Thursday, May 31, 2007

Racist Toothpaste

So, I'm writing now from the Hong Kong Central Library, which has the nicest library bathrooms I have ever seen. Seriously. They're nicer than some fancy restaurant bathrooms I've seen. This is probably the last time I'll have internet access for another couple days. I have to check out at 11. And the train leaves around 3 o'clock, and I'll get in at 3 o'clock the next day.

Hong Kong's been an interesting place to be so far, although I still say it resembles a giant mall. I'll say that the food is very good and the people are fairly nice. This is quite a bit closer to being a first world country than Taiwan. Even if you still can't drink from the tap.
Why?
1) I've seen people not finish everything on their plate. That never happened in Taiwan, everyone always finished all their food. Whether you were hungry didn't really factor into it.
2) The people are a bit bigger. There are a lot of people who would be classified as fat in Taiwan, but they're pretty normal sized here.
3) It's clean. No wild dogs, no hawking and spitting in the street, no urination in the street etc.
4) It's expensive. This place is eating a hole in my wallet. Quickly.

I've noticed that of all things to be openly racist, the most racist thing I've seen in Asia is the toothpaste. There's the Darkie toothpaste, Whiteman toothpaste (sometimes I buy this one, I feel some odd kind of feeling of revenge, I'm not entirely sure why.), and today I found Chinky toothpaste. My work here is done.

Alright, I'm off. I might poke around a little more on Hong Kong Island. The last couple days I never left Kowloon. Then I've got to go buy some food for the 24 hr train ride. I expect there's probably food of some kind to be found. But on the off-chance there's not, I want to prepared. I could fast for 24 hrs without any major health risks, but it probably wouldn't be pleasant either. Nor would getting off the train in Beijing be made any better by doing this. When/If I get the chance I'll let you know how I like Beijing. Although don't expect anything terribly profound. I find it difficult to write when I'm being timed.

Oh yeah, and Taiwanese public transit ain't got nothin' on Hong Kong's! I take anything nice I said about Taiwanese mass transit and apply it to Hong Kong's. It's really quite awe-inspiring.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

LC, back in 1989 when I first went to Taiwan, "Darkie" toothpaste was still for sale there. But in response to complaints, the marketing name was changed to "Darlie" - which I believe can still be found there. Interesting that those complaints didn't affect HK. Cloroxa

Nien said...

damn straight. transportation is really good over there.

Magniloquence said...

Working public transportation? What is this that you speak of?

*snorts* But it sounds like your trip is going well.

lovelesscynic said...

Cloroxa, they also changed the name to Darlie, but the Chinese name is still Heiren, and there is a smiling black man on the package, so even if the English name was different, it was still always quite clear to me what it was supposed to be.

Interestingly, the Whiteman toothpaste has no pictures of any men, but a picture of a tooth instead.