The government has announced that the National Day fireworks display on 1 October has been cancelled for the fourth year in a row.
image: HK Tourism
Category: lifestyle
No Eating Food Expo…
With the weather hot, wet and miserable the no eating Food Expo, which runs from 11-15 August, looks very enticing – crowded though it will be.
As usual there’s a cornucopia of edible delights and special promotions to enjoy. Many of the companies were still building their stalls at today’s media walk-through but here are a few things, amidst the mounds of mooncakes and noodles, that caught our eye.
Social enterprise company Hello Cocoa makes speciality chocolate items while supporting and employing Hongkongers with special education needs.
For those tired, at the end of a long day, there’s Trevijano‘s range of healthy premade risottos, couscous, and quinoas. Each packet is good for 3-4 people and they look delicious – we have yet to taste the cooked versions – and a simple way to add variety and flavour to any meal.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220810-Food-Expo-2022/i-QdbqXNt
Absolutely the cutest item on sale at this year’s Food Expo is the Propolia bee (S69).
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220810-Food-Expo-2022/i-H2PX5T8
Local cookie company Cookieism have an expo promotion on their tasty, but small, American cookies: 5 cookies and another item for $100.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220810-Food-Expo-2022/i-mSfjNWK
For something a little different… Black Churros
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220810-Food-Expo-2022/i-6vhHtTK
On the 3/F there is a wide assortment of massage chairs and foot massagers on display/sale – and while the chairs will be too big for many flats the idea of having a foot massager at home to help relieve the many stresses in today’s Hong Kong is very appealing.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220810-Food-Expo-2022/i-rbfXFGc
Fancy a Korean BBQ at home several appliance companies have home BBQ machines on display/sale.
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220810-Food-Expo-2022/i-FvFsXKG
https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220810-Food-Expo-2022/i-26fGJK5
Food Expo, Hong Kong International Tea Fair, Beauty & Wellness Expo, Home Delights Expo
When: 10am, 11-15 August, 2022
Where: HK Convention & Exhibition Centre
Tickets: $25 from HKTicketing/Octopus App
images: bc magazine
Covid Test Needed to Enter Bars & Clubs
From today you will need a negative RAT test to enter local bars and clubs.
“Patrons are required to present proof of a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) result obtained within 24 hours before entering bars, pubs, clubs or nightclubs from June 16 to 29” announced Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan.
According to the government announcement, customers will need to show a photo of the RAT device with their name, testing date and time written on it as proof of taking the test – before they can enter.
Local illustrator surrealhk perfectly captures the new rule.
Vinexpo Rebrands and Moves to Singapore in 2023
After twenty years Vinexpo Hong Kong is no more. The government’s covid restrictions on travel and the bar and restaurant trade have essentially forced the popular wine exhibition to leave Hong Kong for a location where over 1000 global exhibitors will be able to participate.
CEO of Vinexposium Rodolphe Lameyse commented on the move “Unfortunately I and my shareholders consider that Hong Kong is not where we want to be in the future.”
Vinexpo Asia will take place at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore from 23-25 May 2023.
Project 4th June, a 24-hour Online Dance Commemoration of Tiananmen
Singaporean artist Ming Poon, aka Ming Apur, likes as he puts it to use choreography as a “tool to interrogate, disrupt and re-organise the social and political relationality of the body in time and space.”
Poon’s latest work is Project June 4th a 24-hour online commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that looks to use dance to speak out against state censorship of peaceful dissent, criticism and the erasure and rewriting of history. For as Poon says “Once we forget, history repeats itself and the oppressors become emboldened”.
On 4 June 1989 the peaceful mass student protests in Tiananmen Square were ended by military force. Although more than 30 years have passed, the Chinese government still suppresses any mention or acknowledgement of the incident.
On 5 June a single man stood against a column of tanks… Project 4th June commemorates those who were murdered, the movement and choreography of Tank Man represents as Poon puts it “the potential that lies within ordinary persons to stop the machines of violence and oppression. It is also a call-out to stand up against injustice, no matter how small we think we are and how insurmountable we think the task is.”
6 dancers will take turns performing Tank Man throughout the 24-hour commemoration. Each will attempt to interpret the choreography in a way that expresses their individual thoughts and relationship to the Tiananmen Square incident, state censorship and the fight for human rights and democracy.
