Final Group Project_Nightlife of Hong Kong
If one tries to enlarge the electronic world map, one would find out that a tiny point in the
southern part always remains bright at any time. The prosperity of Hong Kong and the rapid
development of the entertainment industry throughout the decades made it a ‘Sleepless City’.
Happy hour with colleagues after a long day of work, party with friends during weekend. We all know that drinking is a main part of social communication. However, the trend of people’s drinking habit started to change a few years ago.
Since 07/08 fiscal year, the then Financial Secretary Henry Tang, decided to cancel the Red Wine tax. Hong Kong became the first zero red wine tax city around the world. This policy affects not only the trade of wine in Hong Kong but also the change in drinking phenomenon.
Beer was the most common alcoholic drink in Hong Kong. However, when more and more high quality wines were imported such as red wine from Bordeaux in France, Italy, Spain; white wine from Canada, New zealand, etc., people started to demand more high quality alcoholic drinks but not just limited to wine(beer). Whisky join the trend few years ago. People started to buy, or even bid different whisky all around the world like Scotland, Japan etc. After trying all new kinds of alcoholic drinks, people go back to beer but different from what they used to drink like Lager. Instead, they tried out craft beer. So we can conclude that the drinking habit of people didn’t change because of the categories of alcohol, but the demand for better quality and chiller lifestyle.
Drinking culture changed despite the change in drinking habit of people, but the different standard of living. The number of teenagers with drinking habit decrease within the past few years since more and more people know the harm of alcohol. And this also results in the change in drinking culture. People used to drink in a party, whenever they drink, they drunk. In case of maintaining both healthy life and social life, people started to drink when chit-chatting and meeting one another. And that cause people started to try cocktails, wine, etc, which are the alcoholic drinks that can be drank for a long period of time.
The change in drinking culture also caused the change in types of bars. For example, the bars in Prince Edward used to be cheaper in price, less decoration design, and sell mostly beer. People usually play games, dice, darts, beer pong in these kinds of bar. But the bar in Prince Edward started to have more decoration design, selling more kinds of alcoholic drinks, and even started to hold some live music band show. The bars become a more “peaceful” place.
He think that the environment of bars becomes more peaceful and chill, “People would like to know more about what they are drinking, and their purpose of coming are no more to be drunk only, they started to do some tasting.”
Lam thinks that the change in drinking culture is good to the society, “In fact a fancy bar is a good place for chit-chat, business talks, or even a dinner. People in Hong Kong nowadays start to have wine during their meal, which is so common in the western world .”
Last but not least, no matter what are the reasons of we drinking, drink responsibly is the main subject. The drinking style now is becoming more healthy and balanced, and there are more and more news types of drinks in the market. So, why not call your friends right now and ask them for happy hours?