Hong Kong is a city unlike any other, its buildings rising up out of the hills like ridged obelisks, its waters rippling with cargo ships, ferries, and buoys, its mountainside painted the shade of roiling green, its alleys stacked upon one another with overpasses and skywalks crisscrossing as in an M.C. Escher illustration.
I'm in Hong Kong at the moment, and to try to capture a bit of the wonder of this place, I made the above video. Hope you enjoy.
"A few hundred" people showed up to a pro-Edward Snowden rally in Hong Kong on Saturday, the city where the NSA whistleblower is believed to still be residing. Reports Reuters:
Marchers gathered outside the U.S. consulate shouting slogans denouncing alleged spying operations aimed at China and Hong Kong, but the numbers were modest compared to rallies over other rights and political issues.
"Arrest Obama, free Snowden," protesters shouted outside the slate grey building as police looked on. Many waved banners that said: "Betray Snowden, betray freedom", "Big brother is watching you" and "Obama is checking your email".
Edward Snowden sat down with the South China Morning Post yesterday, causing the editors of that Hong Kong-based paper to somewhat lose their minds with SCOOP FEVER. (Which article do I link to? The 3:31 am one that has EXCLUSIVE splashed across the headline -- even though Snowden's spoken with several media outlets already -- or the one from 19 minutes later, or the one from 7:37 am on the same subject? There's another version from earlier, 12:52 am.)
Without a doubt, Hong Kong is a vertically oriented city, with vertiginous towers built upon mountains and hills and other daunting inclines. Which is why we're happy to encounter graphic artist/photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze's rendering of the city in "Vertical Horizon," a project that strives to see Hong Kong as measly mortals must.
For the first time ever, Art Basel opened in Hong Kong on Thursday, where it'll remain a showcase for Asian art, artists and galleries until tomorrow. For a glimpse, you'll want to check out Stephy Chung's latest video for Crane.tv, above, featuring scenes from this international event.
Does Hong Kong deserve Art Basel? That's debatable. "Even a few local boosters will admit that the paucity of Hong Kong galleries is largely a reflection of the weakness of the local art scene," reports the New York Times.
The 16.5-meter inflatable duck in Hong Kong's Victoria Bay remains entertaining. Look at the above. Just look at it.
It was due to air leakage, says Sina. It lasted 12 days, as of yesterday.
Pity the duck. Pity us all.
I don't really have anything to add to Hong Wrong's piece about the 16.5-meter duck in Victoria Harbor, "In Pictures: HK Goes Completely Insane For Big Yellow Duck’s Arrival," or Shanghaiist's guide to SCMP's articles about these rubber ducks (with rolling updates), except to say this is awesome:
All white people look the same -- paunchy with yellow hair -- so the news that a pair of Asian television networks committed two separate Thatcher-related mix-ups during their coverage of the former British Prime Minister’s death on Monday at the age of 87 should come as little surprise.
The first, Taiwan’s CTi Cable, broadcast footage of Queen Elizabeth II greeting well-wishers instead of Thatcher.
Like Lady Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II is an 87-year-old British politician. Unlike Lady Thatcher, however, Queen Elizabeth II is a different person and had well-wishers to greet.
Margaret Thatcher, the outspoken former Prime Minister who transformed Great Britain during her stewardship of the country from 1979 to 1990 and inspired the global conservative moment during her decade in power, died Monday from a stroke.
Great Britain’s only woman prime minister, the so-called Iron Lady led the Conservative Party to three electoral victories in a streak that was the longest continuous period in office by a British premier since the early nineteenth century.
Thatcher, 87, remained an extremely decisive figure in Great Britain despite stepping away from public office in 1990, continuing to provoke visceral emotional reactions and passionate debate on her native turf and throughout the Commonwealth.
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