Hong Kong Culture – Present and Future
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Reflect on the characteristics of HK popular culture
Source 1
A Hong Kong Spirit?
Do you still remember the craze over ‘McDonald’s Snoopy sale’ in September 1996? At the time,
McDonald’s Fast Food chain launched a set of Snoopy figures, in 28 different styles. Only one
style was available each day. According to a collector, there were days when he spent five hours
lining up to get his Snoopy figures. ‘To think of it,’ he later said, ‘it was not worth it.’ These
Snoopy figures which at one time had been pushed up to over a thousand dollars per piece are
now no longer valued. The craze is gone and nobody would spend money on them.
In fact, before the ‘Snoopy craze’, another round of craze had landed in Hong Kong. That was the
‘Portuguese egg tart’. This craze came fast and went fast. At the peak, ‘egg tart’ shops increased
in number rapidly from a few to several dozens in a few months. But when the craze went, only a
couple of small shops were left and they had changed to selling cheesecakes. The scenario of
people crowding in front of the shops is long gone. The ‘egg tart’ craze is no different from the
‘Snoopy craze.’ People in Hong Kong have this ‘sheep mentality’(羊群心態) in following
popular trends. ‘I do what others do’. People line up because they do not want to ‘lose out’.
From lining up for ‘egg tarts’ and ‘Snoopy figures’ to the current craze over cheesecakes, Hong
Kong people have shown most vividly their ‘following the trend’ mentality. This is a unique
characteristic of Hong Kong people. The ‘Snoopy figures’ did not become a craze in Japan or
Thailand or in Shenzhen. It is a Hong Kong-only craze. According to Ng, a year one
undergraduate of Digital Graphic Communication in the School of Communications the Hong
Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong people lack the ability to think and make judgement on
their own. They can only do what others do. Leung, a year two undergraduate of The Hong Kong
Institute of Education, confessed he was puzzled by the whole phenomenon. He believed this was
a result of the ‘spoon-feeding’ education of Hong Kong. This education system has failed to
develop critical thinking among students.
From: 記者梁家強，浸會大學學生報網頁
【http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~c8014013/old_31_1/main1.htm】
1.
According to Source 1, why do Hong Kong people like to follow popular trends?
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2.
In Source 1, there are negative references to this kind of ‘Hong Kong spirit’. Please quote
some examples.
3.
Is there a positive side to this ‘Hong Kong spirit’?
Source 2
The Hong Kong Central Library opened its doors to the public at 10 o’clock yesterday morning.
Early in the morning, many people started lining up. It was estimated that before the library
opened, almost 600 people were lining up outside, forming a full circle round the building.
When the doors finally opened, people rushed in and most of them went for the children’s section
on the second floor and the adult section on the third floor. Most of the female readers went for
fiction and checked out all the romantic fiction on the shelves. Miss Chu together with several
friends had grabbed a full bundle of love stories from Taiwan. Each person had at least several
tens of books leaving many others lying on the floor and on the benches.
Miss Chu claimed that if she had gone to other public libraries, she would have had to wait
several weeks and may be a year and the books available would be worn out. So, when she knew
that the Hong Kong Central Library would be open to the public that day, she came early in the
morning to borrow the books she liked. When she looked at her ‘prizes’, she smiled and said,
‘The books here are so plentiful and so new, I am going to share them with my friends. If I cannot
finish them, I will renew them.’
Other best-sellers, Chinese computer books and children’s comic books were almost all loaned
within hours. Those who arrived late were not happy about this.
According to the Hong Kong Central Library, from 10 o’clock in the morning to 1 o’ clock in the
afternoon, a total of 8,400 people visited the library that day. Given so many people, the library
where silence should be observed became as noisy as department stores with visitors talking loud,
staff explaining things and mobile telephones ringing and people screaming.
4.
According to Source 2, what make up the ‘Hong Kong Spirit’? Please suggest any two elements
and give examples from Source 2.
Hong Kong Culture – Present and Future
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What have you learnt?
You have
1. a better understanding of the
characteristics of the ‘Hong Kong Spirit’.
2. become aware of both the positive and
negative aspects of the ‘Hong Kong
Spirit’.
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Hong Kong Culture – Present and Future
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Homework
Do you know of any incident which shows the sort of ‘Hong Kong Spirit’ described in Source 2?
Please use the space below to describe this incident in 30-50 words or illustrate with a drawing. Give
it a title.