("Would people consider me feet fetish?" was the first question I asked myself when I was going to post this instalment of photos after the "Come to Rest" post. Please be assured that I am not :) )
(The day was clear and the colours were soothing, but the passers-by were too hurried to notice. Upper: A working mother took her child to school before she went to work. Lower: Two passers-by heading for opposite directions to to their workplace.)
I have said that I walk to work. Sometimes on the way, browsing people at a bustling road, I would think to myself, "How lonely is the road without the love of the crowd who the road carries on itself!"
Hong Kong people walk in a quickened pace with a solemn expression on their faces. We are the busiest type of species, the far-flung clansmen of the New Yorkers. A famous Chinese writer, Guang Zhong YU, once wrote about New York, "This is New York, the busiest barren land with a mixture of unfamiliar faces. With shoulders touching shoulders and toes reaching heels, passers-by on the crowded walkways are experiencing the shortest of physical space yet the farthest of spiritual distance." This rings true about Hong Kong too.
Some years ago, when my sister and I were working in Hong Kong's CBD, which is called Central, we used to take lunch together. One day over lunch, she told me, "Yesterday after lunch on my way back to the office, I was stopped by some tourists who looked extremely puzzled and worried on their faces."
"What gives?"I looked at her.
"They pointed to the crowd behind me," she continued in an amused grin, "and asked if a bad accident had happened at the far end cos everyone as I did was rushing the same direction towards them."
Fact is, nothing had happened. It was only that people were walking too quick a pace towards the same direction to the office area. The frowns on their faces must have made them more like scared people milling around in a quickened pace.
When I was in Australia, people greeted each other g'day on the street. In Hong Ko ng, if I do this, I swear that it could be considered harassment of some sort. Probably the only occasion I may do so is in the park nearby, where people are not hurrying to work and enjoying a more leisurely pace of living.
So, next time when you come to Hong Kong, jot these down on your must-see list: a morning walk in a sizable local park like the Cherry Street Park and an afternoon walk in Central at lunchtime.
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