Mandy Loves Lanvin
Asian Object Lesson: Hong Kong Dollars: HK$2, HK$1
I picked up these guys while I was traveling around China and Hong Kong during the summer of 2006. As the byproduct of my distaste for making change in foreign currency, they floated around my purse as I traveled from Hong Kong to Mainland China and back again and somehow managed to survive the subsequent purge of Chinese and Hong Kong currency, Chinese candy wrappers and ticket stubs upon my return to the States.
It occurred to me as I sat here waiting for inspiration to strike, that coins have an intensely socially integrated, if rather pedestrian social life. Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride, coin currency doesn't share the prestige of it's older sister paper money, who is so prominently featured in rap videos and movies about Columbian drug lords and illicit business deals. Instead, it's relegated to the more proletarian transactions of feeding vending machines and buying snails at 4am after a long night of Chinese bar-hopping. Given their state of wear, these coins presumably passed through the hands of thousands Hong Kong vendors, taxi drivers, thrifty moms, and boyfriends on dates and could have made several international trips before coming home with me. They also silently bore witness to the transition of Hong Kong's return to Mainland China since 1997. These coins were integrated intimately into the lives of everyday Hong Kong citizens for close to a decade, facilitating the most basic of transactions, from buying food and clothing to baijiu and movie tickets.
Since my return to the states, however, these coins have lost that function. Now, the biggest purpose they serve is to tease me when I'm frantically searching my purse for parking meter change. By removing them from their original context, they are no longer able to fulfill their function as legal tender. And though they still hold monetary value, the spatial displacement I caused has rendered them incapable of expressing that function because they have been taken out of the environment that understands what these coins represent.
Another thing that struck me is that these coins, at least in the foreseeable future, will always be inextricably asian. In fact, it is because they are asian that they are currently rendered useless in my possession, although they have taken on some sentimental value. Not until they return to Hong Kong will they regain their practical use and transcend their current existence of novelty.
Asian Object Lesson: Hong Kong Dollars: HK$2, HK$1
I picked up these guys while I was traveling around China and Hong Kong during the summer of 2006. As the byproduct of my distaste for making change in foreign currency, they floated around my purse as I traveled from Hong Kong to Mainland China and back again and somehow managed to survive the subsequent purge of Chinese and Hong Kong currency, Chinese candy wrappers and ticket stubs upon my return to the States.
It occurred to me as I sat here waiting for inspiration to strike, that coins have an intensely socially integrated, if rather pedestrian social life. Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride, coin currency doesn't share the prestige of it's older sister paper money, who is so prominently featured in rap videos and movies about Columbian drug lords and illicit business deals. Instead, it's relegated to the more proletarian transactions of feeding vending machines and buying snails at 4am after a long night of Chinese bar-hopping. Given their state of wear, these coins presumably passed through the hands of thousands Hong Kong vendors, taxi drivers, thrifty moms, and boyfriends on dates and could have made several international trips before coming home with me. They also silently bore witness to the transition of Hong Kong's return to Mainland China since 1997. These coins were integrated intimately into the lives of everyday Hong Kong citizens for close to a decade, facilitating the most basic of transactions, from buying food and clothing to baijiu and movie tickets.
Since my return to the states, however, these coins have lost that function. Now, the biggest purpose they serve is to tease me when I'm frantically searching my purse for parking meter change. By removing them from their original context, they are no longer able to fulfill their function as legal tender. And though they still hold monetary value, the spatial displacement I caused has rendered them incapable of expressing that function because they have been taken out of the environment that understands what these coins represent.
Another thing that struck me is that these coins, at least in the foreseeable future, will always be inextricably asian. In fact, it is because they are asian that they are currently rendered useless in my possession, although they have taken on some sentimental value. Not until they return to Hong Kong will they regain their practical use and transcend their current existence of novelty.