Would like to meet A2Kers in Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong

Clary, How come one month in Hong Kong? No problems with claustrophophia?

c.i., I lived there for 18 years! Yes, sure, you need a break from time to time, but I lived in a big house in the New Territories with great views... and a garden with a pond, 24 azaleas, palms, frangipanis, flame trees and a concrete banana tree. Now I have a deadish looking walled garden with a few spring flowers struggling to be seen.

Clary - can I ask...are you an academic writer of asian countries? You seem so interested in these issues and have some fascinating veiws - very constructive and of much substance. I have much to learn from you.

prag, FYI, Clary is a published writer. Not only is she published, but a devotee fan of a2k and the many members she has met at gatherings. I'll be in Bali and Singapore in September. Are you going to be around?

Not quite sure who you're directing the question to...but if you mean me, nope. Still in australia for a few more years.

[really, I apologise over the last thread. Very very inconsiderate of me.]

prag, No apology necessary. Just glad you are sensitive enough to understand it's offensive to us.
Our grandfather moved to the US from Japan in 1893. Today, we have many different cultures in our family including Chinese. I'm hoping it will not be much longer before people stop using racially offensive language.

Oh! Is ... uhh...that word I used considered racially offensive? My gosh, I had no idea! Then again, I was thinking that if people refered to chinese as ching-chong etc which is what I hear all the time, I would be offended very much.

In Hong Kong, white Westerners are called gwai-lo or gwai-por, 'devil person'. Not nice. But they took it in good part and started calling themselves it. Nothing defuses a racial slur more than the slurree taking it on and treating it lightly!