Wikipedia defines the concept of “little emperors” as follows:

“Little Emperors” is a name that refers to only children in the People’s Republic of China after the one-child policy was implemented.

Attributed most frequently to increased spending power within the family unit and the parents’ desire for their child to experience the benefits they were denied, the syndrome results from the children’s sole command of the attention of their parents and grandparents.

Described as a problem so acute that it’s changing how society functions, the Little Emperor effect has grown beyond a side effect that the architects of China’s one-child policy could never have foreseen” into a “behavioral time-bomb.”

Here in Hong Kong we witness the syndrome on a daily basis, albeit for different reasons.  Here Filipino maids are made to carry children’s schoolbags by over-protective parents, while the latter (like in the picture I took this morning, below) walks with his hands behind his bag.

When we lived in Taiwan, it took a while to “accept” all the red splats all over the place.

There they chew something called “bien-lang” or betel-nut (槟榔 / Bīnláng) that requires Taiwanese chewers to spit constantly.  As a consequence one sees red splats all over the streets, alleys and sidewalks.

When you’re on the Island, you also see the outlets from whence betel-nut is sold… all over the place. But that is a post all on it’s own.

However, my friend Tobie Openshaw, a South African photographer and videographer has published and commented extensively on this phenomenon.  He has also been featured on a National Geographic TV-program on Betel-nut beauties (檳榔西施) You can read more here or watch Tobie on Nat Geo in Canada here

That was Taiwan.  Here in Hong Kong, we have the ritual throat-clearing.

That grating  “Ggggggggggg” (not the English gerrrrr… think South African guttural Ggggggggg…) when Hongkongers try to loosen phlegm and all kinda other shit from their throats.

A website I just visited says:

” Many Chinese who spit say they do so for health reasons. Many Chinese have phlegm in their throats as a result of chronic bronchitis, colds that never get better and respiratory problems caused by heavy smoking, air pollution, and cold weather.”

“The hacking and spitting is merely a way of clearing the lungs and throats and respiratory system of phlegm and other nasty things that have accumulated in them. According to Chinese beliefs, phlegm is considered a manifestation of natural imbalances in the body and getting rid of it is regarded as a healthy act. Some people claim that chronic spitting spreads disease and helps create the problem it is trying to solve.”

I never really got used to “bien-lang” spitting in Taiwan and I’m sure I will continue to be highly irritated here in Hong Kong with the constant throat-clearing.

Garbage bins all over the SAR ask/warn people to “wrap their spittle” and not do their business all over the place.  My apartment building gets quite a number of visitors from Mainland China and, I dare say from experience, those people have no manners when it comes to spitting.

Therefore it was not strange when I saw the following sign on a Hong Kong Island Tram today:

Sies Man! Use a f*kken tissue!

If it wasn’t for the fact that Hong Kongers are very suspicious of people with cameras on the MTR (perverts taking “up-skirt” pics are in the news often), I’d always have my cameras handy. 

One can see so much of the real Hong Kong riding the MTR:  Women meticulously applying make-up, doting moms cleaning their little ones’ noses (picking, not wiping), old folks trimming their nails, even men shaving with battery-powered razors.

Our friends over at Secret Hong Kong recently snapped this mom killing time on the MTR checking her little one’s homework:

Time is money in Hong Kong!

Cheers Chris!