It’s still choggie new year! (Part 2)
Tuesday 24 January 2012 2.53 pm HKT
WE CONTINUE with the second day of the Chinese New Year.
Some street décor from this morning (around 7am to 8am):
It isn’t glowing. It’s just the camera strobe.
Gilden dragon with frog-face on its back.
Dragons and frogs … salamanders and frogs … amphibians.
So it’s the Year of Amphibious Creatures. The furry animals have their years, so why not the amphibians?
So the ‘frog’ is not actually a frog … maybe he’s a ‘Frog.’
Salamander, salamander, salamander.
Mr Father Fortune (‘Tsoi Yeh’) on the gilden salamander dragon.
Tsoi Yeh is the giver of monetary fortune (cash!) and fortuity (the non-cash kind). He is the Chinese patron saint of moolah.
Lady Fortune may be a woman in the West, but he’s one cool badass dude in the East.
Money does not buy happiness (we know that), but you can sure live a better class of misery with moolah though.
His attire is traditionally from the Tang dynasty (AD 618–906), the high point of Chinese civilisation.
That’s the dynasty responsible for bringing us individual bank accounts, public examinations, modern census, taxation, export goods, multiculturalism, public boozing and modern equality of the sexes.
Mr Father Fortune in Technicolor.
Trumps the motorcycle any day.
And not many things in life can trump the motorbike. Ever.
The Tang dynasty is replete with tales of dudes riding on motorcycles dragons and other creatures.
Tang dynasty people are well known for their ability to shoot lasers from their palms, a.k.a. Star Wars light sabres.
(Those who have watched old Hong Kong B-movies from the 1950s will know what I mean.)
Yee-harr! Ching Chong Chowmein Hell’s Angels!
Like the decorations?
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It’s still 12°C (53°F) and drizzling, so it’s exactly like Athens now.
I’ve had half a bottle of port already while posting this because of the cold.
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© The Naked Listener’s Weblog, 2012. All images by me.
