Here’s a fun fact: for the relatively low investment of $50, you can cleanse yourself of all the bad mojo in your life through a 20-minute ritual known as “hit the small person.”
That’s just one of the many off-the-beaten-path nuggets found in How To Hong Kong: An Illustrated Travel Journal, which was recently published by a pair of Vancouverites who know the island inside and out.
Because of that intimate knowledge, the husband-and-wife team of Nicholas Tay and Lena Sin present a decidedly different portrait of Sin’s birthplace — no to skyscrapers and smog, yes to esoteric rituals and egg waffles.
“I’ve seen a lot of books about Hong Kong and they’re usually guidebooks or magazine pieces that portray it in a very similar way — that it’s a massive, crowded metropolis,” Sin said. “It’s a little impersonal. My experience there is that it’s a lot more intimate, layered and subtle.”
Described as literary travel guide-meets-sketchbook, How to Hong Kong was six years in the making and based around annual trips the couple makes to the former British colony.
Back alleys, restaurants, temples and the characters who inhabit those haunts are the centrepiece of the book. It was in one of those settings that Sin encountered an elderly women named Ms. Lum who she’d pass by countless times in previous visits. Conversation was struck around the ritual Lum was performing, referred to as “da siu yun,” which translates to “hit the small person.”
The process that unfolded involved burning incense and paper tigers, chanting, raw chicken, rice throwing and eventually the beating of a paper person with an old shoe.
“It’s a little bit like Chinese voodoo,” Sin said. “If you have someone you don’t like in your life and you want to make them disappear, she’s the person you go to.”
Around 10 interviews were conducted for the book: silversmiths, restaurateurs, ex pats, food vendors and Uncle Liu, whose legendary egg waffles elicit hour-plus lineups. The rest of the book is made up of Sin’s recollections growing up in Hong Kong, photos and intricate watercolour paintings.
Despite her background in writing — Sin spent 10 years working at the Province newspaper — she was reticent to enter the world of books. As someone who covered crime and hard news, Sin was used to a regimented writing style, which didn’t lend itself to creativity. Known as the “creative one” of the couple, it was Tay who pressed for their first foray into publishing.
“I realized it would be a great escape for me because daily news writing can be a grind,” she said. “The book for me is really about joy and discovery. It was a really light place to be and it seemed to be a great place to go when I wasn’t working.”
