Promote Suzie Wong to the world as a symbol of independent, hard-working Hongkongers
N. Balakrishnan says the popularity of kimono rental shops with tourists in Japan suggests that Hong Kong could make more of its classic cheongsam, and of a woman who famously wore one
On a recent trip to Kyoto, Japan, during the cherry blossom season, I was surprised at the hundreds of “geishas” wandering around town, though I had seen only one or two during our last trip there a couple of decades ago. A closer look revealed that most were speaking Putonghua.
The ever-innovative Japanese, obsessed with costumes, seem to have found a new way to make money from Chinese tourists – every other shop in Kyoto seemed to be advertising kimono rental to help tourists explore the “maiko world”. There were also many men dressed as samurais wandering around, again all from China. Completing the picture, many rickshaws pulled by young Japanese men were showing Chinese couples the sights.
People like me who read too many history books must be struck by the ironies of rich Chinese girls travelling to Japan to buy rice cookers and getting dressed up as geishas, who were, after all, no matter how sophisticated, just courtesans.
Hunger pangs of a geisha: Why eating French fries is strictly taboo for some women in Japan
Looking past the history, what struck me was that the boom in Chinese tourists was also helping the small stallholders of Kyoto, the little old ladies who run the numerous kimono rental shops – unlike in Hong Kong where it is only the chain stores that seem to be benefiting, and the little guys and women who used to run the local shops are getting increasingly squeezed out.