The 6 dancers are:
1. Pink Tank: “Watch out, the world is not behind you.”
2. Tank Ghost: “Of Ghosts and Shells”
3. Tank Zheng: “No Tank On Rainbow”
4. Tank Sexy: “The Days Without Cigarettes / 沒有煙抽的日子“
5. Tank Plant: “Planting the Reality”
6. Tank Critique Critique: “Which Tanks Do You Need To Stand In Front Of?”
If you want to watch, join or participate (see the video above for the choreography) in the commemoration Poon has an event etiquette to help make it safe for everyone. Keep your identity, as well as others’ anonymous!
- If you turn on your camera during the commemoration, put on a mask before doing so. Also, make sure that your background does not reveal any personal information, ideally sit with a blank wall as your background.
- Microphones will be turned OFF by default throughout the commemoration, to avoid voice detection.
- Before entering the commemoration room, replace your display name with an alias. Your alias should be written in the following manner: Tank ___ (e.g., Tank Person, Tank ABC, Tank 123, etc,). Do not include any personal information in it.
Project June 4th
Date: 4 June, 2022 (
Venue: live stream on Zoom and Youtube
Tickets: Free
More info: www.mingapur.com
live stream on Zoom and Youtube
Ghost Bikes Memorial
James Ockenden’s “ghost bikes” project remembers the nine cyclists who lost their lives on Hong Kong’s roads last year. White painted bikes with white silk flowers and a memorial card with details of the person who died were placed at each of the fatal accident spots.
Ockenden, who organised the ghost bike memorial after the annual Ride of Silence 2022 was made a virtual event, said of the people who died – I think it is important to remember that these accident victims were not racing, but just getting around in an easy and environmental-friendly way, and we should be supporting that as a community.
The Ride of Silence is an annual international bicycle ride that pays tribute those killed or injured when cycling on public roads. The ride had been held in Hong Kong on the third Wednesday of May for the last 16 years.
After the 2021 memorial ride organised by the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance, the police accused riders of violating Covid-19 social distancing rules and ticketed everyone.
The Ride of Silence 2022 livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NBihAt2Pao
Ride of Silence 2022
Date: 7pm, 18 May, 2022
Venue: Hong Kong
Tickets: Free
images: hkghostbikes
Press Freedom Plunges….
Hong Kong’s ‘press freedom’ has plunged 68 places to 148th (out of 180) since the implementation of the National Security Law as government critics are jailed and publications silenced.
The 20th World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reveals a large increase in polarisation amplified by information chaos – that is, media polarisation fuelling and feeding divisions within and between countries.
The spread of ‘opinion media’ and disinformation are amplified by the way social media functions and are creating extreme polarisation of views with an unrepresented and unlistened to middle ground.
“At the international level, democracies are being weakened by the asymmetry between open societies and despotic regimes that control their media and online platforms while waging propaganda wars against democracies.”
Reporters Without Borders defines press freedom as “the effective possibility for journalists, as individuals and as groups, to select, produce and disseminate news and information in the public interest, independently from political, economic, legal and social interference, and without threats to their physical and mental safety.”
In order to reflect press freedom’s complexity, five indicators are used to compile the Index: the political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and security.
image: The Korea Herald
Alternative Smoking Products Banned from 30 April, 2022
The amended Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap 371) which prohibits the import, promotion, manufacture, sale and possession for commercial purposes of alternative smoking products (ASPs) takes effect from 30 April 2022.
“The ban covers electronic smoking products, heated tobacco products, herbal cigarettes, and their accessories. Starting this Saturday, Tobacco and Alcohol Control Inspectors will conduct inspections, investigate complaints and carry out enforcement actions accordingly,” said a spokesman for the Department of Health (DH). Offenders are subject to a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months.
According to the amended Ordinance, import of an ASP by way of parcels, cargoes or bringing in by incoming travellers is prohibited. Travellers bringing ASPs into Hong Kong, regardless of the quantity or whether they are for personal use, must declare them to the Customs and Excise Department.
The amendment also makes it an offence to smoke or carry an activated ASP in a statutory no-smoking area. Offenders will face a $1,500 fixed penalty notice.
The Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office (TACO) has published a pamphlet to assist the public, incoming travellers and traders in complying with the new legislative requirements.
If you wish to quit smoking you can call the DH’s Integrated Smoking Cessation Hotline on 1833 183 which offers professional counselling services on smoking cessation. Information on quitting smoking can also be obtained from www.livetobaccofree.hk.
