2 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday. November 27, 1980
Hong Kong journey with a Jewish perspective
FIRST OF A SERIES
HONG KONG — It is already dark when the CP Air Jumbo ahers its five-mile-high trans-Pacific course and starts its descent into Kai Tak airport. A few minutes more and the colossal bird reaches down gently for the runway. Its engines roar in "reverse thrust" to slow it down, enabling the instantly-transformed ground vehicle to taxi smoothly towards the terminal.
First impressions of this Southeast Asian city are a blaze of lights and silhouettes of myriad tall buildings which suggest this airport is not located in your usual far-out pasture. Rather the runway and terminal appear to be in the very heart of the city of Hong Kong.
This first impression will be confirmed a few
days later aboard a picturesque Chinese junk on a cruise of the city's incredibly bustling harbor. The captain stops engines to allow visitors to take pictures of one of Hong Kong's unique features — jets taking off on a runway built on land reclaimed from the water.
One by one planes from every exotic comer of the world leave the runway which parallels and is right at water's edge — with tall modern buildings looming in the background and directly across the harbor.
The harbor itself must be the busiest in the world. Scores of freighters flying flags of every nation lie at anchor, barges at their sides loading and unloading cargo.
Manoeuvering around these stationary ships are countless vessels of every shape and size: endless small fishing junks and sampans weave through the traffic as numerous liners and freighters routinely enter and leave port; sleek Boeing jetfoils (made in Seattle) skim along the^ wave tops at incredible speed, destined for Portuguese Macau on the mainland; Star Ferries trip back and forth crossing from Kowloon side to Hong Kong Island, and returning — at pennies a ride, probably the world's best water transportation bargain, eclipsing the famous Staten Island ferries which travel beyond the Statue of Liberty.
From any of these vessels there is a spectacular view: For rising on both shores of Hong Kong harbor is an endless panorama of sleek ultramodern highrise towers and apartment complexes. Like English Bay and Vancouver harbor multiplied by a thousand!
In human terms as well. Hong Kong is densely people-congested, its situation worsening with the daily tide of "illegals" from the People's Republic of China (or PRC as it is called here). These refugees run a hazardous gauntlet to freedom, their numbers unabated no matter how many times they are caught and returned.
ON THE KOWLOON SIDE alone the buildings form one colossal bazaar. Hong Kong is perhaps the most astounding marketplace in the world with endless shops and a mind-boggling array of merchandise.
Looming upwards from the water's edge are multi-storey ultra-modern fully air-conditioned mammoth shopping complexes such as the,New World Centre, Ocean Terminal and Ocean Centre.
V.J. ZIRINSKY Israel's Hong Kong Representative
Housing vast numbers of shops laden with clothes, goods and furnishings of every description including ultimately luxurious furs, fashions and jewellery, the city rivals Paris, New York and L.A.'s Rodeo drive. Hong Kong's giant shopping complexes compete with hundreds of thousands of others located in buildings stretching along and radiating out from an area known as the "Golden Mile."
Seen from a sidewalk or through a taxi or bus window, the district emanates a unique atmosphere all its own. A bewildering array of signs, signboards and neons of every shape, size and color assault the viewer. Some signs are Chinese, some are English, some affixed to buildings, others suspended from wires — all of them reaching out from both sides of the street like tentacles forming a vast overhead advertising canopy stretching block after block after block, as far as the eye can see.
A street sign on one of these major thoroughfares along the "Golden Mile" announces "NATHAN ROAD." We contemplate a possible "Jewish connection" for the name, which indicates a broad major street running for miles through Kowloon. Its shops and restaurants are jammed cheek-by-jo wel, stacked upon each other, comprising a virtually endless teeming giant Shuk (market).
It is a few days later when the "Nathan" puzzle is solved by prominent Hong Kong businessman-cum communal leader, Victor Jacob Zirinsky, who is also Honorary Consul General for the State of Israel.
It is only a few hours before sunset with the Sabba^th jfa^tyappr-oaching, but Zirinsky persuades i ustHat^iiB^in get back in plenty of time if we take the new subway under the habor to get from Kowloon to his office building on the Victoria (Hong Kong) side.
Thus we are introduced to the marvels of the sparkling subway system where machines collect tickets, stations are clearly marked, and all the (British-made) trains are comfortable, spotless and fully air conditioned. We arrive speedily for the interview and just as easily retrace our footsteps in plenty of time for Shabbat. And we are rather conspiculously but not uncomfortably the only Occidentals visible on the trains in both directions of travel.
MEANWHILE Zirinsky traces for us the roots of Nathan Road. The street is named after Lord Nathan, a Jewish Governor of Hong Kong around the turn of the century. In fact during the early days the road used to be known as "Nathan's Folly" because many deemed it too wide and too long. They complained that Hong Kong didn't need such a street.
"So now they're proven wrong," the Israeli representative comments.
Vladivostock-born Victor was eleven when his parents moved in 1931 from Russia to Shanghai. Their migration is unique in that, after the Communist revolution, the family left Vladivo-stock no fewer than three times and returned three times — all legally. It was the fourth departure that was illegal — and permanent.
Victor grew up and was educated in Shanghai where he met and married a Jewish girl who comprised the third generation of her family born in the Chinese city. When they moved to Hong Kong in 1948, he started an import-export business which became successful.
He relates that in those early years he tried not to belong to formal organizations, either socially or for public work. "Ail my life I avoided it," he mentions philosophically, "but things you try to escape when you are younger, usually catch up with you."
Zirinsky, who is one of its leaders today, turns to the beginnings of the Jewish community, a period when most Jews were traders.
"The main trade as you know, was opium," he explains, "but I think Jews stayed far away from this, by and large. All the big names you read (Continued on Page 4 ~ See: HONG KONG JOURNEY)
BY HENRY LEONARD
"Mama! Come quick . . . er redf yiddish!
99
Th&ught for the Week
from the TALMUD
Only one man was created, in order to teach the lesson that if one destroys a single person, the Scripture imputes it to him as if he had destroyed the whole population of the world. And if he saves the life of a single person, the Scripture imputes it to him as though he had saved the whole world.
(Mishnah Sanhedrin, 4, 5.)
Remember tiie Sabbath
Sabbath begins, light candles
Friday, November 28, 3:58 p.m.
Sedra Vayeshev. Genesis Shabbat ends, Havdala November 29, 4:58 p.m.
Friday, December 5,3:55 p.m. Sedra Miketz. Genesis Shabbat ends, Havdala December 6. 4:55 p.m.
JEWISH CALENDAR
European policy critit^ized
HERZLIYA - Calling Euro--pean Community's foreign policy "a myth based on a delusion," Sir Hugh Fraser MP, chairman of Britain's Conservative Friends of Israel, said that peace in Middle East must be based on the Camp David accords.
- DEATHS —
LILY COHEN November 19
HARRY COOPERMAN November 20
As another Bulletin community service feature, Deatlis will be published weekly as they are registered. — THE PUBLISHER.
5741 ~ 1980
Chanuka
Dec. 3-10
5741 - 1981
Tu B'Shvat Fast of Esther Purim Pesach
Yom Hashoa Yom
HaAtzmaut Lag B'Omer Yom
Yerushalayim Shavuot Shiva Asar
B'Tammuz Tisha B'Av
Jan. 20 March 19 March 20 April 19-26
May 1
May 7 May 22
June 1 June 8-9
July 19 Aug. 9
All holidays begin preceding day at sundown
Social Calendar
'Network' Symposium Nov. 27 Weizmann Institute
Dinner Nov. 27
Beth TIkvah Party Nov. 30
Soviet Jewry Rally Nov. 30 Centre Chanuka Party
at Museum Nov. 30
Chelm Cultural Club
Film Dec. 1
Lubavitch
Concert Dec. 2
Youth Aliyah
Evening Dec. 3
Youth Aliyah
Canvassers Meet Dec. 3
Lubavitch-Zim Bros.
Concert Dec. 3
B.I. Men's Club
Dance Dec. 6
Schara Tzedeck Annual
Meeting Dec. 8
NCJW Israel
Brunch Dec. 10
Kadima P.W. Tea Dec. 10
Talmud Torah
Dinner Dec. 10
Beth Israel
Party . Dec. 14
Habonim Rally Dec. 21
Centre-Russian Concert . Dec. 21
Since 1930 the only weekly publication serving the Jewry of ilie Pacific Nortiiwett
Thursday, November 27,1980
3268 Heattier Street, Vancouver, Brilltli Columbia V5Z 3K5
SAtH KAPLAN
Editor and Publisher
BOB MARKIN HOWARD FUCHS
Assistant Editors
RON FREEDMAN
Advertising Manager
DEADLINE: THURSDAY at 9:00 a.m.
LEADING JEWISH WEEKLY IN WESTERN CANADA
Bulletin Offfiee: 879-6575
Bulletin Copy Depot beside Jewish Community Centre front door cleared at deadline.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $21.50 per year; $23.50 per year in the U.S., other countries $25.50. Business hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. except Saturdays. Jewish and Legal (Holidays. Second Class Mail Registration No. 1384.
BuiiP°fin''l'!M°«!,mW «a«*«ertising goods at less than the proper price. The Jewish Western
dS nriSd anT.hSf '° '^^ i'^"^""^' P"^^- but gotids may nto be sold at the
price printed and the difference charged to the newspaper.