Doodlenoodlepoodle.

Almost one full week without a post! This means I've either been really busy, or super-lazy. I choose the first one. Fortunately not much has been happening here lately so it's not a terrible loss to the world.

Status quo has retained its position and the surface of the pond has calmed down with nothing to disturb it; winds of change have ceased for a while and the sunrise after a stormy night can again be seen. And cute kittens and fluffy bunnies, and all that.

Markus is gone: moved to PoLam, situated practically at the other extreme end of Hong Kong as seen from TungChung (PoLam being in the East, TC in the West). The selection of location is totally understandable after 6 months of living together. The further, the better - unfortunately Hong Kong is not very large.

Next Monday is a day off to celebrate the establishment of the Glorious People's Republic of China. It only bitters me that in Hong Kong we celebrate for a petty one day. In Mainland's side, they have the whole week off!! I have such high feelings for the Glorious Ultra-Grand People's Republic of China that I'd like to have a full week off too, you know, to celebrate the triumph of Communism over the degenerated and wretched Democracy and Capitalism.

Well, I will take a few days extra off anyway and go somewhere with Chi, who is, by the way, changing to a day-job which will ease up my life, and hers.

This week we also had one day of as during Wednesday we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival - or as I call it "The mooncake festival". There is a cultural background to it, of course, but I don't really care. I know I should, being a ever-so valiant advocate for cultural understanding, but I've come to the point where I just enjoy the days off we get, and don't really even care why we have them. Maybe next year I'll wiki things more closely.

Below a picture of a mooncake. Feat upon it with your eyes. It doesn't taste as good as it looks.

Beware the Chinese killer beds!

Helsingin Sanomat, September 23rd, 2007.

Pardon the Finnish part, English explanation below:

Kiinalaissängyt tukehduttivat kolme vauvaa USA:ssa

Julkaistu: 17:40

Washington. Yhdysvalloissa poistetaan markkinoilta yli miljoonaa Kiinassa valmistettua lastensänkyä, kun selvisi, että kolme vauvaa oli jäänyt loukkuun sänkyihin ja kuollut tukehtumalla, kuluttajansuojasta vastaava Yhdysvaltain liittovaltion viranomainen ilmoitti viime perjantaina.

Kaksi alle vuoden ikäistä vauvaa kuoli nyt markkinoilta poistetuissa sängyissä, joita myytiin aina toukokuuhun 2007 asti. Vuoden ikäinen vauva kuoli sängyssä, jota ei nyt poisteta markkinoilta mutta jonka turvallisuutta viranomaiset tutkivat.

Kuluttajansuojaviranomaisten mukaan myös ainakin seitsemän muuta vauvaa on jäänyt sänkyihin vaarallisella tavalla loukkuun.

Loukkuun jäämisen vaara syntyy, jos Simplicity-pinnasänky kootaan väärällä tavalla.

Yhdeksän kuukauden ikäinen vauva kuoli huhtikuussa 2005 Kaliforniassa. Kuolleen vauvan perhettä edustava asianajaja kertoi ilmoittaneensa asiasta viranomaisille, mutta viranomaiset eivät toimineet heti. Seuraavaksi kuuden kuukauden ikäinen vauva menehtyi marraskuussa 2006.

Lastensänkyjen valmistuttajan ja maahantuojan Simplicityn johtaja ilmoitti, että turvallisuus on yhtiölle tärkeää. Sen vuoksi se tekee nyt yhteistyötä viranomaisten kanssa, jotta vuosina 1998–2007 myydyt sängyt saadaan pois markkinoilta.

"Me luotamme nyt siihen, että tuotteemme ovat turvallisia", Simplicityn johtaja Ken Waldman sanoi. Markkinoilta pois vedettävät sängyt ovat Simplicity- ja Graco-merkkisiä.

AP–HS

The title is "China-manufactured beds choke three babies to death in the US" but when you read the text, it has nothing about manufacturing defects or negligence in production by the Chinese manufacturer. In fact, it states the fault lies in the design of the product and end-users themselves who have assembled the bed incorrectly. The manufacturer and importer of these beds say they will take the products off the markets and no comment is made about bad Chinese quality.

