YR VERY OWN SHOPPING MALL
Sep. 15th, 2008 02:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogHappy Mid-Autumn Festival. I swam under a full moon tonight. Not too bad.
Spent the afternoon traveling to Aberdeen on the south side of Hong Kong Island – partly because I don’t get out that way too often, but mainly because I’ve been meaning to post the following for months, but knew I would need photographic evidence to back me up.
Otherwise, you’d never believe we have an ABBA Shopping Mall.
How awesome is that?
[Click the main pic for the full set]
Of course, it has about as much to do with ABBA the Swedish pop sensation as ABBA had to do with Swedish death metal – which is to say, not a blessed thing. I can’t even say that the building’s owners even made the connection when they named it. (The secret may be in the Chinese name. No amount of English Googling has shed any light on this, but I think it’s an acronym relevant to Aberdeen.)
Inside, it’s pretty much yr standard HK shopping arcade filled with locally owned shops: discount clothing boutiques, toy/hobby shops, an eyeglasses shop, a pet store specializing in poodles, and specialty shops selling Cantopop, cheap DVDs and manga, among other things.
Like this.
No ABBA-related merchandise or tie-ins at all, though the CD shop did have a copy of their Greatest Hits disc in the rack, and a copy of the Mamma Mia film soundtrack (as the movie is currently playing here). But that’s true of just about every CD shop in Hong Kong.
And so much for the ABBA Shopping Mall. It’s interesting that it’s such a low-key fixture here – I’d never have known about it if I hadn’t just happened by it months ago on my way back to the office from an interview. Then again, maybe that’s why ABBA’s record label hasn’t sued it out of existence. I hope I’m not ruining it by posting this.
Money money money,
This is dF
Spent the afternoon traveling to Aberdeen on the south side of Hong Kong Island – partly because I don’t get out that way too often, but mainly because I’ve been meaning to post the following for months, but knew I would need photographic evidence to back me up.
Otherwise, you’d never believe we have an ABBA Shopping Mall.
How awesome is that?
[Click the main pic for the full set]
Of course, it has about as much to do with ABBA the Swedish pop sensation as ABBA had to do with Swedish death metal – which is to say, not a blessed thing. I can’t even say that the building’s owners even made the connection when they named it. (The secret may be in the Chinese name. No amount of English Googling has shed any light on this, but I think it’s an acronym relevant to Aberdeen.)
Inside, it’s pretty much yr standard HK shopping arcade filled with locally owned shops: discount clothing boutiques, toy/hobby shops, an eyeglasses shop, a pet store specializing in poodles, and specialty shops selling Cantopop, cheap DVDs and manga, among other things.
Like this.
No ABBA-related merchandise or tie-ins at all, though the CD shop did have a copy of their Greatest Hits disc in the rack, and a copy of the Mamma Mia film soundtrack (as the movie is currently playing here). But that’s true of just about every CD shop in Hong Kong.
And so much for the ABBA Shopping Mall. It’s interesting that it’s such a low-key fixture here – I’d never have known about it if I hadn’t just happened by it months ago on my way back to the office from an interview. Then again, maybe that’s why ABBA’s record label hasn’t sued it out of existence. I hope I’m not ruining it by posting this.
Money money money,
This is dF
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no subject
on 2008-09-15 08:18 am (UTC)But yeah, they totally stole Abba's logo. But I think the locals only know it by its Chinese name anyway... :)
no subject
on 2008-09-15 04:24 pm (UTC)I figured it had been there a long time, it looked at least 25 years old. I'm still amazed it's been there that long and no one's ever made an issue of the name, either positive of negative.