Hong Kong English/Cantonese (XV)

Mind You: Wash Your Hands

Gentle reminder from Betty Tung, spouse of the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong

As Wuhan pneumonia pandemic strikes the globe, it is quite a reminiscent of SARS outbreak in Hong Kong back in 2003.

A coronavirus spread from China through Hong Kong to many parts of the world, and it took nearly 300 lives in Hong Kong including several medical professionals. It was pretty much a lesson learnt for the city that personal hygiene became very important among the people. Yet it was also the beginning of the downfall of the city, which led the people to only focus on money and earning quickly.

At the peak of the pandemic, the government decided to create campaigns to encourage cleanliness in the city. One day, a group of Red Cross professional went to Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate with then spouse of Chief Execute, Betty Tung, to clean the old housing estate and spread the message of better hygiene. Betty Tung used her exaggerated voice and said this to an elderly fellow.

千祈、千祈、千祈，洗手、洗手、洗手。

(Mind you, mind you, mind you: Wash (your) hands, wash (your) hands, wash (your) hands.)

This phrase went quite popular back then. First of all, it was personal hygiene which was important to prevent the disease. Secondly, it was then deemed too exaggerated and funny for her to dress as if it had been a biohazard (even though Lower NTK Estate was right next to Amoy Gardens where a lot of cases were found.) Lastly, and more importantly, this repetition was quite brainwahsing. Therefore, everybody was repeating the phrase.

As we know now that Wuhan pneumonia is also caused by coronavirus and can be spread the same manner as SARS, personal hygiene is now getting back to high importance as 17 years ago. Here I put the phrase at the beginning of this article to remind you to wash your hands more often.

Back then, I was only a Primary 6 student looking forward to the outreach day on 31 March and our graduation camp in April. However, the outreach day was cancelled and the camp was delayed to June and converted into a 2-day day camp because of school suspension from 30 March to mid-May.

The craziest thing I did during the school suspension was going hiking with my mum almost every morning. I could meet my friends up on the hill too. We went to a cha chan teng for breakfast.

There was some homework to do, but the fear of not able to finish the school year and the uncertainty of which secondary school I was about to go to hit me harder than all the school work.

The school calendar had to be changed, and rarely, my friends who were born in late July could have their birthdays at school as I only had a month of summer holiday back in that year.

It was a life-changing year.

What is even worse in Hong Kong now, than 17 years ago, is that the Hong Kong government decided to do nothing to prevent any potential outbreaks in the city even though they are aware of the danger. They do not listen to any voices from the residents.

They originally decided to set up a quarantine camp using 2 new housing blocks inside a residential area which resides tens of thousands of people. The plan was not cancelled until angry residents in the neighbourhood blocked the only road in the area and then set some essential facilities in the two blocks ablaze during Lunar New Year.

As usual, the government blamed the violence for that event and threatened people in a press conference it will be more dangerous because they decided not to set any quarantine camps again all because of the violence.

It is not their incapability that is killing us. Their inability is.

Dear world,

I would recommend you block all entries from China, including Hong Kong for your own good. I believe some people from China having symptoms fled to Hong Kong already. They may have been spreading the coronavirus here. Some people from China may use Hong Kong as a port for them to flee to other places. It is an orthodox habit for Chinese people that they are scared of going to medication. (To the extremes, they are afraid of seeing the doctor.)

As a prevention measure, I cannot believe anyone outside of Hong Kong who says they are from here unless they speak Cantonese in Hong Kong accent fluently AND their names are spelt in a traditional Hong Kong way. (Which means anyone’s name is spelt in Hanyu Pinyin is to be cautious.) However, it would be too difficult for an outsider to distinguish, so I wouldn’t mind if you block all.

So I think it was a great move of Italy and several other countries to block everyone coming from here. I very much appreciate it.

Love from Hong Kong.