So... Why the headline? Why is it so damned important to mention that the beds are made in China? Why oh why? It doesn't matter where the beds were manufactured since the problem lies in the design and lack of fool-proofed instructions of how to assemble it! Ponder about it for a while.

It's just starting to really piss me off how all the defects in production are so deviously reported if the products should originate from China. Well, China IS the factory of the world and they make a shit-load of stuff 24/7. So, some of the stuff are defect, so what the f***ing what?

I restate my point from earlier: Chinese manufacture what ever the west orders. If they order cheap crap, they get cheap crap! If they bothered to pay a bit more for a proper product they'd get it. But in their blind greed quality comes only second, and faulty products are sold to consumers - consumers who too seek to buy cheap crap. When a product, then, is faulty everyone shouts bloody murder and points their finger at China.

Well, shit.

(Note: I already wrote four more paragraphs of bitter rant about the topic but now decided to sensor myself a little to not offend every single living being on this planet. All want to say to all you whining piles of rhinoceros excrement is: take your damned responsibility and don't shove it to others; place the blame where its due, and not on a scapegoat that's one sixth of the whole population of our sweet and dear planet.)

Little things

A few days ago at McCafe, as I was going to buy my regular breakfast of smoked salmon sandwich, customer service reached its new high. As I arrived to location I found an ready-packed paper bag, and the price already at the register. So, I payed and thanked the friendly girl, who obviously has taken to remember what I always purchase. As a joke, I should sometime ask for something else.

It's getting slightly cooler in Hong Kong too (finally) and I can go out and have a 15 minute walk without breaking a sweat. Awesome! Not too long from now and I can actually wear a jacket. We have gone below 30 degrees, albeit still are mostly at 28-29 degrees. No typhoons again; it saddens me I missed the only good one this year.

It's been a really busy week at the office and that's why I haven't had the time to write anything here earlier. Now things are slowly easing up - which is nice - and I can concentrate on more important things, like playing with my kendama.

"A kendama (けん玉 or 剣玉 or 拳玉) is a Japanese toy that consists of a hammer-like object with a ball connected to it by a string. The ball (called the tama) has a hole in it, and it rests on a spike (the ken) on the top of the kendama. The two sides of the "hammer" are concave; one is smaller than the other. The larger side is called the oozara (large plate) and the other is the kozara (small plate). There is also a medium sized plate at the bottom of the handle called the chuzara (medium plate).

The basic object is to throw the ball upwards and land it on one of the concave parts of the "hammer", as well as landing the ball on the spike. More advanced techniques involve combination moves, different landing positions and even freestyle combinations." - Wikipedia



Things are super in Hong Kong and I have no complaints. Markus will be gone soon and I will have the luxury of living on my own again! Huzzah!

Yesterday I was out with some work-acquaintances after work, eating hotpot and drinking beer. It was fun and I got to impress everyone with my ever-growing Cantonese vocabulary. It is amazing how my selected, individual words can cause such humor among people. I have been learning the language on a steady pace of 3-4 words per week. And my listening is a bit better yet. It's fun how the general scare of the language is slowly moving aside and is replaced by a genuine want of learning.

Today is Friday and it means more rest for a few days! It's good because the week has been rather tough, and I've had a few long evenings at work. Sleep will be nice.

I gotta go now. I was about to reveal the meaning of life; who shot Kennedy; next weeks lottery numbers; and pretty much everything about everything; but instead I'll go have a few pints of beer with my friends. Au revoir!

Of late-night meeting and McSuck

I began my day at 07:45 with 3 hours of sleep. Surprisingly I wasn't tired at all. In fact, I've noticed that peculiarly I am much more awake after seemingly insufficient amount of sleep than I am after over 6 hours of sleep. I don't really know how to explain in as in the past I always required at least 8 hours to even get out of the bed. Strange indeed.

