hong kong was great idea - with china so big and diverse, generalizations were impossible. but in this small chunk, it was easier to see geomancers (fung-shui), family dynamics (younger members obeying elders), and mah jongg.
with their well deserved pride (afterall, their ancestors invented the printing press and gun powder and were studying philosophy long before any western civilization) it was a natural evolution toward the closed-minded notion that outsiders had nothing to offer china. isn't it true that trade was heavily unbalanced before opium was introduced? so even today, with foreigners in and investing in hong kong, the chinese look that the 'barbarians', and their lifestyles, in a bemused way.
that said, hong kong is very different from china - most strikingly - in their lack of 'native' arts or crafts; people here are simply too focused on building wealth to nurture that type of creativity
it does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop
confucious
when i let go of what i am, i become what i might be
lao-tze
most people in hong kong have a casual relationship with religion. the 3 most practiced are buddhism, taoism and confucianism (although the latter two are less like religions than templates for honorable behavior). with 'just-in-case' observances, rituals to fend off bad luck, and other ceremonies/festivals, it seems like the buffet-style of christianity we see here.
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