The HK melting pot

[carlo]

As a newly minted HK resident, I've begun paying attention to local news. This made the rounds yesterday and even my father sent me an email asking if we know what we are doing, as if there was a gang of hooded hooligans waiting to set our apartment on fire.

It was indeed amusing to read that HKers prefer living next door to emotionally unstable people (which has happened to me at least once, and is definitely unpleasant) rather than to "foreign workers". Did something get lost in translation? Or is it a face issue (eg, they would rather cry on the Peak than laugh in Chungking Mansions)?

I've long been impressed by some of the successful minorities and foreign entrepreneurs who have made it big in HK (even Li Kashing was an immigrant). The extreme "laissez-faire" attitude of policy makers, especially regarding education, may be behind many of the problems, as it has been possible for several generations of people to grow up in HK without learning any Chinese, indeed this is thought of as normal. What else may be going on?

[skylee]

Now that proficinecy in Chinese is a prerequisite for most civil service jobs, the ethinic minority finds themselves in a less advantageous position. There seem to be all kinds of difficulty for most of them to learn Chinese in HK.

外籍生本地校 Foreign students in local schools -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/39373-%e5%a4%96%e7%b1%8d%e7%94%9f%e6%9c%ac%e5%9c%b0%e6%a0%a1-foreign-students-in-local-schools/

[carlo]

I see how they would be less advantaged, but it doesn't follow that people wouldn't want them as neighbours. And the desire for a prestigious residential address also doesn't seem to explain it -- there's plenty of "foreign workers" in the Mid-Levels too, albeit of a more disreputable breed (the financial industry).

[xiaocai]

I don't know about you, but they have never liked us mainlanders (read the enlightening replies and it is not to hard to find out), so I really am not surprised about the result. But who cares, Hong Kong is becoming more and more like 怨妇 now, so are Hong Kong people.

[Lu]

Yeah, some of the results of that study were actually the wrong way around, for example in the cases of Hong Kong and Bangladesh. Turns out Hong Kong is, not surprisingly, not very racist at all.

[carlo]

Ouch. That was pretty embarrassing, they got the wrong side up. Nothing to be too worried about then.... apart from *really* bad social science.

[renzhe]

Well, that's good to know. Not that everything is dandy (I can't judge), but I was quite surprised by this article.

[frankwall]

Very surprising results in my opinion. I am really surprised on the numbers with regards to drug addicts. I'd hate living next door to drug addicts. Perhaps its something to do with community or the spirit of unity amongst Hong Kong residents? Or have foreigners forged a bad reputation?

[carlo]

Perhaps its something to do with community or the spirit of unity amongst Hong Kong residents? Or have foreigners forged a bad reputation?

No, the authors just made a little mistake (they swapped yes and no in the questionnaire). Respondents still prefer foreigners to drug addicts (they haven't watched Men In Black).