Stock news??? Have you had...Shanghai crabs?..........
Gourmet crabs casualty of stock market crash
HONG KONG (Reuters) - It isn't just stock market punters who have been suffering in Hong Kong lately.
Vendors of a favorite delicacy, Shanghai crab, say sales have plummeted because people are afraid the name of the dish will bring them bad luck in the financial markets.
Shanghai crabs are called "tai chap hai," or "Big shackled crab."
In a place renowned for superstition, the hairy, "big shackled crab" is a horrendously inauspicious name.
The clawed delicacies are now languishing unsold in shops, unwanted by people who until two weeks ago used to feast on their tasty meat.
"Big shackled crab, big shackled crab, it sounds awful! How can you even ask me to eat it?" cried secretary Kellie Ko, her lips curling at the edges in horror at the thought.
"I won't go near them!" Ko, 28, said.
"Eating it will mean having all my cash tied down, like the 'big shackled crab'," explained Ko.
One of the ordinary Hong Kong people who play the markets and have lost their savings in recent weeks, Ko said she had a paper loss of some HK$50,000 (US$6,500) on shares bought over the past year.
Hong Kong's key stock indicator, the Hang Seng Index, has lost more than 25 percent since early October |
