[MovingIn07]

Ok, hot on the heels of my bumping thread and with the weekend looming, I have another cultural mystery for you all to help me solve....

I'm hiking along one of the many lovely trails here in Hong Kong, minding my own business, enjoying the peace and tranquility of the countryside when I come around a corner and lo! a group of local hikers with a loud blaring radio going full blast on some local channel.

HUH?

What is this? Headphones are really easy to buy here - why do they do this?

I find it to be the height of rudeness (probably rates higher than the bumping actually) and SO easy to avoid.

Thoughts, anyone?

[PDLM]

If they had headphones they'd need one radio each rather than one per group.

But as to why they want a radio at all, I have no idea.

[Master]

Oh wow, another thread doomed for success.

I like hiking. I walk the dragon's back trail now and then, and you know when the radio platoon is comin' around the corner. Man, not just radios, but a lot of people carry a selection of umbrellas in the other hand. One time someone in front of me got their umbrella stuck in some tree branches... At least they had their radio to entertain them as they tried to get it loose.

This has always irritated me. What happened to a peaceful quiet walk.

[jimbo]

Do they do it to scare the snakes away or something?

[DanielandHayley]

same situtation often happens on beaches...i'm not that bothered by the music on the beach (providing its not cantopop which is currently being played in my office and driving me up the wall) but what I don't understand is that people would actually play a radio/stero quite loudly on a crowded beach/ public area etc without any regard for anybody else...hold on, this complaint is sounding (ahem) familiar...

[MovingIn07]

perhaps we need somebody local to comment and explain the need to have a radio in the peace and tranquility of the countryside.... beaches I can (sort of) understand, but when you have struggled up a huge hill miles from anywhere to "get away from it all" ... it sort of defeats the purpose!

[larac]

Most of the time the radio sounds like it is off the station making it even worse. Just another idiosyncrasy of HK.

[ontheroad]

Originally Posted by DanielandHayley

......without any regard for anybody else...hold on, this complaint is sounding (ahem) familiar...

Can someone with insight to Chinese culture explain to me this "no regard for others/super selfish/me first" thing they all seem to have going on... How is it explained culturally? I've never seen anything like it anywhere else. Is it a remnant of the one-child policy? I really wish I could understand where this comes from...

Maybe all these threads should go under a new forum section: "Struggling with Chinese culture"

[jgl]

Choice thread

It's because people raised in HK are not comfortable with silence. People are brought up in small, noisy apartments with too many siblings, the TV is always on and with traffic blaring outside.

Silence is a bad thing... either you're alone, or maybe dead? I mean, all the firecrackers and drums at Chinese New Year are suppose to drive away evil spirits.

Oh, and the suggestion by ontheroad is good. Why not just have a forum dedicated to bitching about annoyances here? That way it would be obvious that this was just lighthearted banter, and not the serious slamming of China that posters occasionally assume it to be.

[ontheroad]

Originally Posted by jgl

Oh, and the suggestion by ontheroad is good. Why not just have a forum dedicated to bitching about annoyances here? That way it would be obvious that this was just lighthearted banter, and not the serious slamming of China that posters occasionally assume it to be.

I wouldn't say "bitching", I would say "voicing differences, misunderstandings and questions about local culture", which would be also a place for people with insight (ie people who have lived here a while or who were raised in this culture) to help the others understand!