Reviews & Articles

圖片說明：

1.-2. 2019年9月12日，香港中秋節，大坑火龍在區內的街道中舞動
3. 2020年9月14日，香港，中環，中區健康院普通科門診診所
4. 2020年9月12日，香港，上環，塌下的宜家椅子和取而代之的竹椅
5. 2020年9月12日，的士司機范先生的新冠病毒檢測陰性結果證書
所有照片由作者提供

Captions:
1.-2. Tai Hang Fire Dragon on the streets of Tai Hang, Mid-Autumn Festival, Hong Kong, 12 September 2019
3. The Central District General Outpatient Clinic (CDGOPC), Central, Hong Kong, 14 September 2020
4. The collapsed Ikea chair and replacement bamboo chair, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, 12 September 2020
5. Taxi-driver Mr Fan’s Covid-19 certificate, Hong Kong, 12 September 2020
All photos: John Batten



(Please scroll down for English version)


聽到第141屆大坑舞火龍要取消的消息，我沒有感到意外。抗疫時期，選擇避險而不是破格思維是理所當然的事！我一位香港友人提出這樣的問題：如果今年不舉辦舞火龍，那麼，這種祭儀便只是表演，沒有真正的意義了，真是一言驚醒。如果說香港需要祈福、需要為保合境平安和而在街上舉行祭儀，今年便沒有不辦的理由。然而，香港今年卻取消了許多傳統儀式，包括長洲的太平清醮和各區盂蘭勝會，連在石塘咀山道天橋橋底搭棚舉辦的大型潮劇神功戲，還有佛教和道教祭儀也不例外。

我攪不懂：舞火龍是今年必需的！舞火龍過去是有助消除疫病的（人們喜歡用「有助」這個詞語）。當然，如果今年火龍、祭儀和煙火再次穿梭大坑的街道，新冠病毒也應該得到類似的對待！這項一年一度的傳統，一直都是令人安心和更安心，為社區帶來安康的做法。我在香港居住的時間很久了，足以內化城中對沒有合理解釋力量的尊重。我不會試探命運，而且會為了保持好運，把所有破舊、用上好一段時間的物件留著。我也以香港的節日來調整自己全年的步伐，我覺得農曆新年比聖誕節重要，而冬至的重要性，往往把過幾天才到、「次一級」的聖誕節比下去！

我們今年能否安全地以不一樣的形式來慶祝這些節日？例如採納歐洲足球球賽、職業高爾夫球和最近美國網球公開賽的規程，只讓選手出席，不讓市民現場觀賽。以我們的情況來說，就是只讓戲曲演員、舞火龍健兒、樂師、祭師和官員參與。這樣的話，起碼祭儀能夠繼續辦，為大小社區帶來安康。還是我們想說，這些祭儀都是沒有用，只是迷信？愚見認為，我不想試探命運，我需要這些儀式所帶來的額外保障！

但試探命運的情況可以隨時出現。上星期，我坐在一張破舊，用上好一段時間，一直留著以保住自己好運的宜家椅子上時，它卻突然塌下，電光火石間，我來不及卸力，撞到了頭部，而奇怪的是，受罪之處就在頭頂。這真是機緣巧合：當我們嘗試干預摔跌的自然軌道時，骨折便會出現––但是，事件的步速，又或者是運氣，會停止任何進一步的追問。我感到自己在流血，於是走到樓下去淋浴、清洗傷口，再以我防疫物資中的酒精消毒、吃了兩片必理痛便去睡了。一夜好眠後起來，我已經不再覺得痛。那天稍後時間，我約了朋友吃午飯，他對我頭部的傷勢大為吃驚，堅持說我一定要去看醫生做個檢查。在香港生活的這些日子，我總有些時刻對自己健康太不著緊。我再考慮他的建議，他也很好的陪我去上環看醫生。醫生檢查我的傷勢後馬上給我寫了轉介信，著我到瑪麗醫院的急症室去。