Anyway, yesterday was a big meeting day and I knew it'd take late, maybe to 8pm or so. I had lunch normally at around mid-day, and a sandwich again at 4pm. The first meeting started at 4:30 and without a pause we started the second one at 6:15. This meeting then continued all the way until past 9pm. Making my day a bit over 12 hours long.

To make things a bit worse, the AC in this building is shut down around 7pm, so this means the last two hours or so we were without cool air, and the temperature inside the meeting room started to increase to a nice level of uncomfortableness.

However, I managed to get through it in good humor: I wasn't tired and albeit hungry and slightly sweaty (not really sweaty; more like damped by the heat). At the end of the meeting I made a quick exit and found myself at McDonald's.

It's been a long time since I last went to McDonald's for anything but a salad. I have been trying to change my living-style a bit to a healthier way and first thing I decided to correct was my diet and therefore I've all but quit on fast-food and other food that is deemed unhealthy like snacks (with the exception of beer; which I, too, will try to consume less in the future). I've been on this health-craze of mine for well over a month now.

So anyway, I go to McDonald's and for the first time in a long while, having a Big Mac and (freedom) fries. Actually, I found the concept of fast-food after a long day of meetings very fitting, and albeit unhealthy and against my normal thinking these days, I actually enjoyed it!

Hah, yes... I know, this is very interesting to you all. A grown man talking about health and shit.

On other news, it seems Markus is moving out on an advanced schedule and it's very likely he'll be gone during the coming weekend already. As much as I have loved his childlike humor, ever-so happy face, practical jokes and misplaced open-tuna-can experiments, advice in life and afterlife, taste in music that sometimes reminds me to vacuum the apartment, debates on human soul and moral-fiber, and games of badminton or table tennis, I am able to let him go without much grief in my heart. HA! I'm happy to see him gone!

Of course my happiness derives from two sources: one totally selfish, the other not so much. Primarily I am overjoyed by the fact that I will have my place for myself again! No rules but my own, no clashes of habits. I will run my home as I like it and no one can stop me!! Mwahahahahahahahahahhahahahah!!! (except maybe Chi, but she doesn't live with me (at least yet))
Second reason, of course, is my deeply and profoundly genuine, sincere happiness for Markus who finally gets a place of his own too. I suppose that for the time he's been here in HK he never *really* felt like home, so it's good he can finally find that independence we Finns so much value.

That's about it for now. More to come later, perhaps.

Robin: "Holy tartars!"
Batman: "Unholy tartars, Robin. Stealing scimitars and golden eggs from a museum is one thing. But when the average citizen on the street is in peril, something must be done, and quickly."

Karaoke style Kungfu

Every once in a while it is hard to believe I actually live in a place like Hong Kong. Being a small-town boy I kind of always thought I'd remain like that for all eternity. Yet here I am, in the middle of the growing Asian markets, in the middle of all the action you only read about in the news back in Finland.

I have only lately began to realize there's much more to the local culture and way of life than would've seemed at first. For most part of my stay I've been basically living a gweilo's life without much authentic touch to the local life. See, you can try to live like a "local" by not going to McDonalds all the time, or avoiding eating western food, or not going to LanKwaiFong to drink - but it's still just a charade. It is very hard to find that local thing if you're just another gweilo.

Let me put it this way: I thought I was very much localized and aware of the local way of life. Being here for over an year, and trying to avoid the typical gweilo/tourists spots, I thought I had finally come in touch with the Chinese within me. Ha, I couldn't have been more wrong! What I lacked was true knowledge of what local places were like. I knew the theory, not the practice.

Meeting Chi changed everything of course. What better guide to the local life than a local?

I've already been telling earlier about funny and strange occurrences being with her: local cafes, bars, parties and restaurants, etc. And I have been enjoying them a lot every single time! It's always something different, it's always something interesting. I've been learning a lot about the sincere way of having fun here - not the kind I'm familiar from Finland (not saying there's anything wrong with that) but something completely different.

