It’s Chinese New Year today here in Hong Kong. Vietnamese New Year in Saigon, and Korean New Year in Seoul, too.
We celebrated the holiday with family last night, as is traditional. My in-laws came over for hotpot. But it was a tight-knit group of close relatives, just my wife’s sisters and their spouses. Our traditional stroll to the flower market or trip to see the fireworks along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront went out the window.
This is normally a boom time for restaurants and retailers. Much of mainland China takes two weeks off over the holidays, and the celebrations last long into the night, a time to head home for millions of migrant workers, who get very little other time off to see spouses, children and…