‘Drink If You Can't Speak Canto’ in Hong Kong's Newest Party Card Game

Hong Konger’s love drinking. They also love playing card games whilst drinking. And they also love recounting the good old past and childhood of their city, whilst playing card games and drinking.

To celebrate Hong Kong’s love for a little alcohol paired with the adventure of a treasured story, three Hong Kongers decided to create “Ride the Minibus,” a drinking game that “celebrates all the weird and wonderful things that make up living in Hong Kong.

The card game, created by Jhalak Shah, Trisha Daswani, and Krystal Tolani, brings together long time and passing residents to recount the stories of boozy junk trips, Sai Kung adventures, terrible English teaching, getting yelled at by taxi drivers, and the countless of stereotypical adventures for anyone living here.

The Beat Asia sat down with the trio of GetHigh HK and 852Prints to talk to them about Hong Kong’s most exciting party drinking card game.

Where did the journey start with Ride the Minibus? What made you create this game?

Ride the Minibus is a joint venture between GetHigh HK and 852Prints. We’ve known each other for a while and really admire each other’s businesses. As such, we wanted to collaborate on something together. Our first product idea was actually Hong Kong themed hiking socks.

After 3 months of design work and supplier negotiation, we met up for drinks to review the socks samples and in under 5 minutes, decided to scrap the socks altogether and brainstorm a different product collab after a night of dinner, drinks, and games. At the end of the night, it was a no brainer – and thus, the concept of a Hong Kong drinking game was born!

What is the aim of the game and why do you want people to play it?

The aim of the game, much to people’s surprise, isn’t actually to get drunk. From our experiences playing the game, we can barely get through 10-20 cards in a session because every card sparks so much conversation!

The game sparks conversations amongst players, encouraging them to open up about their weirdest and funniest experiences of living in Hong Kong. As a result, our players end up accepting and laughing about the quirks our unique city has to offer, and learning more about the other players.

Who are you making this for? And for what scenarios? Parties? Pres? Junk boats?

The game can be played anywhere - at a chilled house party, at a bar, beach days, pre-drink sessions, office parties, junk boats - you name it. It’s a versatile game that can be adapted to a variety of moods, we know this because we’ve tried it out in all these settings!

We did our best to play this game with a variety of audiences. There’s nothing too racy in these cards so it’s appropriate for most settings where drinks are involved.

What are some of your favourite cards in the game?

Go around the room and name as many beaches as you can in Hong Kong. The first person to run out has to do their best rendition of 'Hong Kong Kids' by Skibs.

On the count of 3, point at the person who is most likely to miss their bus stop because they didn't say 'yau lok' loud enough. The person with the most votes has to yell ‘yau lok’ as loudly as they can. Practice makes perfect.

Do your best impression of the MTR voice over. Take 4 sips if your impression is not up to par.

Take a sip if you have the Hong Kong Observatory App on your phone. Take an additional sip for every unread notification you have from the app.

We won’t share any more – play the game and pick your favourite!

Tell me a bit about yourselves and the team behind the game. Have you always been involved in creative fields?

The team behind GetHigh HK includes Jhalak Shah and Trisha Daswani, whilst the face behind 852Prints is Krystal Tolani.

GetHigh HK is a side hustle and creative outlet for Jhalak and Trisha, who work as a banker and a teacher full-time. Their side hustle started off as a passion project while they were at university, which eventually evolved into a business a year ago.

Krystal is a marketer at a remote EdTech startup, but started 852Prints as a creative outlet and way to teach herself graphic design and illustration. In April of 2021, Krystal went part time with her job to spend more time working on 852Prints.

What do you hope for Ride the Minibus? Do you want it to grow? Do you have other projects further down the line?

At the moment, our goal is to spread the game and our love for Hong Kong not only locally but also to Hong Kongers globally.

We have a couple of potential ideas in mind for variations of Ride the Minibus including creating an expansion pack, making a Chinese version or even versions for other cities around the world.

A pack of the Ride the Minibus card game can be purchased at the 852Prints online store. Inside, each pack features a little glossary for HK-specific terms, such as “UAG,” “Bus Mother,” “Sevens,” “Lai See,” and “Hong Kong Kids,” an instruction sheet on how to play, and 150 cards to spark a conversation and drink.