or: When an Asian Market Isn’t an Asian Market

I’ll be heading back to Asia in a little less than a month so I was pleased to be invited along to the Asian International Trade and Cultural Expo earlier this week. I was hoping it could be the start of my reintegration.

It wasn’t.

Friends of mine had been to this Expo in previous years. I was told that it was like a market and sold food, clothing, furniture and a bunch of other odds and ends. A lot like a market anywhere except this would have more of an Asian focus.

It didn’t.

Or it did if you only considered some of the furniture and the relatively cheap price of the various products.

The furniture was timber (some teak, some recycled palings and some I didn’t recognize) and mostly in the style of older modern Chinese – that may be a term I’ve just made up or it could actually exist. What I”m meaning is there wasn’t a lot of intricate design work or embellishments as is the case in the antique world and it wasn’t truly minimalist as in the case of the more modern Chinese style. It was a weird hybrid.

Plus some office chairs.

The main other products for sale at numerous counters were mandolins  which were deftly maneuvered by very excited salespeople slicing, dicing, julianning (and various other terms I’ve never heard) many carrots, zucchini and cucumber; towels in all sizes; plates and cups.

The only food I saw was some snack foods outside which were definitely Mauritian in origin and some fish food since there was also a small pet store.

No clothes.

Out the back of the rather small warehouse area was a jumping castle for the children which included an inflatable octopus. While this isn’t particularly Asian, the disconnect between everything else there did remind me of some places I’d been to in China and some of the more unusual shopping experiences I’ve had in market areas in Hong Kong.

As a gentle reintroduction in Asia, it was a bit disappointing.

Or perhaps this is a good reminder for me to manage my expectations of HK before I return.

Noted.

* Thanks to San Cisco for the title to this post.