「金必多」與買辦文化

何生續說十九至二十世紀初的何東家族就是個好例子。買辦人不單止是運來佬貨來賣的，他們當然機靈地出口茶葉和瓷器賺錢。所以他們體現的是遊走於東西文化、南北分野、內外迥異的各個社會階層之間，要靈活地在當中取得平衡點。香港有殖民及難民文化背景，已有一定的複雜性；再來個金必多文化，就完全塑造了港人由始至終都引以為傲的多變特質。好比李主編的過往經歷，我們常常要「講數」所以轉數快，強項就是有技巧地製造空間「走棧」盡量妥協，不會偏幫任何一方，保持中立，抽到佣金就算成功。他們是實用主義者，吸納、適應和靈活運用文化差異。文化水平認知高，夠國際化，但缺乏國家民族認同。相對的是他們沒有原則、膚淺、無根。這正如香港人，缺乏宗旨，不相信將來，常常玩世不恭，憤世嫉俗。正如周星馳的電影一樣，香港人很反智，愛以開玩笑的方式批判事件，用片面的東西斷定事實全部，其實很「後現代」。與其說這現象是文化悲劇，不如說是條出路，在後現代的當下，「金必多」是文化寶藏。

正如在網上「古高 (Google)」以中文搜索，結果得出只有有關多元文化的資料，十項搜尋結果涵蓋亞洲不同地域、社會中不同角色、哲理信仰、族群、文化研究中不同理論及主義的討論。又一再看看瀏覽器的顯示，〝Comprador〞現在是間澳洲室內設備供應商、一間位於巴黎的酒店、亦是在台北的一家叫買辦的專業品牌與行銷顧問公司，是推廣華人產業的中介者。這種種不同產業皆都是「金必多」的新演繹，其多變與游刅的廣泛應用是永無止境的。

回歸時，大部份年長的香港人從買辦文化中或多或少會有一定領悟反省，面對的是對本土歸屬感的間題；現在2010剛開始，大大轉變了，我們思考着菜園村的問題。何生總結希望大眾發揮金必多精神接受香港根本是個多變、不可定位的地方，從而真正建立創作的空間。

何生推介必試「金必多濃湯」-----

香港: 1) 銅鑼灣禮頓中心地庫的新寧餐廳

          2) 太子太子道西148號地下名寶石餐廳

          3) 中環大會堂美心餐廳

          4) 中環蘭桂坊雲咸街 1- 3 號南華大廈地庫Jimmy’s Kitchen

上海: 福1088（上海本幫菜）靜安區鎮寧路375號(愚園路口)

The Art of Merchandising in Hong Kong and The Comprador Culture

Reporter, translation: Jeannie Wu

Merchandiser

On January 16, we had the honour to have the local cultural critic Mr. Oscar Ho to join us in the sharing session to talk about on the local creative industry, the Comprador culture and the Fotan community. As part of our Open Studio show entitled ‘”Art” you Kidding Me?- The First Community Art Exhibition in Fotan’, our Chief Editor Tracy Lee interacted with Mr. Ho and shared her experiences as the middleman of a trading company in the session. She had been bargaining on and off in-between the buyer and the manufacturers who were always being challenged by both parties on the prices… And Mr. Ho thinks these are phenomena related to the Comprador Culture.

Comprador and Merchandising Culture

Mr. Ho’s led the discussion about Comprador Culture by introducing us the very local and special dish created in Hong Kong calls the Comprador soup. It is a traditional dish where one can only find in the old style Western restaurant, the cream soup of which mixed with Chinese ham, abalone, carrots and sharks fin--- sounds creative, uh? The soup is especially created to serve the merchandiser calls Comprador when Hong Kong was still a new and popular Entrepôt, and the compradors were mainly Asian, mostly Canton Chinese. By consuming the soup with a strong Asian touch, the compradors were able to showoff that they are rich and with knowledge about foreign cultures.

The Compradors are very smart and so they are not just depending on importing foreign products to earn, but also exporting very marketable things like tea and China (i.e. porcelain). The way they do business as well as their lifestyle reveals the very essence of the Hong Kong, which is to always find a balance by: floating through the western, eastern or mixed cultures; shifting between the northern and southern divisions; and wandering around various social classes. Setting with the colonial and refugee historical background in Hong Kong, the Comprador culture brought in as another complication that trained the local people to be highly adaptable to changes hence tough and very competitive. Just like Tracy, we all have to be acting and reacting to different parties spontaneously and wittily in order to gain, we make rooms for ourselves skillfully in every negotiation even we call those ‘compromises’ and we almost never take side but to maintain our neutral stance as we earn the commissions in the deals.   

If you ask any Hongkonger, they may admit without shame that they are very practical and being so- shallow; very international with high social-cultural consciousness- yet with no principle; mostly with high social status but with a sense of rootlessness. Adding these together, it is easy to understand why the public here is quite cynical and has no sense of belonging to the ‘Motherland’, for they may have a very vague, different or even no concept of nationalism, or knowing no ways to unite. However, it is exactly because of the above attributes, Hong Kong people are very open-minded to accept, adapt or even creatively apply the varying historical elements and cultural texts in their everyday lives. Under the circumstances supported by the Comprador culture, it is never sufficient to define or to have a dominant comprehension for artistic creations, cultural products and national identification. What is important is to initiate heated discussions then the ever-ending study on these topics that stir noises everywhere. As remarked by Oscar with the postmodernist tone, it is more proper to regard Comprador culture as a treasure that we found to guide us with a direction, rather to say it is a ‘tragic phenomenon’ like most cultural critic think. History, culture, thoughts, identity, language and discourses are changing instantly as we blink.

買手的經歷

1月16日，《Kai玩笑──火炭首個社區藝術展》，有幸邀得何慶基先生到來跟《文化地圖》編輯對談買辦文化與香港文化身份的關係。是次打響頭炮的分享會上，編輯李嘉言娓娓道來她在火炭當了六年手袋買手的經歷。比如她身為年輕女性，卻是美國在港分公司主理人，夾在買賣雙方之間。老闆遠在美國，廠商常以為女人可以欺負。故意毀約、偷工減料或以金錢賄賂的事情常有發生。所以，平時她要和廠商保持良好關係，但保持距離更是必須。客人則最愛討價還價，或提出不合理的退貨要求。作為買賣雙方中間人的價值，在於信用，也是李嘉言竭力要做到的。「廠商要求的是長期訂單和準時付款，買家要的是物超所值與準時交貨。對兩方面，我，尤其被認為是女人，更加須要言之有信，才會被確認為有價值的合作夥伴。」「美國訂單銀碼很大，所以大家的利益關係往往拉扯得很緊張。記得有一次廠方貨品不合規格，我只好要求退貨。廠方在我們的辦公室，眾目睽睽下，恐嚇要打我。此情況下我根本不可退讓，只好向前走近他多一步說：「打吧！盡管看看你後果會如何？……」這種人與人之間長期處於緊張的利益關係，令李覺得討厭自己，便「劈炮唔撈」，重返校園。這，何生又怎引申串連到「金必多」文化呢？