Maxim''''s secret of success-the Lingnan spirit

It is a rare for anyone in Hong Kong not to have patronised Maxim's cake shops, fast food outlets or restaurants.Maxim's has been operating in HongKong for 48 years now. It has a broadscope of business, including Chinesefood, Western food, fast food, cakes andpastries, Japanese food, coffee shops, aswell as catering for both companies andairlines. Serving more than 400,000 HongKong customers every day, the Maxim'sGroup has established a number of land-marks in the Hong Kong food …     

Enjoy the Mixture

AU Yeung Ying Chai is a Hong Kong resident. Although well traveled he has never considered emigrating. Despite rising housing prices and worsening air pollution, Au Yeung still loves his city of birth.Au Yeung recently bought a workshop in a remote corner of Hong Kong. He has built a kitchen on its balcony. "I think of it as my cookery laboratory," explains Au Yeung. He has recently written and published two books on Hong Kong cuisine, Eat Half Full ¨C The Climax of Life and Tastes of Hong Kong. The latter looks into the origins, development and distinct ingredients of Hong Kong cooking. It is popular on the mainland as well as in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.Hong Kong is famous as the city of cuisine. Its chefs proudly proclaim to all interested gourmands that fresh ingredients from around the world can be found in Hong Kong. ~~International cuisine is served at Hong Kong's many restaurants and hotels, often tasting better than at its place of origin. There are also enthusiastically attended cuisine festivals throughout the year at the city's 10,000 or so restaurants.     

Retired Life

As Hong Kong inhabitants have a sense of privacy and their living space is often limited, they seldom invite people to their homes. The teahouse is the most popular meeting place. Our interview with Tsui Chee, however, was at his homeMEI Foo Sun Chuen, Hong Kong's first private residential subdistrict in Lai Chi Kok, was built in 1968. It epitomized a well off society where middle-class people, such as Tsui Chee and his family, moved in the 1970s, to live in compact communities. Tsui Chee's apartment has an area of more than 80 square meters. It is furnished in a manner similar to that of a mainland household, other than the altar left of the entrance, where devotions to deities and ancestors are made. As the principles of fengshui are commonly observed in Hong Kong, the position of the altar in the household is decided by geomancers. Hong Kong people visit temples to worship deities and also to draw bamboo slips out of a pot for divination purposes. Geomancers are employed to determine the most auspicious location of new companies and suitable layouts of houses being considered for purchase.     

A Problem That Isn't a Problem

In recent years, putonghua has become a feature of Hong Kong life. When I called Lai Wai Shing to arrange an interview, he insisted that he could not speak putonghua well. During the interview, however, it was clear that he was being modest; his putonghua was both clear and fluent. Wallace Yeung, a Hong Kong native whom I met at Mei Foo Sun Chuen, where I interviewed putonghua-ignorant Tsui Chee, volunteered to be his interpreter, albeit with a strong Cantonese accent. LAI Wai Shing's work experience is straightforward. He was employed by the Ta Kung Po in 1972, and became an economic journalist in 1980. He and his family migrated to Canada in 1995. Lai Wai Shing returned to Hong Kong in 1999 and joined the Hantec Group. He began to work as financial commentator at Hong Kong NOW TV in 2006.Lai Wai Shing has witnessed Hong Kong's huge growth and immense changes. He tells me, "I was born in 1952. At that time Hong Kong was very poor. I remember as a child living with my whole family in a small room with seven or eight people sharing one bed." Lai Wai Shing thinks of this period as the "epoch of poverty in a small fishing port." In the 1960s Hong Kong entered an era of processing industry, and in the 1970s its economy took off. In the 1980s Hong Kong's financial and service trade began to burgeon. After more than 20 years' development, Hong Kong is now a cosmopolis and an international financial center. "There are those that believe Hong Kong is at a crossroads, and that it runs the risk of being marginalized and supplanted as an international financial center by Shanghai," says Lai Wai Shing. Quite a number of people worry volubly about the future role of Hong Kong. To Lai Wai Shing, "It's a problem that isn't a problem."     

New Efforts in an Old City

Known as the gateway to Guangxi, Wuzhou has long been a significant trade hub in southern China. It became a trade port in 1897 and a customs office was built in the same year. Over the next half-century, it became known as a "mini Hong Kong." During the 1930s the Encyclopedia Britannia defined it: "Wuzhou, the largest commercial city in Guangxi."     

What Will the SH-HK Stock Connect Bring?

THE Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Program is a strategic decision the Chinese government has taken to meet the needs of equity markets on the mainland and in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.It represents an institutional innovation in the country’s capital market.During the first 25 trading days after the launch of the program on November 17,2014,more than RMB 71billion flowed into the mainland’s A-share market and RMB 9.5-plus billion into the Hong Kong market via the Stock Connect.Although the trade volume did not show explosive growth,it remained stable and orderly.It will take time for investors to warm to this scheme.In the long term,however,the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock     

20 YEARS IN MY EYES

<正>This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland.In the past 20 years,Hong Kong has made remarkable achievements in many aspects.Every individual in Hong Kong has his or her own story to tell.Ten residents in Hong Kong shared their stories of the past years and talked about their expectations for the future.     

