Sundays in the Park With Bagoong

March 30, 2018 7:29 PM

Hong Kong’s well-to-do families may be off brunching at dim sum, but here on the streets on a recent Sunday afternoon, it’s all adobo and bagoong.
posted by PussKillian (10 comments total)

I saw one of these mass picnics when I was last in Hong Kong. I didn't really know what was going on, though I guessed it must be the hired help's day off, but it was remarkable how the texture of the city changed overnight.

In Pakistan, where having a Filipina nanny is an extremely expensive status symbol (next down the status ladder are Sri Lankans and, finally, Pakistanis), groups of Filipinas hire out a banquet room in one of the better restaurants on their days off, and in Lahore, some long-standing residents have pooled together to buy a house in a very expensive part of town which serves as a sort of clubhouse.
posted by tavegyl at 8:08 PM on March 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

By law, they’re required to live with their employers, and the minimum wage for domestic work is just $4,410 Hong Kong dollars a month, about $560 USD, which leaves little to spend on leisure.

It’s also worth noting that most of them send as much money home as possible, which leaves them with even less.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:26 PM on March 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

I know they are living in conditions that are effectively servitude in some cases, but I would love to participate in this kind of mass picnic, it looks like so much fun!

How to get this kind of fun (and essential to well being) community without the kind of oppression/discomfort faced here?

I don't want to downplay the conditions here at all- I hope that these helpers will be paid a living wage and given conditions that are acceptable.
posted by freethefeet at 12:10 AM on March 31, 2018

It's the remarkable sound made by these picnics that's struck me in my own visits to Hong Kong.

From three or four blocks away, several hundred young women chatting together sound like a vast aviary of birdsong. I remember being curious enough to follow this sound to its source the first time I heard it, and being astonished by the sheer number of people I found gathered there.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:18 AM on March 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

The last time I was in Hong Kong I talked to some of them and learned that the groupings corresponded to their home islands/villages.
posted by carmicha at 1:43 AM on March 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

Thanks for posting; loved it.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:12 AM on March 31, 2018

Thank you for sharing this. It’s important to highlight the disparity between the affluent and the laborers who make that affluence possible. And at the same time this is making me miss my lola’s adobo and pancit so much.
posted by Maaik at 8:39 AM on March 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

What this immediately brought to mind was that this is the other side of some of the terrible stories told in Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals, in which, if I recall correctly, a lot of foreign finance dudes take shameless advantage of domestic workers who fear being dismissed and deported.

That said, this looks lovely, and I love that this gathering is this oasis of comfort foods from home on the weekends. I'm also hungry right now, and I want to eat all the food from all the countries.
posted by limeonaire at 10:37 AM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

> limeonaire:
"What this immediately brought to mind was that this is the other side of some of the terrible stories told in Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals, in which, if I recall correctly, a lot of foreign finance dudes take shameless advantage of domestic workers who fear being dismissed and deported.

That said, this looks lovely, and I love that this gathering is this oasis of comfort foods from home on the weekends. I'm also hungry right now, and I want to eat all the food from all the countries."

And I want to beat you there.
posted by Samizdata at 4:07 PM on March 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've seen this first hand, and had the spectacle explained to me by a British expat.
It definitely added to my love of Hong Kong.
The article describes Hong Kong as being 1000 square miles. It's actually 1000 square kilometres (approx), just in case you need to know :)
posted by ZJQJ at 1:29 PM on April 1, 2018