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  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
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Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you wh at life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

6/2/2023 2 Comments

Hong Kong Garden

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"Where is the rickshaw pulled by Jackie Chan?"
As we reopen to the world, the official Hong Kong promo video is out. The reaction is not favourable. Stale, unimaginative and unappealing is the consensus in my immediate circle. 

Comparisons with the recently released catchy South Korean promo videos have not helped. 


To qualify that criticism, two of the dissenters are experienced marketing people managing international clients. Critics also took to the local press to drive home the opinion that the video manifests a 1980s feel. I’m disappointed — where is the rickshaw pulled by Jackie Chan? 

None of this is very reassuring because Hong Kong remains a vibrant city of stark contrasts, with diverse opportunities and much to offer. 

So what is the issue? First, the mask mandate is a drag. The fact that no one in the video is wearing a mask hasn't gone unnoticed. On Twitter, one wag suggested the absence of masks amounts to 'false advertising.’

Still, I suppose having spent three years wearing masks, tourists are probably not nostalgic to relive that hassle.


Second, it is unclear who is the target audience of the video. In the recent past, most of our tourists came from the Mainland. Unless I'm mistaken, they came for tax-free luxury shopping, a quick tour, including gawking at drunk expats in LKF and a trip to Disney. Or is that too simplistic a view?

From the anecdotal evidence of my 42 years here, hosting family and friends, it is the unexpectedly strange features of Hong Kong that appeal. To illustrate the point, some thrilled at rambling through a real-life Blade Runner neon-lit set in the alleyways of Yaumati; edgy and alien but safe because Hong Kong remains free of street crime.

Then you can have an immediate switch of tone and pace by getting easy access to our splendid country parks. 


Still, the giveaway of over half a million air tickets will undoubtedly have more impact. Note that 80,000 will go to Hong Kongers and another 80,000 to Greater Bay residents.

Details of the scheme are here, although when I logged on with my mobile phone, the first pop-up message warned against importing dangerous drugs. Odd. Maybe, the tagline should read "Hi, Hong Kong!"


For sure Hong Kong's tourist industry will rebound, but in an evolved form. It is a simple case of build it, and they will come. 

In the meantime, I leave you with this gem from Siouxie and the Banshees.

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2 Comments
Gloria Bing
7/2/2023 11:16:35 am

Totally agree Walter, both about the retro 90s feel of the video and that HK's pleasures are to be found in eating the pudding, not watching the pudding being confected on TV.

BTW, can anyone tell me why the Pearl River Delta got renamed as the Greater Bay Area? The region is obviously not a bay and is in fact obviously a delta, so why? Is it to make it sound hip, like the San Francisco Bay Area?

Reply
Chris Emmett
8/2/2023 12:52:28 am

Siouxie nailed the soundtrack better.

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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