Colour and Flavour tasks for Hong KongThe idea of having a choice of a hard task and an easy task seemed to be popular last time, so we'll go with it again!
The Challenging TaskIn this task you will need to not only do some research, but you will also need to read what others have posted before you.
Four people seem to have lost their passports, so only 16 of us will hop aboard a non-stop flight and zoom to Hong Kong.
Non-stop flights from Sydney to Hong Kong are now commonplace, but this wasn't always the case. If you wish to attempt the challenging task, you will have a little research to do in airline history. Find out some facts about the history of this feat, and post it.
If you are the first to post, you will basically answer the following question: In what year did the first non-stop commercial flight between Sydney and Hong Kong take place? Add one or two more interesting facts, and make a decent coherent paragraph out of it. That's all, one decent expository paragraph: I am NOT asking for an encyclopedia.
If you are not the first to post, then you will have to build upon what the previous player posted, and add some more facts. There are many facts that it might be possible to dig up. What was the first aircraft type that was capable of making this flight? What airline was the first to offer this service? Who was the pilot on that first historic flight? How long did it take? How much fuel was required? Were there any problems? And so on, and so forth.
In order to score, you must come up with something interesting that no previous poster has mentioned. So, the sooner you post, the easier it will be. If you are the tenth or even the fifth poster, you might find the subject has been pretty much exhausted, and it may be really tough to find some interesting fact that nobody has mentioned yet, so get in there quickly!
Since the posters after you will have to find a fact that you didn't, it will be considered poor sportsmanship to exhaust the field with an encyclopedic submission that uses every conceivable fact. Remember, one paragraph is all I'm asking for, and it is more important that your paragraph be
interesting and coherently written, than huge or exhaustive. One or two unique facts is all you need to produce; the way you make them sound interesting is the most important part.
The Easy TaskAlthough Hong Kong was for a long time a British colony, and English is an important trade language, most of the people speak Canton Chinese. It is estimated that only 38% of the population is fluent in English.
I'm sure everyone has seen wonderful translations like this one:
They float around the Internet in swarms, so it should be no trouble finding one. But can you find the funniest?
If you attempt the easy task, you must find the funniest bad Chinese-English translation imaginable, and post the image. Try to ascertain that it is from Hong Kong, but we will forgive you if it is from Shanghai. Just don't post stuff that is obviously not Chinese at all.
As before, the max score for the Challenging Task will be five points, but the max score for the Easy Task is being increased from two points to three. To score two or three points, however, you must really make the judges roll on the floor; most submissions in the Easy category will probably only get one point. There are 166 points available to be won in the Hong Kong games, so the judges' target for the C&F submissions will be to hand out between 16 and 25 points total. According to the extended deadline announced in Sydney, you will have seven days.
