Dictionary of Hong Kong English, A

O

125 O O B OK Old China Hand one big pot wages one country two systems overtime 126 O OK n. Source language: Japanese. Definition: karaoke. Text example: “‘Karaoke’ (OK) means an activity in which a person, by himself or, together with one or more than one other person, chants, intones, sings or vocalizes in association with or in company with any music or other sound, or any visualimageorotherinformation…” Note: This term is not related to the English expression “O.K.” Old China Hand idiomatic expression. Definition: an expatriate with many years of experience in Hong Kong and/or China. Text example: “Within the Foreign office, the China experts, the Old China Hands, are a select breed.” one big pot wages idiomatic expression. Definition: egalitarian wages. Text example: “There has been a corrosion of the so-called ‘iron rice bowl’ (lifetime employment), ‘one big pot’ (egalitarian) wages have been eroded, and there has been increasing exploitation not just in foreign-invested enterprises, but also in the transforming state-owned enterprises and nontraditional sectors of work.” Underlying conceptualizations: SALARY IS FOOD, EQUAL PAY IS EATING FROM THE SAME FOOD CONTAINER. OK ▸ 127 O ▸ overtime [TARGET DOMAIN ∆ SALARY] [SOURCE DOMAINS ∆ FOOD, FOOD CONTAINER]. See: golden rice bowl, iron rice bowl. one country two systems fixed expression. Definition: a political concept by Deng Xiaoping, a former leader of China, for reunification with Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Under this concept the returning territories can have their own capitalist economic and political systems, while Mainland China uses the socialist system. Text example: “One would expect there to be free mobility of labour within a country, but this is not the case under ‘one country, two systems’.” overtime n. Definition: hours worked beyond the normally agreedon time, without pay. Text example: “Employees in Hong Kong work very long hours: The average working week in Hong Kong is 55 hours. 80% of people regularly work unpaid overtime. 75% of people worklateintotheevenings.” ...