Life in Asia! The Epilogue - Part 1

Singapore - a clean, safe and good place to live

Blimey I am that old I can remember the epilogue on television. It was broadcast at the end of the day's programmes. Well I think I will have a few epilogues to wind up the Life in Asia. Can you do that? Have a series of epilogues that is. Or is an epilogue supposed to be a final single closing? That is the good thing about blogging; you can write the rules as you go along.

Anyway, Life in Asia! The Epilogue - Part 1.

Starting in Singapore I set out on a journey through my work, but at the same time be closer to Khamma in Thailand. I enjoyed Singapore immensely and if I had to chose between Hong Kong and Singapore to live, I would choose Singapore. It is a country dominated by the rules and regulations of a single man, Mr Lee Kwan Yew. Singaporeans feel safe in a society that is proud of its status. If you are a Singaporean you are looked after from cradle to grave. The only thing you have to do is toe the line. Step over that line and you face the wrath of the big machine of law and order. Of course the reality is different and most people do what they want to do and make sure they don't get caught. I like that. There is an image of subterfuge as citizens, and visitors, dart about in dimly lit streets, getting away with things that wouldn't deserve a second glance anywhere else in the world. Just underneath the surface you can find shady deals, black money and most other normal things.

But the Singaporeans don't have to think too much because Mr Lee's machine is doing it for them, and sometimes this overflows into the work place or public domain. You can see the blank look of panic at not knowing what to do, say or otherwise react to simple situations like should I turn left or right, should I say yes or no, or should I stay or should I go? That is a little bit simplified, but it seems sometimes to get an answer to a question it had to go up the chain of command until it reached somebody with enough rank, or guts, to speak his mind. I still have many outstanding unanswered emails sent to people who think it should be answered by somebody else.

Singapore is clean, safe and easy to get around. I had a great place to live at Bayshore Park and the airport is the best in the world, bar none! The climate is constantly hot and humid all the year round which does restrict some activities like jogging and cycling, but once I got used to it I found it was good.

The main problem for me in Singapore was the relative lack of scenery and things to do outdoors. Some people will disagree but compared to other places there are no mountains, or even hills, no dramatic coastlines and nothing much over a hundred years old. Yes, I did find things to do and see, but it usually started and ended in a shopping mall or a new housing estate.

Hong Kong is different again. Here people are not cossetted. You will see beggars on the street and raggy arsed kids running about. Here you will see harsh living conditions and it is common for three generations of family to be living together in a cramped apartment, sharing a kitchen and queuing for the bathroom with three or four other families on the same floor of the forty story building. But the Hong Kong people have fight in them. They have to fight to survive, and fight harder to get ahead!

I found that Hong Kong people will be as evasive as their cousins in Singapore, but instead of going away and asking somebody else, they will figure out how they can get an advantage and go and do something about it, without letting you know, so they have the upper ground. This difference in approach comes from years of practice under British rule, and dodging the Chinese communists at the same time. Singapore as we know it today, is only a little over forty years old, but Hong Kong's culture and tradition goes back much further.

Hong Kong - has that mystery under the surface

Today the average Hong Konger has a superiority that is borne from the release of British control with the considerable amount of latitude provided by the Central Office in Beijing. It feels like China, but it isn't China. I don't think Hong Kong is the China that Beijing aspires to, but it certainly is the image that the Central Office wants to provide to the rest of the world. As a result the Hong Konger feels he can do know no wrong. They get away with far too much!

The city has an excitement and there is so much more under the surface than in Singapore. The guide books only give you a hint of what lies waiting to be discovered in places like Kowloon. The triads still run this place and I do not know how the society can co exist with its own legislature, police force and direct line to Beijing. Who knows who is controlling what, where and when! The amount of black money lining the economy is beyond imagination. It pays to be well connected in Hong Kong. Fascinating.

Just across the border is Shenzhen, which is real China. Here you will find more people almost staring through the glass at Hong Kong wondering what opportunity lies ahead. It is much cheaper here and open for the counterfeit goods and copies of watches, bags, designer clothes, DVDs, perfume. There is even a huge store made up of small individually run stalls selling everything from cameras and computers to ladies make up and shoes, all western brands all a fraction of the cost in west. Behind all this there is even more humanity another fascinating area to wander and observe. The flats with thousands of people co-existing sometimes sleeping four to a bed. This arrangement is possible by sleeping sideways on the bed with a chair to prop up your legs.

Shenzhan - the emerging China

Shanghai is where you really see the difference. From a work point of view I found it gets more difficult the further north you travel in Asia. I have experienced the legendary frustration of working in Thailand, but in north China it isn't just frustrating, it is 'stone walled'.

Shanghai - light at the end of the tunnel?

Chinese people go through the state education system being taught the usual things like maths, language and reading but they are not taught to understand things. You will see in Chinese schools a discipline that begins with early morning exercises carried out uni-formally in the school yard to the accompaniment of the national anthem. You will see disciplined lines of children in the classroom and neat and clean uniforms. But there is no 'thinking outside the box'. They are taught what they need to know and not how to search around to enrich and expand thinking and free thought. Consequently there are issue when these kids start work and see a middle aged English bloke wanting to change the way things are done. I heard one story of a girl about 16 or 17 at work in one of the restaurants in Shanghai airport and she was asked to mop the floor. This is a perfectly normal request but she refused because she had never in her life mopped a floor. This was not her job in the family home and she could not understand why she was being asked to do it now. She did of course eventually begin, but she was crying and so upset about losing face.

So in conclusion I prefer to live in Singapore, feel the excitement of Hong Kong, revel in wandering around Shenzhan, and I am not sure about Shanghai.