我馬上坐巴士出發。到了急症室沒多久，已先後得到分流護士和醫生檢查，他們都很有效率，而且對我關顧有加。醫生認為我沒有腦震盪徵狀，而且已過了12小時的關鍵時刻而沒有出現不良病徵，所以沒有建議我照X光。醫護人員為我好好包紥傷口，再給我打了一針破傷風加強劑。每個程序都要用上一些時間，但我完全信任瑪麗醫院的醫生、護士和他們的醫療程序。這次急症的最好之處，是把我轉介到公共診所跟進傷口護理。

翌日，我到了CDGOPC覆診。醫管局的大小事情都冠上英文字母縮寫組成的名字，這個習慣承襲自英國的國民保健署，是香港卓越衛生服務的藍本。CDGOPC的中文全名是中區健康院普通科門診診所，它所處的建築物是典型的現代主義設計，平易近人，是上世紀五、六十年代，香港政府為了應付急增人口需要而設的眾多政府設施之一，其他設施還包括學校、公共房屋、醫院、診所等。在那陣子的急速擴張後，醫療系統的衛生基建多年來都只得到微不足道的投資。我們到了近年才把資源放在新建醫院、日間手術健康中心和更多健康院上。資助公共衛生護理是十分昂貴的事情，但卻比私人衛生護理計劃更具成本效益。隨著香港人口老化，公共衛生的撥款無可避免地增加，也毋庸置疑地需要向市民徵收更多稅款。香港港安老院舍的疫症離世數字告訴我們，長者是社會上最弱不禁風的一群，他們需要更好的院舍，這些設施需要大幅改善。在政府衛生政策中，長者應被劃為即時處理的優先選項。

上個週末，我把那張讓我受了皮肉之苦的宜家椅子換成了一張牢固的竹椅，叫了的士把它帶回家。我和的士司機范先生談了好一會。范先生已經77歲，他還繼續開車只因為他享受工作，覺得比悶在家中踏實。我們談及疫情，又說到他的日常生活出現了哪些改變，他說自己已不再約同其他司機吃午飯，也害怕出外用餐。

我發現的士前座掛了一張最近完成了新冠病毒檢測的證書，應該是要給乘客看的。這是香港其中一種合理的安心認證，但當然，測試結果的證書只在發證那天有效。作為一種安定人心的做法，它反映了香港政府醫院和診所提供了令人安心的服務。

然而，為了多一重安心，我仍然希望今年可舉辦大坑舞火龍！

www.taihangfiredragon.hk


原文刊於《明報周刊》，2020年9月18日



Reassuring Rituals and Medical Care

by John Batten


The news that the 141^st Tai Hang Fire Dragon procession had been cancelled did not surprise me. Risk-aversion, rather than thinking outside the box, is the default setting during these Covid-19 days! The significance of this cancellation really sank in when a Hong Kong friend questioned that if the fire dragon was not held this year, then the ritual is just for show, it has no real meaning. If ever there was a year when we needed our streets ritually cleansed and an auspicious karma bestowed on our communities it is this year. Many of Hong Kong’s traditional rituals, including the Cheung Chau Bun Festival and district Yulan (Hungry Ghost) festivals, including the great Chiu Chow opera and the Buddhist and Taoist ceremonies held under the dramatic setting of the Hill Road flyover in Shek Tong Tsui, have been cancelled.

I don’t get it: we need the fire dragon this year! In the past the dragon helped (some might prefer ‘helped’) extinguish plague and pestilence. Surely, Covid-19 would receive similar treatment if the fire dragon, the rituals, smoke, and fire were let loose on Tai Hang’s streets again this year! Held annually, this tradition is a type of insurance, and reassurance, to keep the neighbourhood safe and healthy. I have been living in Hong Kong long enough to have internalized the city’s respect for forces that do not necessarily have rational explanations. I don’t tempt fate, and I keep tatty well-used objects to ensure my luck is not changed. I pace my year in time with the city’s festivals and I consider Chinese New Year more important than Christmas, and the Winter Solstice an important marker that ushers in the ‘lesser’ festival of Christmas!

