019_golden orange

Chinese people love to give each other tangerines during Chinese New Year because tangerine in Cantonese sounds exactly the same as the word for ‘gold’ in the same language. So giving away tangerines means giving away gold! It’s kind of a cute symbolic tradition. During the festive season, you may find tangerines everywhere from patterns on shopping bags to even tangerine-looking rice ball in Japanese restaurants.

018_maid in singapore

The majority of maids working in Singapore are from Indonesia and the Philippines. They are given an official day-off on every Sunday. Let’s imagine if you were one of them, what would you do in a very small country and you don’t have much money? How about enjoying free air-con in shopping centers checking the latest trends then meeting friends for lunch in a park? These people do not have much money but they sure have a lot of fun in their own ways. On Sundays these maids (and some male workers) transform Singapore urban landscape into their ephemeral hometowns. If you want to experience a more drastic impact of density, I recommend Hong Kong, especially the plaza underneath Lord Foster’s famous bank.

P.S. This photo is history as the park is now construction site for a big real estate development.