Also in Part One, the Lunar New Year is an auspicious festival, and to increase the chances of good fortune it’s traditional to write lucky words on red papers.These papers are called “Fai Chun”, and may include such expressions as “Wishing you safety wherever you go”, and “Good Health”. We look at their origins and history.

Controlling Stray Dog Populations; Secondhand Markets; Dragon Dances This may well be the Year of the Dragon, but is it going to be a better year for Hong Kong’s stray dog population? Many animal welfare workers are hoping so. The SPCA has figures for the stray dog population going back more than 30 years. But between 2005 and 2010 alone, dog ownership in the SAR increased from about 200,000 dogs to about 250,000. Only half of that dog population has been desexed. And the reproductive rate is high. Many are dumped. On average it takes a team of dog catchers four visits to capture a single stray. In Hong Kong, the Audit Commission reports that $34 million was spent on capturing, penning, and killing stray dogs and cats in the year 2009 to 2010. Since the beginning of January, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, together with the Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals has held several public consultation sessions on a “Trap, Neuter, Release” strategy, primarily for residents of Lamma Island, Yuen Long and Sai Kung. Traditionally, you’re supposed to have a massive clean up before the Lunar New Year, leave your house spick and span. Given our limited living space in Hong Kong, that often means throwing away a lot of old household items.But is it inevitable that they should be consigned to the landfill? Increasingly people are selling and buying secondhand goods. And we’re going to end our first show of the Year of the Dragon with, a Dragon. Given the emblematic animal of the year, Dragon Dances are more popular than ever, and they have a long tradition as well as two very distinctive types.

It’s been ten years since a law to band idling vehicle engines was first proposed in Hong Kong. But as the air quality has continued to deteriorate, underlined by exceptionally high levels of air pollution this week, there’s a new impetus to introduce tough measures. Some are delighted. Others less so. But even as legislators discussed the proposal this week, one longtime clean air campaigner Professor Anthony Hedley. is leaving Hong Kong. The air is harmful to his health.

The idea behind the New Territories Small House Policy was that indigenous villagers would be able to build houses for themselves when needed. Some have been found guilty of abusing that policy by selling their rights to developers. The Heung Yee Kuk is up in arms about this while the government seems rather reluctant to defend the law. But first, the political storm at the University of Hong Kong continues, and reached a crisis point last week, when the new chairman of the governing council Arthur Li, held his first meeting. His emails have been hacked, although there’s been no prosecution, pro-Beijing newspapers have attacked him, detractors – including Mr Li - have questioned his academic credentials and even his personality … this week, in rather calmer circumstances, I spoke to Johannes Chan.