the holy water to bless themselves before leaving, one by one.

I also attended a very different and much less formal Christmas Eve service earlier in the day, at what I would call an evangelical Protestant congregation (see their website photo below).  A new friend, a "dance movement therapist" like Barbara with whom we'd had supper the previous day, had recommended this church, her church, to me, and I was curious to attend.

The church, "Solomon's Porch," seemed to be mostly Chinese (though the woman sitting next to me had her Tagalog-English dictionary at hand), with a number of white folks as well as well as a few Black attenders.  The congregation seemed to be young, with a lot of young families; I was likely the oldest person there.  This age pattern is common in many evangelical churches back home, where "mainline" or theologically liberal churches tend to skew towards older members.  The service of music, singing, Bible reading, and a central time for preaching was familiar, and I felt welcome there.  

Barbara mentioned in one of her entries that we'd done one of the "alternative" tours with a relatively new group, Hong Kong Free Tours, that explores some of the social and political issues people here face.  We also did a second one, led by Alla Lau, described in a New York Times article last June as a "tour guide" but who is more significantly a grad student in sociology (who just completed her "research master's on the way, she hopes, to a Ph.D.).  See photo below; Barbara is the one with the curly hair at right.  

Alla's tour (a three-hour walking tour) focussed on issues related to income inequalities and poverty.  A key issue in Hong Kong is the very high cost of housing, even to rent a modest apartment (much more expensive than in the Twin Cities).  Younger people have been leaving Hong Kong in some numbers for less expensive places like Taiwan (or the U.S.), and those who are poorer are too often homeless, living in very cramped quarters.

This past week there have been several Hong Kong holidays in connection with Christmas, which means that most of the "domestic helpers" from the Philippines and Indonesia would have at least one day off.  They often live with their employers (and so aren't technically homeless), and on an off day they tend to gather in any public space they can for the day.  This might include pedestrian overpasses, parks, and other spaces--such as the plaza under the mega-bank HSBC (a thought-provoking contrast between great wealth and the economically vulnerable).

In the photo to the left, we see some of the women setting up a space at the beginning of the day.  They often collect large pieces of cardboard to spread on the concrete (if they aren't in a park), and may also put together low cardboard "wall" to create a semi-private space for the day.  

They bring food to eat or cook, perhaps something soft for a pillow when they take a nap, cosmetic supplies to do each other's make-up or hair, and other things that they need for a day off.  They seem to prefer (or need) to spend the day with friends without spending much of their hard-earned money, destined for "remittances" to relatives back home (perhaps grandparents who are caring for the children).  

I've also seen groups of Filipinas in circles in a park, singing.  And in the photo to the right, we see a group of young Indonesian women (wearing modest clothing and headscarves appropriate for Muslim women) enjoying some time at a Buddhist nunnery, one of my own favorite places to spend time wandering.  There's a free beautiful garden, which in the warm Hong Kong winter is still in flower.  

With that, I'll conclude this posting.  But one of us will write again soon!