🌊No anti-plague parades for COVID reasons
🌊No anti-plague parades for COVID reasons
Biden planning on sending US$1.1billion arms to Taiwan
Good morning,
An unexpected ad popped up on my Insta yesterday. Miniso is opening up a new UK shop and asking everyone to guess where it is.
Now considering we wrote about Miniso just a few days ago, it was weird.
What’s more weird is that this is Birmingham.
And useless Brummie trivia of the day - that’s St. Philip’s church, otherwise known as pigeon park for all the pigeons. And Miniso is holding up a pigeon thing.
Here’s the miniso post btw:
— Cyril
On Today’s Tide
Culture |Tai Hang Dragon cancelled for COVID
COVID |
Schools can have full day classes if 90% vax
Some hotels stop offering quarantine rooms
Ms. Hong Kong postponed for COVID
International | France CG handing over position (adieu!)
Events
Behind the paywall:
Greater China |
CCP 5 year meeting to be held 16 Oct
More US senators visit Taiwan
Joe Biden planning on US1.1bil funding for Taiwanese arms
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Tai Hang Dragon cancelled 3x years in a row
The yearly Tai Hang Fire Dragon parade has been cancelled for the third year in a row. This year is particularly annoying because most of the procedures had already been completed considering the low COVID rates up until recently.
Chan Tak-Fai, commander of the fire dragon team, said that they had taken anti-epidemic rules into consideration. All participants are vaccinated and would use LeaveHomeSafe. The village was also split into different zones with limited audiences allowed in. A cap of 3000 on overall audience number would also be implemented. However, the gov still decided to deny an exception.
The event was planned to be held 9-11 Sept (this year’s main days for Mid-Autumn). The majority of the dragon is already built.
It’s literally warding off the plague lol
It’s also ironic because the Tai Hang Fire Dragon, a tradition going back over a century, was started as a way of warding off literally warding off the plague.
Folk tales go that in 1880, a triple whammy of natural disasters hit Tai Hang. First a typhoon damaged large chunks of the village, then while repairing the buildings, a giant python snakes in and ate their livestock. The villagers killed the python, after which the plague the village.
A Taoist priest said that the python was the son of the Dragon King and the plague was his revenge for the villagers killing his son. The only way to save the village, said the priest, was to stage a three day long dragon dance. So, armed with incense sticks formed in the shape of a 67 metre long dragon, accompanied by twirling orbs of fire, the villagers warded off the plague and have been holding the ceremy every year.
And now it’s been cancelled for three years….and COVID’s also been around for three years….and
COVID in Hong Kong
COVID-19 in Hong Kong
New cases: 8848 (237 imported)
Total cases: 1,531,308
New deaths: 13
Total deaths: 9,681
Compulsory Testing locations: 63
Full-day at schools only for the 90% jabbed
A press release from the EDB said yesterday that by November, all secondary schools that want to hold full-day classes will need to have a vax rate of 90%. The current rules say students need at least two shots for full-day classes.
Primary schools can only hold half-days regardless of vax rates.
The release did not clarify whether additional curbs will be taken, despite earlier statements from the gov saying full-day classes will be ‘reconsidered’ if cases go above 10,000 per day.
Fewer quarantine hotels
About 1500 quarantine hotel rooms are going offline as four hotels withdraw form the DQH scheme. The hotels said that despite reductions in quarantine length from 7 days to 3 days, there aren’t too many more travelers and that with fewer days per person, hotels are now operating at a defecit.
Miss COVID
The Miss Hong Kong semi-finals originally taking place on Sunday has been postponed to a to be confirmed later date after one of the contestants caught COVID. All other candidates have been asked to do testing and rehearsals have been put on pause.
Adieu Monsieur Giorgini
French CG Alexandre Giorgini’s tenure is ending soon with Christine Druhle. Madamme Druhle previously served as the French government’s Deputy Director in Asia.
“After four years by your side, the mission entrusted to me as consul general to Hong Kong and Macao is coming to an end” said Giorgini in a French only statement I can’t read so I had to get Jasmine to translate against her will.
“I’d like to express my gratitude, particularly to the teams behind the French Lycée, the French May, and the Alliance Française which knew, despite the difficulties, to champion the colours of our language, education, and culture.
To each of you, I extend my best wishes of success for the future. The new consul general, Mme Christile Drulhe, will continue to defend your interests and showcase the colours of France with energy and professionalism.”
Events and deals
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HK$575 instead of $949 after 5 Sept!
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Ukrainian Cinema: Contemporary filmmaking @ The Goethe Institut
“Fear sows political bigotry, rumours turn into conspiracy theories, cultural fronts harden” – for these reasons The Goethe Institut is hosting a series of films by Ukrainian filmmakers to support local cultural creators and explore Ukrainian culture together.
Five films will be shown over the course of September including The Tribe (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy), Atlantis (Valentyn Vasyanovych) and The Rain Will Never Stop (Alina Gorlova)
Find all times and dates here.
And book your tickets directly from Broadway Cinematheque here.
Look under the ‘bc Sunday’ special programme when booking!
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