Most professional expats, or at least those who stay for a
decent chunk of time, usually join a ‘club’ of some description. Whether they
are ex-colonial era institutions or not, the word gives off a whiff of empire,
no matter how you say it.
Even the supposedly sports-focused ones provide a club house
building with facilities entirely unrelated to sport for expat families to use.
Membership is invaluable in terms of networking, and can be pretty prestigious.
I got my first taste of one yesterday, and I went straight –
arguably – to the top: a networky drink in the Hong Kong Club. The most venerable
of all the clubs (it doesn’t have to give a qualifier, like ‘boat’ or ‘foreign
correspondents’ – it simply is The
club), it opened at almost the same time the colony was founded, right next
door to HSBC, on where the waterfront used to be.
The inside was swanky, the staff friendly and efficient, and
some of the services – a 3-lane bowling alley that those in the bar could just
pitch up and play on – pretty extraordinary.
However, I’m sure you will be equally surprised as I was to
match such an institution with the building in the picture. The white stone,
tower-topped, imperial column and arch filled structure that you would automatically
picture was demolished in the 80s, and was replaced by this.
I’d walked past this quite a few times and not even noticed
it before. Intriguing – book by its cover etc.
PS – had the best, most interesting and most encouraging
work-search meeting I’ve had so far there. Phew. Watch this space…
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