In a ‘previous life‘ I used to run some recreation centres in Cape Town.

One of our services extended to the aged, which means we had to collect old folks from around our service areas, transport them to a recreation centre and keep them busy for the day.  Some of the activities included skills such as embroidering, painting, etc.

After the day’s events, they’d be duly carted back to their homes.

Here’s in Hong Kong, however, I find that the aged are so much more active.

These are some of the activities I encounter on my way to work every day here in Hung Hom (the footage is from nearby Whampoa Garden):

Picture (unrelated) from Factsanddetails.com

There are very few cultures in the world with as many rituals and beliefs as the Chinese.  That I can promise you. I learned many of them while living in Taiwan and now that I find myself in Hong Kong, I’m learning many of the Cantonese ways.

In Chinese culture there are many rituals that involve children.

I ‘work‘ in an environment where most of my colleagues are female and (probably) of child-bearing age so natually the following ritual gets repeated in the office several times a year.

Here I’m referring to the eating of stewed pork knuckle and ginger.  I have not eaten this dish , touch wood, so I will refrain from calling it a delicacy.

According to Cantonese culture this dish must be eaten to herald the birth of a child.  It is also their belief that it aids the recovery of the mother in her first month of post-partum recovery. The so-called “resting month” or choe yuet (坐月) in Cantonese language is crucial to the health of the mother.

In fact this is but one in a series of strange beliefs during this time.

Here are some more:

• Refrain from taking a shower or bath for a month. Use only water boiled with the skin of ginger to shower, if you really have to.

• Try not to shampoo your hair for the first week at least. Again use ginger water to shampoo if you really have to. Blow dry hair immediately.

• After giving birth, drink roasted rice water instead of plain water for several days.

• Drink the roasted rice tea or boiled water. Do not drink straight from the tap.

• Keep warm all the time.

What to eat and not to eat:

1.• Eat a dish made from pig’s knuckle, ginger, sweet black vinegar, and eggs to aid the recovery.

Cook the pig knuckle ginger vinegar (at least) one month before the arrival of the baby. (Keep the ginger skin for the shower. Dry the ginger skin and store in bags.)

2.• Do NOT eat pig livers or pigeons, or drink soups made from these ingredients, as they will stop the production of milk.

3.• Any kind of fish soups or papaya fish soup will help the production of the milk.

While tradionally the pork knuckle and ginger dish is cooked from scratch at home, the modern working Hongkonger does not have the luxury of time so they just buy it ready-made… in huge plastic containers.

This is how it is cooked at home:

This is how it is sold for busy Hongkongers and what my office’s kitchen looks like today: