Hong Kong, listen to your nanny

I just came across an amusing article in the Taipei Times mocking the Hong Kong's government tendancies to issue out "social guidance" messages.

The latest message popping up on RTHK (Hong Kong's state-owned radio station):

"Show your parents how much you care," the cheery voice says. "Take them to the dentist."

No surpirse, this caused some mixed reactions:

Instead of encouraging a flood of elderlies to the dentist, it caused widespread hilarity.

"I guess the days of a good old bunch of flowers have gone," quipped radio DJ Phil Whelan, one of the station's presenters required by law to play such announcements of public interest each hour.

Humour aside, the article is rather critical of Hong Kong's emergence as a nanny state:

The dentist spot is among a multitude of announcements and notices stating what can seem blindingly obvious that have flourished in Hong Kong in recent years, baffling visitors and earning the city a reputation as a nannying state.

For a territory that claims to have the world's freest economy, Hong Kong's 6.9 million people live under a tyranny of petty rules and regulations, critics say.

"They are on the rise, undoubtedly," Chinese University sociologist Chan Kim-man says. "Residents tend to tune them out, but visitors certainly notice them."

I remember being in Hong Kong in 04/05 over Christmas and seeing this TV commercial telling children to be filial. The ad shows some kid helping an elderly person pick up some stuff they had dropped. As a visitor I certainly noticed and thought quite strange to see government make ads such as this.

From codes preventing schoolboys from having curly hair to TV ads telling them how to carry textbooks; from "no sitting" signs in malls to "no spitting" notices on ferries; and from warnings on entering manholes to laws against loud music at concerts, almost every aspect of life is covered by a regulation. Among RTHK's incongruous spots are those that offered advice on buying a license for your pet whale shark and donating blood to make you look younger.

I am not so sure about the scientific backing of the blood donation tip. I would have thought people donated blood out of good will. While in HK, I was amazed at how many advertisements on TV and on those bus LCD TVs showed "look young, look fairer, and look slimmer" products.

As a bit of an aside, I also need to beef about Hong Kong malls. As flash as they may be, my one and only grudge is that there are seriously no benches or seats whatsoever for you to take a breather in between your frantic shopping. This is a bit of concern for visitors who have been shopping for 2-3 hours straight. I suppose this is how they get you into Starbucks or Delifrance, which is clever. Better to have you spending during your break from shopping, than sitting down being unprofitable. Still, it's rather cruel.

So, what else should HKers be mindful of?

Another hygiene-promotional ads simultaneously said "Wash vegetables under running water," and "Don't let taps run: save water."

Well, the hygiene messages aren't so strange. Sydney has those "don't waste our precious water" ads as well, mainly because they actually have water shortage problems with lack of rain.

The need for stringent social guidelines is contrary to the Confucian philosophy prevalent in China. Confucius taught that civilizations maintained order through understanding and education, not through laws and regulations.

True, today Hong Kong could probably care less about Confucious. But somehow, I think running ads telling people to take their eldery to the dentist or help the elderly cross the road aren't all that effective. After all, the youths of Hong Kong society seem to idolise "Twins" (are they still "in"?) more than Confucious, Zheng He, Zeng Guofan, or Sun Yat-sen.

However, according to Chan, Hong Kong's obsession with rules has little to do with Chinese cultural beliefs and more to do with the territory's British colonial past.

"It is partly a hangover from the days of British rule and British bureaucracy," Chan says. "Our legal system and bureaucratic system was handed to us by the British."

"Those signs are there to inform the foreigners -- the immigrants," Chan adds. "This is a city of outsiders and the feeling has always been that they need to be educated in our ways of behavior."

I'm guessing the "no spitting" thing is to target mainland visitors/immigrants. Shanghai was a really exciting city, and I really enjoyed my visit there. But the spitting was a major put off. Even the people who dressed really sophistically spat, with the "hwuuik, tooh!" sound.