Friday, November 11, 2011

Aberdeen, Hong Kong

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This card is from the boat/ship tag. It's actually a photograph pasted to a piece of thick paper, which is fine, because it's a nice photograph. The photo shows the harbor of Aberdeen. According to the sender, this used to be a little fishing village where native Hong Kong people would dock their boats.

The 水上人家 (shui shang ren jia), or boat-dwellers, were aborigines who were shunned by the Cantonese and Hakka Chinese people who lived on land. The boat-dwellers were said to be descended from water-snakes, and able to stay underwater for 3 days without breathing.

It seems that the boat dwellers have been subject to extreme racism ever since the Chinese colonized the area in the Song dynasty.

Hong Kong has its own stamps. This is a 2006 definitive showing a red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus).
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