Weighty Matters in Hong Kong

Education is a rocky journey in Hong Kong.Costs are skyrocketing and competition is fierce,as it is on the mainland.But who would have thought that even the issue of schoolbags would be so contentious?News items about how heavy schoolbooks are here,and how to lighten the load for Hong Kong’s students,are matters that everyone in the     

THE TALE OF A CITY

<正> Since it returned to the motherland 20 years ago, Hong Kong has continued to develop itself as a modern metropolis It was a historic scene at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on July 1 when Hong Kong,a fishing villageturned metropolis,embarked on a new journey by welcoming its first female chief executive.Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor,holding her right hand up solemnly,dressed in a light pink silk qipao—a traditional Chinese dress—with a white Chinese-style embroidered long coat,was     

Hong Kong＇s Ailing Book Trade

AS big bookstores mushroom in neighboring Shenzhen and Guangzhou, Hong Kong feels an ever-greater pinch in its publishing sector. Publishing has become more expensive in Hong Kong over the past years, owing to hikes in land and labor costs. A book priced at the equivalent of HK $20 on the mainland is currently tagged at HK $70 in the special administrative region. Unsurprisingly, this huge disparity has enticed Hong Kong readers, and also bookstores, away from the SAR to the adjacent mainland cities for their book purchases. "In the past our only rival was Taiwan," muses Sun Lichuan, deputy editor-in-chief of Cosmos Books. "The mainland posed no threat because its books were inferior in print and design quality. Also, few Hong Kong natives could read the simplified Chinese characters that have been the norm on the mainland since the mid-1950s. But since Hong Kong rejoined Chinese territory, it has closer ties with the mainland. More HK locals have learned to read, and even write, simplified characters. Publishing houses on the mainland have also progressed from small workshops to modern conglomerates. They now produce books that are attractive in appearance as well as substance."     

School Songs in a Multicultural China

DURING the 1990s, cultural influences from foreign lands like Europe and America, as well as those from Chi- na's Hong Kong and Taiwan, sparked off a new round of development among school-goers in the Chinese mainland. Pop and rock stars became fashionable in the mainland for the first time, and their touching lyrics and melodies     

Hong Kong Ten Years After —— Days in the Lives of Hong Kong Inhabitants

The parting phrase, "Manzou," means walk slowly, in the sense of mind how you go. It is frequently heard on China's mainland, where locals indeed proceed in leisurely fashion on foot. But it is plainly inappropriate in Hong Kong. The region's rapid rhythm of life, emphasized by the marching air emitted at each intersection as pedestrians surge across, demands haste of its inhabitants. Oddly enough, the "number eleven bus" is a main mode of transport in this contemporary cosmopolis. The majority of MTR passengers, adults and children alike, are shod in smart sports shoes suitable for maintaining a brisk gait. It is believed possible to distinguish a native of Hong Kong from a visitor by their walking pace. As we observed Hong Kong's fleet-footed inhabitants making their way purposefully along the city's crowded thoroughfares, we wondered about their thoughts since the return of Hong Kong to the motherland, and about the impact it had made on their lives.     

Tongrentang Goes International

正THE time-honored Beijing Tongrentang brand has achieved its longstanding goal to go global.The leading Chinese pharmaceutical company has opened 95 stores in 17 countries and regions out of the mainland,as well as a research and development center in Hong Kong.     

I Married a Mainlander

A decade ago, marriages between Hong Kong and mainland residents occurred mainly among old Hong Kong men and young mainland women. Sometimes the age difference could be as much as 40 years. This gender bias is no long the norm, and there are few instances of even a ten-year gap. Many Hong Kong and mainland residents now "intermarry" on far a less pragmatic basis.I married a mainland husband, isn't that the best I could hope for over the past decade?" jokes Yeung Ming Yu, in fluent putonghua. Prior to Hong Kong's return, the probability of a young Hong Kong-born woman marrying a mainlander was extremely low. A decade later, such matches are relatively commonplace. A total 6,500 Hong Kong women married mainlanders in 2006, according to statistics.     

APEC and China''''s Opening

THE Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC), founded in1989, is a regional economic organization for inter-governmen-tal cooperation.It currently has 21 members. China. togetherwith the special regions of Hong Kong nd Taiwan, joined theorganization in 1991. The only regional economic organization ofwhich China is a member,APEC provides for China an arena in whichto participate in regional and international economic activities, and alsohelps propel the course of China's opening to the o…     

Old Remains Gold

New plan to protect Beijing’s historical but congested core areaThere couldn’t be a better place than Dashilar Street in Beijing,southwest of famed Tiananmen Square,to witness the continuity of history in China.The bustling commercial area is full of ancientstyle architecture including souvenir shops selling handicrafts and other bric-a-bracs,food stores and shops selling timehonored brands such as boots once made for officials of the royal court.     

Hail to Hong Kong In a New Era

<正>The 2022 Hong Kong chief executive election was held on May 8 for the sixth term of the highest office of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR).John Lee Ka-chiu was elected as HKSAR’s sixth-term chief executive designate,and is awaiting the Central Government’s official appointment.He is expected to take over the city’s top job from incumbent Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor,who has been in office since 2017.     

RESTORING LUSTER TO THE PEARL OF THE ORIENT

<正>Hong Kong embarks on a new journey 25 years after its returnto the motherlandHong Kong has made an"irreplaceable contribution."Since its return,it has contributed greatly to the motherland’s long-term,steady and fast economic growth,President Xi Jinping said on July 1.     

Finding an Identity

Macao helps its residents discover themselves through cultural heritage protection Macao, a tiny place less than 2.5 percent the size of Hong Kong, doesn't even have its own textbooks for primary and middle school students. The former Portuguese colony has instead for decades used textbooks compiled in Hong Kong.     

Eyeing Financial Reform

Xu Xiaonian is a professor of economics and finance at the China Europe International Business School. He has been a managing director and head of research for China International Capital Corp. Ltd. and senior economist with Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific in Hong Kong. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank. Xu obtained a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Davis and has taught at Amherst College in Massachusetts. At a recent forum sponsored by the China Europe International Business School, Xu discussed the objectives and procedures of China's financial reform. Excerpts of that talk follow: