Friday, February 13, 2009

Hong Kong Style


I feel like I will perpetually be an outsider as long as I live in Asia. These past few days in Hong Kong have been exciting, but also stressful. We really stick out here amidst the ultra-trendy Hong Kongians. Women have burberry scarves wrapped around their shoulders and over-sized leather purse bags. Even the men here carry Louis Vutton man purses to and from work. The men also wear suits, tailored suits, over ties and sharply pressed, button-down shirts. Most people here also wear greys and blacks, trendy dark-framed glasses, and black leather shoes or boots.
My traveling buddies and I on the other hand, have just come from Thailand and have nothing but tropical clothes that we've been wearing pretty hard core for the past 3 weeks. Needless to say, our chacos, worn out jeans, and bright T-shirts make us clear misfits in this up and coming city. Right now, we are staying at a retreat center, and I'm perfectly content to stay put and not be in the cosmopolitcan center of Hong Kong for a few days.

It's funny because on the mainland, we are also misfits but for very different reasons. There, people simply look at us because we are white. It wouldn't really matter what we wear on the mainland, we are outsiders. But here, we are outsiders because our clothes are not up to par with the most modern fashions. Oh dear, forever an underdog and outsider.

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