The best way to describe my experience is through what I realized yesterday.

Again, I was out with Chi for a late-evening dinner. We were in KwaiFong (an area that probably saw its last gweilo in 1965) and had the idea of going to a local small restaurant. At first everything seemed as usual but the instance we walked in (and the general population of middle-aged construction workers having an evening off see us/me) there was a loud greeting in Cantonese, some apparent comments of having a gweilo around (as judged from Chi's reaction of bursting into laughter) and ever-continuing interest towards what I was doing there. So, Chi kept talking with the quite a lot, explaining my background and all that. It was all in very nice atmosphere, albeit very weird.

The place had a TV that showed karaoke and all the men (as stated, middle-aged construction works or such) were singing out loud, very loud, in chorus that would make baby-Jesus cry - but me laugh.

During the evening I started observing the characters I saw. Suddenly I realized this was actually a lot like what I had seen in movies. In fact, all the classic shady-but-merry-restaurant characters were there. The stereotypes were so obvious I couldn't help but laugh a little. The men singing; the loud, rude but funny old woman waitress; the owner of the restaurant sitting casually in one corner in a dirty t-shirt; the guy in the back who doesn't say anything; the guy who comes in and everyone greets happily. And so on. I realized that many of the places I've been to before actually are very similar to this.

Characters... so many characters. So much life and so much stuff I had no idea actually goes on in real life.

I only wish I spoke more Cantonese so I could take part in the fun. Now, I'm just a random spectator who is left without a word as Chi tries her best to work as an interpreter.

The lesson I've learned while being with Chi is that the average live of average people in Hong Kong is completely invisible to a gweilo. They live in different areas*, they eat in different restaurants, they go out to different bars, they party in different venues, they shop in different shopping malls, and so on.

*Gweilos tend to live in specific areas in Hong Kong while most of the areas, especially in New Territories and northern Kowloon are left to mostly locals.

Of course, here comes ME to ruin all the fun from everyone! Ha! It's like a black man playing ice hockey - and being good at it!

The local life is very appealing. As I said, the way of having fun seems very sincere here, almost childish. Every place I've been to I've been received in good, albeit sometimes weird, humor. Seems when they go out, they are already in a mood that is only achieved by a Finn after a few rounds of beer. They socialize, they are loud and they are genuinely set on having a good time.

Oh, and despite the shady appearance of the restaurants, the food is superb! If it wasn't for Chi, I would never go into any of the places because of my silly prejudice. But I'm glad she knows better.

Moving all around, twiching in and out

A lot of movement in the air.

It is finally time for Markus to be moving out of my apartment and test his own wings in this world of opportunity we call Hong Kong. It has been fun having him around but as it was with my guests a few months back, so it is with him: it'll be nice to see him gone.

He has proven to be quite a formidable opponent in a number of debates and I do feel brave enough to declare that the intellectual level of our conversation must've reached that of at least 5-year-olds on numerous occasions. I will have to reduce debating with him to office-conversations and in times between I shall meditate at home. Alone.

There are a number of changes his absence will cause, most which I look towards to.

Aside from Markus, one my friends in Guangzhou is moving. You can read more from his blog (BuHao's China Friendly Journal). The bottom-line is, he'll be quite significantly further away from Hong Kong making it a bit more difficult for us to meet. Most unfortunate, but at least I can honestly be happy he got his things sorted out after a rather dire looking circumstance.

I, too, have been thinking about moving a lot. And I will, actually, move out the first chance I get. I still have until February 2008 on my current rental contract but once it expires, I'm SO out of there. I don't know yet where I'll move but I know it won't be Tung Chung.

Tung Chung is an awesome place and I like being there. But there's so much more to Hong Kong and I want to see other places too. Especially I would like to move to a place with less gweilos around. I've seen other residential areas now and I realized there is an almost unlimited selection of places I could live in. Now I have some months to pick up my 'dream spot'.

