Chapter 24 21. Without staying, how can there be culture?

I like Hong Kong Dear Andre: I like Hong Kong.Every time I go back to Hong Kong, I feel relaxed as soon as I get to the airport.Whether it is from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or even Taipei, when I step into the Hong Kong airport, the feeling of "civilization" and "modernity" always makes me breathe a sigh of relief.The space is spacious and bright, well-organized, and the rule of law makes you feel at ease about everything—even the police in the face of it; efficiency makes you not have to draw swords, and things operate automatically according to certain rules. I also like Hong Kong people; there are more down-to-earth and sincere people behind the rich and powerful Hong Kong people, and more simple and pure people behind the ostentatious people.You have to slowly discover a Hong Kong that is completely different from its surface.

But what about the culture of Hong Kong? Where to go? Unexpectedly, you discovered the major characteristics of Hong Kong so quickly.When I first came to Hong Kong, one day I spent the whole afternoon shopping in bookstores.The books in the bag were getting heavier and heavier but I didn't want to go home, so I wanted to find a clean and quiet cafe to sit down.If it is Taipei, there are too many places like this.Get into a quiet corner, surrounded by the aroma of coffee, maybe a little cozy music, you can finish the whole bag of new books. It was very hot that day, and I was carrying a heavy book, and I searched for it from street to street, thinking that like Taipei, I would be able to see it when I turned a corner.But no.Really do not have.Go to a tea restaurant, but it's a greasy, sweet place, crowded and noisy, and someone just stands next to you and checks your seat.Go to Starbucks or Pacific Ocean, but you are dissatisfied with the monopoly of multinational companies and fear their destruction of local industries, so you are unwilling to spend there.And even if you sit down, there are always people in a hurry around you, eagerly looking for a seat with a tray.There is a sense of oppression in the cafe.

Go to the atrium cafe of the Grand Hotel, Hyatt, Peninsula, Hilton, Shangri-La?Everywhere there is "high taste" that is carefully crafted and carved.When you are a tourist yourself, this kind of place gives you the convenience and comfort you are familiar with, but, as a "local", you have just passed through the crowded street market, just got off the two-dollar jingle car, just got off the The narrow and dirty stairs of the bookstore on the second floor come out. What are you looking for in this high-spirited place that mocks the outside market culture?And, Andre, you may think I'm overly sensitive—even in the 21st century, tourist hotels in Asia still have a little bit of concession and colonial flavor, especially class flavor.

That day, I stood on the street for a long time, not knowing where to go. The so-called "cafe" we are talking about is of course not just a place that sells coffee.It is a small restaurant run by an "individual", which means that the owner is not an abstract consortium that you can't see or touch, so the small restaurant is filled with the temperament and personality of the owner; it is the public "living room" of the community, It is the warmest little stronghold in a desolate big city.People who come to drink coffee know each other well, and everyone knows the boss's nickname.If by chance, most of the people who come here are creators—writers, directors, scholars, opposition activists...then the cafe is the cultural stage of the city.

Do not stay idle What you don't know is that Hong Kong literati don't have the culture of "being in touch with each other" like Taipei literati.When literati get together, there must be a purpose: to talk about one thing, or to clean up the dust for someone from afar.Once the goal is accomplished, it will be scattered, just like a "flash mob". Have you noticed that even in shopping malls, there are very few places for people to sit down and chat.Its design is to allow people to move around constantly, from one store to the next, that is to use space to force consumption.If there is a place for people to sit and chat, the purpose of consumption will be defeated.

The places where you are allowed to stay are for tourists and passers-by, such as the bars in Lan Kwai Fong and the atriums of big hotels.However, they are really just passing by.But the people who really live in this city have no place to stay.Home, too cramped for entertaining guests.Restaurant, you have to leave after eating.Club, limited membership.Tourist hotel, too expensive.Where do people go to "friend each other" and cultivate community sentiment? The question is, without community emotion, where can cultural identity come from? Look again, Andre, Hong Kong has such a long coastline, but it doesn't really have a coastal culture.In such a bright Victoria Harbour, there is no place where you can sit with friends under the stars, eat and drink, sing and talk, and stay obsessively all night by the waves and sea breeze.France, Spain, England, and even Singapore have such coasts.You said, there is an Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui.The Walk of Fame is designed for tourists—it's all about making money, not for locals to live, linger, and put down roots there.

In this city, there is not even a large square where people gather.Like all-night chats in cafes and bars, mass gatherings are an act of cultivating community consensus, an extremely important "stay culture", and how critical it is to deepen cultural identity.But Hong Kong is a city where there are no idlers, "don't linger". precipitation, accumulation, brewing, cultivation You said Hong Kong "has no culture", Andre, if you interpret "culture" in a broad sense, of course Hong Kong has culture: its popular culture, commercial culture, management culture, rule of law culture, and even its traditional common people culture, etc. etc., are very rich and active, in many ways far surpassing any other Chinese cities.But when we interpret "culture" in a narrow sense—referring to all deep-seated activities related to humanistic thought—the lack of Hong Kong becomes apparent.

In Europe, cafes are "poet's writing room", "artist's living room", and "wisdom school".The "Cafe de Flore" in Paris is the study where Simone de Beauvoir stays, and Le Procope is the tavern where Molière and his troupe must visit every night and encyclopedia writers stay.The Duex magots and Brasserie Lipp on the banks of the Seine are places where surrealists and existential philosophers hang out.Swift stopped at Wills in London, the literary salon that pretty much dominated 17th-century English literature.The Antico Greco Caffe in Rome was once the place where Wagner, Byron and Shelley stayed.Vienna's Central Café (Zentral) used to be where Freud and Trotsky stayed.The artist developed Dada art in the tavern where Voltaire stayed in Zurich, and the intellectuals stayed in the café in Prague to start the enlightenment of politics in 1803.

Culture comes from lingering—"playing" can stimulate thinking, provoking inspiration, and bursting with energy; "staying" can lead to precipitation, accumulation, brewing, and cultivation.Can we say that without a stay space, there is no stay culture; without a stay culture, there is no culture at all? The exhausting "fight" But, Andre, we probably cannot judge Hong Kong by European standards.What do you think, if a thousand artists and writers open a thousand beautiful cafes in Hong Kong, what will happen? Is the "stay culture" born? I believe they will be out of business within a month due to lack of customers.You may not know that Hong Kong people work an average of 48 hours a week, and there are 750,000 people who work more than 60 hours, accounting for 23% of the total working population.The longest working hours are the highest in the world.This, not counting the time people spend on the road, is 300 hours a year!You want exhausted Hong Kongers to linger in a cafe for a casual chat, thought trigger, and inspiration?

Thought needs the accumulation of experience, inspiration needs the precipitation of feelings, and the most detailed experience needs the most peaceful and thorough observation.Accumulation, precipitation, quiet contemplation, which one can be produced in the busy?I believe that busyness prevents a writer from writing, a musician from composing music, a painter from painting, and a scholar from writing.Hustle turns thinkers into famous talkers, famous talkers into entertainers, and entertainers into noisy clowns.Leisure, lingering, is indeed the organic soil of creativity, indispensable. But the economic achievements of Hong Kong people are based on the spirit of "diligence" and "fighting". The spirit of "fighting" means every second counts, efficiency comes first, and money comes first.Andre, this is the reality of Hong Kong.How can such a hard soil grow anything other than economic efficiency?

MM