There's a cosmetics firm here called Fancl who advertise incessantly on all media - busses, TV, movies, papers. What is Fancl? I am not sure the letters "n", "c" and "l" are meant to be lumped together concurrently in a word without a vowel or two. It is pronounced Fun-cull, which I personally think is one of the most offputting brand names ever, especially for a "beauty" brand.

These advertisements say a lot about the mindset of HK women. The main products are in two varities: the magic potion that will slim you to a waif; and the magic cream that will make you whiter than Michael Jackson. The ads thus consist of plenty of white background, with waif-like Chinese girls who are paler than a ghost all smiling their white toothy grins as they frolic around loving life. I imagine once the filming is finished they all collapse in a heap from all the exercise and the lack of nutrition they receive.

Then again most men can never understand the whole deal with cosmetics anyway.