The real reasons I want to move are a bit more practical. First of all, my current apartment was ready-furnished. And I have this feeling of not being fully at home in a place where someone else owns most what I see. Hence I want a place to which I will buy all the furniture. Secondly, (as mentioned already) I want a place with less gweilo's. It's not really that I want 'less' gweilos but a place which is more local-oriented. I don't care about living like a European, I want to live here like a local would. At least to my best knowledge. Third, I want a place where pets are easier to have. I don't plan to buy a pet of my own but since Chi has a dog, I think it'll make things easier for us in the long-term - if indeed I should be brave enough to think so far ahead, which I am, of course.

Unlike many thought, transportation isn't really a problem for me when thinking about Tung Chung. I am aware it's not the best possible location but I still think the transportation is quite efficiently arranged.

Anyway. Not much happening lately here. Life is on its usual tracks and things are good. Tomorrow's Friday so this week is slowly starting to be at its end. Swell and Super!

Death to Jiminy Cricket!

Last weekend was fun. My friend and his girlfriend from Guangzhou arrived to Hong Kong on Friday and this meant there'd be lots of activities for the weekend.

Friday evening, after work, we went for dinner at Ned Kelly's Last Stand, and there we had the chance to catch up on a lot of things that had been going on. As a restaurant/bar the place is very nice albeit the quality of service has gone down a notch since my previous visit. Anyway, the food was excellent, the beer was excellent, and our party merry.

Moving to Cafe de Fontaine after finishing dinner for a few more rounds of beer, the evening continued.

What was supposed to be a few pints was actually 3 jugs and more. Well, the company was good and we had a lot to talk about. Though, I have to admit I got a bit more intoxicated by the beer than I was planning to. Once I got home around 2am, I passed out happily on my bed. Before departing from Tsimshatsui, however, we agreed that the following day we would visit Disneyland Hongkong.

So, with a nifty 7 hours of sleep, we meet at Sunnybay MTR station on Saturday morning at 11:00; Me, Chi, my friend and his girlfriend.

It's my first time to Disneyland (any of them) and I've been looking to have a good enough reason to go. Last year it would've been just me going alone and that's no good... I mean, that'd be really sad actually. A lonesome guy going to Disneyland to have seemingly good time, but everyone knows his alone and sad. The kind of a person you don't even want to know because you think if you do, he'll just make you miserable too with stories of anguish and sorrow. So, no, I didn't want to go alone. Nor did I want to go there with my friends either since this year I've had them here. I mean, come on! A bunch of guys going to Disneyland? Is there anything that would cry out "gay!" any louder? I mean, we have had our share of suspicion over our sexual orientation and we have had to face with the fact that wherever we go, for some reason a lot of people think the wrong things about us "guys" hanging together. Well, I did NOT want to enforce that thought any more so, no, I would not go to Disneyland with my 'chums'.

So, me and Chi, my friend and his girlfriend. Totally acceptable - actually the best way to go!

Now, about Disneyland. It was actually quite super! I heard before that Hong Kong Disneyland is a bit smallish, so you can't really spend all that much time there. This was, however, just perfect for us because we were set for a 2/3-day trip anyway. So this way we were left with minimum amount of stuff not experienced.

You know, it's really annoying to go to some really big amusement/theme-park and not to have time to go through it properly.

Anyhow, we took some rides and we saw a few shows, walked around and generally had a really good time. I was especially thrilled about a 3D-show they had in a kind of a cinema. What really surprised me was the quality of the 3D-effects. I had NO idea they could be so good. The objects coming really close and creating a sense of depth were really convincing. Funny enough, a lot of people were reaching for the items, and I could see a lot of hands waving in the air; sometimes reaching for diamonds, food, or whatever. Really cool stuff! I know it might not sound like much as I explain it but trust me: it's really cool!

We also saw a few parades taking place. It's actually quite awesome (and I do mean awesome as in: Inspiring awe) how much Disney puts into these parks. The amount of details and the amount of all sorts of activities, the creation of that "magical atmosphere". All that. It's just simply awesome. So, there were parades too, with marching bands playing, dancers, parade floats, all that.

