New Year, new beginning as fast-paced city shows its mettle

Monday Vibes

Hong Kong, like other places with a rich Chinese culture, is still basking in a festive mood this month.

We have just celebrated the Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

On the lunar calendar we are in mid-“January”, enjoying an abundance of prime spring time.

Schools and companies have started to resume full operations after the Lunar New Year break.

Toward the end of February shopping malls, one after another, began organizing the annual ritual dragon and lion dances.

It is partly a traditional wish for an auspicious year and partly an attraction for shoppers. Many non-Chinese faces were among the crowds, taking videos or snapshots of the kung fu-based dancing performances.

By the time I was drawn to the dancers on a February day, I was curious to see the troupe had hung wraps of lucky vegetables above the front entrances of many shops.

The wraps had lettuce, Chinese spring onions and celery. It was interesting to see these hanging over shops carrying international brands selling perfumes, cosmetics and jewelry.

The vegetables all have auspiciously sounding names in Cantonese. Lettuce for instance resembles “fortune”, Chinese spring onions “intelligence”, and celery, “diligence”.

Part of the tradition is that the lion dancers fetch the vegetable wrap. Grateful to the performers for bringing good luck and all the good things the vegetables represent, the shops, in return, will give them lai see packets, the red envelopes containing money — commonly exchanged around New Year.

I reveled in the idea that Hong Kong deserves to be Asia’s World City. It has a cosmopolitan character, but keeps its Chinese core alive, showcasing traditions with style and grace.

And Asia’s World City has plenty of other qualities to be proud of.

Its competitiveness is based in part on a high level of efficiency. It’s believed that even the speed of escalators here is faster than those in cities with a more laidback way of life.

Striving for efficiency is a trait most Hong Kong people share; they demand value for space, money and time.

And I mean this as a compliment to Hong Kong people, who are skilled at being efficient, doing the best for oneself in a highly competitive environment, while living in forbiddingly expensive yet cramped conditions.

Recently I was impressed by a casual display of efficiency. I was standing in a straight line to buy cinema tickets, behind about eight people.

The long line was about to block visitor flows at the shopping center.

Then a man working for the shopping center signaled to me to stand on the left of the person before me. I complied, and all the people behind me followed suit. The straight line, now at a right angle, no longer blocked the way.

The man then set up “rope barriers” so people coming later could go in the right direction.

Days later, when I passed the same cinema, more people were there. This time, more rope barriers were deployed and a crowd in the small space could wait in an orderly fashion in a line that snaked into S-curves.

Besides efficiently managing space, I saw Hong Kong people’s efficiency in managing time, too.

It was the last day of a popular museum exhibition. Two museum staff members stood outside the ticketing windows. Each assisted a ticket office teller by pre-assessing the combination of adults and kids waiting next in line and calculating total payments.

They also asked about payment method — cash or going cashless by swiping Octopus cards.

With the pair’s input, the ticket office could issue tickets quickly.

Such efficiency is an acquired skill, driven by the need to confront a challenging situation. People had to think of how to cope and were forced to take swift action to bring a satisfying result.

This practice of coping with adverse situations and coming up with smart solutions, repeated over and over again multiple times and on countless occasions, shapes the can-do spirit of Hong Kong and its people.

This is the gift of adversity. Hong Kong, a city that has skillfully turned adversity into strengths in the past, has every right to channel its blessings and aim for an even brighter future.