Hong Kong culture

I bought a pair of trainers recently from a shop in Fa Yuen Street –also nicknamed Sneakers Street (波鞋街). It was one of many shops there as the nickname will tell you, most of them nondescript except for the names of the major brand names emblazoned on the store fronts. 

Got the shoes home and the shopping bag sat there for several days... This morning I looked the bag they gave me. I laughed.

Hong Kong people won't think anything of such a name, which has simply been transliterated from the Cantonese word "允", which means "allow", and is probably somebody's name. "記" is a common term that simply denotes a business. So, together, this means "Wan's enterprise". There's also a well known local fashion chain selling women's clothing with the name Wanko.

The word "wank", of course, is British slang, the verb and noun for masturbation. As parochial sexual slang goes, its limited usage means few in the Orient are sensitive to its connotation in a non-Brit setting. It may also be funny to a Westerner, for the "ee" suffix might sound like a caricature (as in Fu Manchu) and "orientalisation" of the word.

See also:
*Engrish.com