04.3.13 - Hong Kong Housewife

This photo marks both a landmark of our getting settled in HK, and a low-point for me in the ‘kept man’ stakes.

Claire and I went to the main HSBC building – a spectacular Norman Foster creation, which will feature here sometime – to set up our HK bank account.

The forms to sign up for anything are comprehensive here. Banking is about the only thing so far that does not require a HK ID number (more on the unsettlingly broad reach of the ID cards later this week) – but it needed every other conceivable detail.

The worst was the section on employment. In HK, there is almost 100% employment for those who wish or are able to work. ‘Unemployment’ is not something people here comprehend. I had a demonstration of this social order when running this morning. Before 8am, the running track was packed with expat men and almost no-one else. By 815 or so, they had all gone to work and were replaced by expat women, going much slower and looking relaxed, and very old HK Chinese. By 9am, they were joined by swarms of Filipinas walking expats’ dogs in alarmingly large packs. Here, you work; you are retired; or you choose to be a home maker. And that is clearly not considered a man’s role by HK Chinese.

Hence, today, I had no choice but to circle the box for occupation as ‘Housewife’.

Hilarious. But I’d be a liar if I said that didn’t smart a little.