藏品The collection
World Names
How Cantonese named the rest of the world — and what those names literally say.
地名 dei6 meng2Hong Kong Names
What Hong Kong's place names mean, and what they were before.
意頭 ji3 tau4Luck & Signs
Homophony as an operating system: numbers, puns, taboos.
熱氣 jit6 hei3Heat & Cooling
A folk physics of the body, run entirely on food.
概念 koi3 nim6Concepts
Ideas that don't land in Mandarin — the case for Cantonese as its own mind.
一例One exhibit, as a sample
What a number is worth in Hong Kong, taken from the Transport Department's own published auction results. The argument is the empty row.
Table view
| Mark | Price | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 28 | HK$18.1m | 2016 |
| 18 | HK$16.5m | 2008 |
| 9 | HK$13.0m | 1994 |
| 88 | HK$11.4m | 2025 |
| Any mark containing 4 | Does not appear in the top ten | |
新Recently added
The shop that sells the correction
A herbal tea shop on every second corner, selling something bitter enough that nobody would drink it for pleasure.
蘭The orchid belt
An accident of transcription turned half of Europe botanical, and then hardened into a rule.
花旗國The flower-flag country
A dead name for America that is still alive inside a bank and a bottle of ginseng.
方法How this is kept
Everything here is documented by someone who doesn't speak Cantonese. That isn't a disclaimer, it's the method — and it means mistakes are inevitable and get fixed in public rather than quietly. Read the method →
Notes from the collection
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