Could we celebrate these festivals differently, but safely this year: let us adopt the protocols of European football matches, professional golf tournaments and the recent US Tennis Open by only letting the players attend (in our case, the opera singers, fire dragon participants, musicians, priests and officials) and exclude the general public. At least our neighbourhoods would get some ritual protection. Or, are we saying these rituals are useless, just superstition?  Personally, I don’t wish to tempt fate; I want the extra protection of those rituals!

But tempting fate can just happen. I was sitting on a (tatty, well-used, kept for good luck (!), but rickety) Ikea chair last week. Then, it collapsed suddenly; so suddenly that I had no time to break the fall. My head took the impact; strangely, the very top of my head. This was serendipity: invariably a bone fracture occurs when we try to impede the natural trajectory of a fall – but, the pace of the incident, or luck, stopped any further injury. I felt some blood, went downstairs, showered, washed the wound, disinfected it with alcohol (using my Covid-19 stockpile), took a couple of Panadol, went to bed. I awoke the next day well-rested and with no discernable pain. Later, I had lunch with a friend, who, shocked by the wound on my head, insisted that I visit my doctor for a check-up. It was one of those Hong Kong moments when I am too casual about my health. I reconsidered, and my friend kindly accompanied me to my doctor in Sheung Wan, who checked the injury and wrote a referral to Queen Mary Hospital A&E.

I jumped on the bus. Soon after arrival, the triage nurse saw me, the doctor saw me: both incredibly efficient and caring. The doctor noted that I had no signs of concussion, and as I was outside the twelve-hour critical period with no adverse symptoms, no X-ray was suggested. The wound was then properly dressed and a booster tetanus injection given. It all took time, but I have total trust in Queen Mary’s doctors, nurses, and their medical procedures. The best part of this emergency treatment is the referral to the public clinic for follow-up wound care.

A day later, I attended the CDGOPC, the Hospital Authority uses acronyms for everything, inherited from the British National Health system on which Hong Kong’s excellent health service is modelled. The Central District General Outpatient Clinic (CDGOPC) is housed in a lovely modest building of exemplary modernist design. It is one of the many government facilities (schools, public housing, hospitals, clinics) built to cope with Hong Kong’s population increases of the 1950s and 1960s. After that burst of medical expansion, our health infrastructure had too many years of scant investment. Only recently are we now investing in new hospitals, day-procedure health centres and additional health clinics. Public health care is expensive to fund, but more cost-effective than private health care schemes. As Hong Kong’s population grows older, funding public health will inevitably increase, and undoubtably will require additional taxation. As deaths from Covid-19 in Hong Kong’s elderly homes have shown, the elderly are our most vulnerable members of the community and need better, much better, residential facilities. The elderly should be an immediate health policy priority for the government.

Last weekend, I replaced that offending Ikea chair with a solid bamboo chair and grabbed a taxi to transport it home. I had a lovely chat with the taxi-driver. Mr Fan is 77-years of age and continues to drive because he enjoys working, rather than being bored staying home. We talked about Covid-19 and how his daily routine had changed: he no longer meets his taxi-driver mates for lunch and is apprehensive to eat outside.

I spotted a certificate hooked around the front-seat for passengers to see; issued after a recent Covid-19 test. It was one of those sensible Hong Kong reassurances, but, of course, the certificate is only valid on the day it was issued. As a reassurance it mirrored the reassuring services offered in our public hospitals and clinics.

However, for extra reassurance, I would still like the Tai Hang Fire Dragon to dance the streets this year!

www.taihangfiredragon.hk


This opinion piece was originally published in Ming Pao Weekly on 19 September 2020, translated from the original English by Aulina Chan.