The last parade we saw was the biggest one and it featured probably over a hundred performers in different costumes. Most major Disney characters were portrayed too, while some extras did dancing in more anonymous costumes.

...And there he was.

Jiminy Cricket...
Jiminy f**king Cricket.

If it wasn't for the kids, I would've jumped over the small fence and beat the living crap out of him. As Markus so nicely puts it, I feel black abysmal eternal fiery HATE towards him for being on television EVERY SINGLE damned Christmas as far as I can remember! Singing his stupid songs, hosting his stupid show, and generally pissing me off! There are only a few things that would satisfy me more than to see Jiminy Cricket on a pike.

The only Disney character who competes with Jiminy over my undying hate is the self-righteous cocky son of a wh*** Mickey Mouse, who sounds like he should be wearing a skirt and high-heels. If there is anything I hate it's his besser-wisser attitude over everything and how he seems to be oh-so-smartest fu**ing thing on this planet. Well, I got news for him: NOT EVERYONE LOVES HIM! He's a prick!

Now, Donald Duck. He's a character I can relate to.

Anyway, Disneyland was cool! After leaving there in the afternoon we headed back to Tungchung to get a shower and change a fresh set of clothes. Later in the evening we still headed for Mongkok to do some shopping. No bars that evening, just some beers at my apartment, and watched Monty Python's Meaning of Life.

Sunday; slept late, went to eat Korean food, walked around Central for a while, came back home, sat in front of the laptop for the remaining of the evening, comatose, went to sleep. Sleep is good. Sleep.

That's about how it went.

Matters of life and death!

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." - Lao Tzu

It's funny to realize that we've been going to certain places (bars, restaurants, etc.) so much that some service personnel have taken to recognize us. We are reaching the point where we can have "the usual". While this is nothing out of the ordinary, it's just a funny remark I've made - especially since I never actually experienced this in Finland.

Today, we got to add a new place to this list. Surprisingly enough, it was our dear McCafe, whence we get our breakfast bread all-so-often. After making my order for my regular smoked salmon sandwich the girl behind the counter asks me whether I'll have the half size. I found that odd since the default is double. Not thinking more about it I corrected her and said, I'll actually have the double this morning (I indeed usually take the half). Markus comes next in queue and the girl asks automatically whether Markus is having crayfish mango sandwich, which indeed is what he usually has. We get our sandwiches, us two happy and perplexed customers.

Trivial matters but adding flavor to life. Hah.

After my previous post, I got feedback from two behind-the-scenes sources. I'll make amends to both comments by following:

1. Apparently I use the word "albeit" too much. I think the word is very practical but I will henceforth reduce it's utilization and substitute it with other facultative words. Albeit I do fear my semantical understanding of these new genteel words and phrases may prove to be misguided, thus resulting in their fallacious employment.

2. My short description of Onimusha (the game I'm playing on ps2) was apparently faulty and untrue. I will correct it by saying that, true, it is not like Final Fantasy series, but actually more like Kingdom Hearts. You run around and you chop up the evil 'genma' creatures (instead of those shadows-things). Instead of being a FF character helped by Disney characters, adventuring in various Disney worlds, you are a Samurai working your way around medieval Japan, helped by a number of different sidekicks. Granted, the whole basis of the game is different and it is targeted for totally different people, but as far as the game-play is concerned, it is very close to Kingdom Hearts. HA!

So, those there you have it. Thanks for the feedback.

One additional matter of life and death to be mentioned today is the fact that I hate wearing a suit. During hot summer days anyway. My tailor-made suit is like a tailor-made portable sauna. If you have you wear a long-sleeve collar shirt and a jacket, in a weather you would rather not even have a t-shirt, you know you're in for a treat. And yes, I had to wear a suit yesterday.

Can't wait for winter! It'll be so awesome with weathers below 25 degrees. See, I'm a big fan of jackets; and not being able to wear a jacket during summer is possibly the single most exasperating attribute of Hong Kong.

"Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem." - Joseph Stalin

“Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate, after all.”

“Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

I had a wonderful weekend. First time in a long, long time I did not have it fully booked with stuff to do, so I was left with quite a significant amount of time open for anything. What did I do? Games!!

I'm not much of a game-playing citizen, but I do enjoy my share of the activity. This weekend I continued my game of Onimusha, which, after a slightly unconvincing start, has turned out to be quite entertaining. It's an adventure-game much like Final Fantasy series, except the fighting is in real-time and less magic oriented (at least so far).

Also, me and Chi watched the new Mr. Bean movie, which I had my doubts about but it turned out to be quite entertaining. Also, I've been watching the Black Adder series lately which I've always found much more likable of Rowan Atkinson's series': Black Adder is concentrated on verbal humor and the episodes have clear plot lines (mostly not very sophisticated, though), while Mr. Bean concentrates mostly on funny faces and slapstick.

I bought the Black Adder series (all 4 seasons and the short movie) for HKD 70 at a local store. The package of course being an illegal copy that normally would not be allowed in Hong Kong. The thing about Hong Kong pirated products market is that the vendors use a number of loopholes to escape responsibility. With movies and series, the loophole is importing the stuff from Taiwan, where the copies are made under Taiwanese license. I don't know how it actually works and how that makes the products 'legal' in HK markets, but that's how my colleague explained it. The point is, the products are still copies of the original, but through some weird process they can be sold here legally ... Or at least I think it's legal.

Of course it's still possible to find old-fashioned plain copies from HK as well, but usually they are in the shadier areas where good citizens, such as myself, don't venture into. Not very often anyway.

I don't know what loopholes they use for other licensed products such as toys, or products based on famous cartoon characters, or watches and purses/bags because they seem to be everywhere and I can't believe all of them are official products. However, the HK government is much more effective in its fight against IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) infringements that it's hard to believe they would allow such an open sale of these products if there was any questions of legality in play.

The funny thing is, however, that when walking in big tourist-crap centers like the Ladies Market, Temple Street, or Stanley Market, you hear the words "hello sir, copy watch? copy handbag for your girlfriend?" all the time. If a police went there undercover with the aim of finding illegal products (if that's what these are) it would take maybe 10 minutes to catch a hundred vendors.

Oh, wait. For the sake of exaggeration let me exaggerate a little more:

... it would take maybe 10 minutes to catch a least a gazillion vendors.

But I really don't know what to make of the products. They are copies, everyone knows that. But why aren't the police doing anything about it? Are they legal through some loophole then? I don't know. I know HK government has a policy of non-intervention to market activities but I also know they don't like things that tarnish their polished image (ie. piracy). And of course there's the international law to consider which HK is bound to enforce as strongly as deemed necessary. While Mainland China struggles with piracy, the same problems shouldn't arise so severely here. For starters, there is no manufacturing of pirated products here (at least in large scale) and that means the products need to be imported from China (or Taiwan). Secondly, the market size and the scope of business for pirated products is much more limited here, making it a smaller problem - yet one the HK government has sought to end. Following the international law should not be a problem here. So, I still believe it is just some loophole in legislation that will be, eventually, fixed.

And to redeem myself a little, I must say that I never bought anything copied except DVD's. And of even those, most were bought under sheer duress.

The problem with the DVD markets in HK is that many official Asian productions are sold without English subtitles. Such being the case with especially many Anime-series I've wanted to buy. So, since official versions with English subtitles are absent from general market, I've been forced to buy "Taiwanese versions" which come with subtitles I can understand.

And to all the besser-wissers, yes, I know I could order online - but I don't want to!

Oh, the game Onimusha I'm playing... I didn't buy it from an 'official vendor'. And my PS2 is not really qualified for the official warranty either.

"We're ready to set sail, all the cannons need a priming. We're thievin' balladeers, a gang of cut-throat mugs, to fight us off, you won't need guns, just jolly good earplugs! A pirate I was meant to be, trim the sail and roam the sea..." - The Curse of Monkey Island