Vox pop report: Fish ball or Siu Mai?

Assignment 4: Vox Pop Report

People in the Central — “Yudan or Siu Mai?”

Feb 16, 2009

by Liu Zhaoxin

Fish ball (called as “Yudan” in Cantonese) and Siu Mai are both very popular “street foods” in Hong Kong.  Fish balls are yellow in colour, usually made with cheaper meat, and are sold in bamboo skewer.  They can be either spicy or not.  Siu Mai is a kind of Cantonese dissert whose formal name is pork and mushroom dumpling.  The Siu Mai sold in food stalls is usually with yellow skin and the fish meat filling.   How would people found randomly in Central answer to the question —  

“ Do you like fish ball or Siu Mai?” 

Chu Ka Yee: "Fish ball"

Chu Ka Yee, a 10-year-old girl in the elementary school uniform: “Fish ball. Because it is more tasty.”  (Translated from Chinese)

Tim: “I like both.  But for fish balls, I’d like them to be in small size and be chewy.  For Siu Mai, I only prefer those with fish meat fillings” (Translated from Chinese).  This 26-year-old businessman was heading to SOHO in a hurry.   He refused to take photo.

Sophie: "it's a good night-out snack"

Three out of four foreigners we interviewed knew what are fish ball and siu mai and expressed their preference without hesitation.  Louis, a businessman sitting in ice-cream shop,  prefers Siu Mai because he does not like fish ball.  Gary, a father on the way to SOHO, likes Siu Mai because it looks tastier.  

Sophie, the girl in black, chose fish ball: “The texture is good.  And it’s good for a night-out, for mid-night or 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning.”  

Beijing greeted the New Year with fireworks

Beijing greeted the New Year with fireworks

Feb 2, 2009

by Liu Zhaoxin

Fireworks in Backsea

Despite the shadow cast by the deepening global financial crisis, the heart of China, Beijing, celebrated the Chinese New Year of Ox loudly and brightly with tons of fireworks and firecrackers, bidding a farewell to the eventful Year of Rat.  Starting from the New Year Eve, the sky over Beijing was lit up by the world’s biggest uncoordinated fireworks display as firecrackers exploded throughout the city the whole night until the early morning the next day.

Lunar New Year is a traditional Chinese holiday and the largest celebration in the nation.

 

This year the sales volume of the fireworks in Beijing was reported up 37 percent from the previous year, with over 230,000 firework packages sold by a single Sunday, said Xinhua.  According to the merchants in Shi Ji Tan Fireworks Stall in the Xicheng District of Beijing, the price of fireworks this year was at the same level as the last year, ranging from 20RMB to 1000RMB with the most selling contributing by those 50 to 300RMB ones.   Averagely, purchasers spent around 500 to 1500RMB (equivalent to about 70 to 220 US dollars) on fireworks this year, with an apparent increase from last year.  Stunningly, 2268 tons of wrecks and orts of fireworks were cleaned up on the streets on the morning after the New Year Eve.

The Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, is the biggest holiday celebrated among Chinese people.  It is the time when families and friends get together to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. 

 

Merchant at the stall said people spent more money buying fireworks this year than the last year.

With the global financial crisis bursting upon and escalating during the second half last year, the China’s economic outlook this year becomes growingly gloomy.  The annual growth of Chinese economy in 2008 was down to a seven-year low of 9 percent while the fourth quarter’s was as low as 6.8 percent.  Thousands of factories have closed in southeast coastline, seriously stricken by the sharp reduction of export.  Despite the year dampened by economic downturn, citizens in Beijing had not compromised their annual celebration.  Contrarily, they seemed more than happy to farewell the old year loudly and welcome a new year with bright and splendid pattern of fire.