Posted on 07/03/2019 10:09:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Three years ago, I met a girl at a nightclub in Coventry, England, where many ethnic Chinese students – from mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere – often gather. We arranged to meet up the next day for a formal date.
The vibes were good at the start. Arrived on time. Greetings. Drinks and snacks. And then, at some point, I innocently uttered the phrase: “Because we from Hong Kong…”
My date, from mainland China, swiftly interrupted me. She raised her voice and eyebrows, signaling how angry she was. She rapped the table with her fingers and snapped: “Stop saying you are from Hong Kong. You are Chinese and from China.”
She became sensitive and cranky. We both tensed up.
Three years ago, I met a girl at a nightclub in Coventry, England, where many ethnic Chinese students – from mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere – often gather. We arranged to meet up the next day for a formal date.
The vibes were good at the start. Arrived on time. Greetings. Drinks and snacks. And then, at some point, I innocently uttered the phrase: “Because we from Hong Kong…”
My date, from mainland China, swiftly interrupted me. She raised her voice and eyebrows, signaling how angry she was. She rapped the table with her fingers and snapped: “Stop saying you are from Hong Kong. You are Chinese and from China.”
She became sensitive and cranky. We both tensed up.
Our conflict soon caused a series of clashes between me and the wider ethnic-Chinese student community on campus SHARE I decided not to say “Hong Kong” for the rest of our conversation. But she wouldn’t let it go.
She derisively attributed Hong Kong people’s denial of our Chinese identity to our low self-esteem. In her mind, people from mainland China seem to be smarter and more financially secure than their Hong Kong counterparts.
I decided to slump back in my seat and just listen in order to avoid any further misunderstanding or quarrels. Before long, we both finished our food and drinks.
We left the cafe and headed home separately without even saying goodbye.
By the end of that day, I learned she had blocked me on both WhatsApp and WeChat. But the story wasn’t over.
Our conflict soon caused a series of clashes between me and the wider ethnic-Chinese student community on campus.
Similar to what happened to Frances Hui, the Emerson College student who penned a column titled “I am from Hong Kong, not China,” somehow Chinese students from my university began gossiping about me on a WeChat group for students who spoke Chinese.
I learned that many overseas mainland Chinese students were dissatisfied with the Hongkongese reluctance to embrace their Chinese identity. To be precise, mainland Chinese students became disgruntled if Hong Kong students claimed to be anything other than exclusively Chinese.
To be fair, the ire went both ways. I sometimes overheard Hong Kong students ridiculing mainland Chinese students and even in engaging in what I’d consider hate speech against them.
Some of these snobby Hong Kong students believe they are superior to their mainland Chinese counterparts.
For me, personally, I try to avoid judging people by their nationality, ethnicity or religious affiliation. I judge a person based on their personality.
Rather than saying I am indifferent to the tug of war between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese identities, I always try to identify myself as both Hongkongese and Chinese.
From an ancestral perspective, my grandparents moved to Hong Kong from southeast China. Since before the Qin dynasty, Hong Kong has had an influx of Han Chinese people.
Being from a Han Chinese-dominated city, Hongkongese, including me, can never deny the origin of our roots. And I do not find it necessary to do so.
From a political perspective, however, the entrenched political tension and sensitivity a Hong Kong identity implies are major determinants of the poor relationship between mainland Chinese and Hongkongese populations.
But the mere existence of a Hong Kong identity seems to worsen relations between mainland Chinese and Hong Kong locals.
This month, the backlash against the Hong Kong government’s proposal to enact an extradition law has further aggravated anti-mainland Chinese sentiment in Hong Kong.
The proposed bill, which has been suspended, was meant to allow suspected criminals in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China, among other places, prompting concerns that it would facilitate the Chinese government’s persecution of anti-Beijing camps in the city.
Hong Kong superstar Charmaine Sheh mistakenly liking a social media post about the protests resulted in a flood of criticism by mainland Chinese netizens. Clearly, this indicates they’re unhappy with they perceive as an anti-Chinese movement.
Though I always try to be equally proud to be Hongkongese and Chinese, I often find it, especially in recent years, utterly impossible to claim both due to the current political climate.
If Beijing continues to fail to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and sovereignty, Hongkongese in general will develop further anti-mainland Chinese sentiments and deny their Chinese identity.
On the other hand, if Beijing starts to reduce its meddling in the city, then Hongkongese would try to ask for further rights, such as the exercise of universal suffrage.
Whether I am Hongkongese or Chinese is more than a personal preference.
The current political atmosphere will increasingly compel Hong Kong citizens to self identify as one or the other exclusively.
I am still undecided. In my own mind, I am Hong Kong Chinese. And I will keep this identity for as long as I can.
Even better, you don’t have to buy dinner for everyone and maybe you end up with a threesome . . . :)
In manufacturing terms, you simply reduce cycle time by eliminating non value-added activities ;-)
to the communal good. They are both tibal based mentalities and we see that immediately and directly when looking at Africa. Tribalism for the communal good denies exceptionalism as it is a threat to the ruling power structure.
Where we really differ is within the Christianity of it. With the reformation we started answering the questions of self awareness, self determination, self actualization and self fulfillment. Thus the birth of entrepreneurs, something not generated within the communal constructs.
where you must submit.... and then have your history and heritage erased to get rid of the capacity to regress.
I took some classes with mainland chinese students at a US university. They were entitled, arrogant, conspiring, aggressive, dishonest, cheating, dumb, and ignorant. The thing that disturbed me the most was how sociopathic they were. They wore that same sh!t eating grin whether they were eating ice cream, or kicking a bum.
LOL, you just have to do everything faster...so it all might work out in the end! (depending on your, er...'performance metrics'...:)
The girl on the date sounds like a Kowloon-atic.
Almost sounds like China is cultivating this dissension so they can go in and take over?
The Chinese communists understand well that there is a place in the human psyche for religion or at least some kind of spirituality. They endeavor to fill that void as part of the indoctrination of youth.
I worked worth a women (CAD drafter) that grew up in China. She was extremely diligent worker but also one of the most stubborn people I ever worked with. She had the way she did things and that was it, if you just needed a simpler sketch made quickly she was highly resistant. We use to joke that the communists couldn’t break her so they cut her lose.
Anyway, she was oddly patriotic to China but would never discuss the politics of China.
Back to my original point, when she first went to school in China the kids were taught hymns that praised the party and government. They were much like the Psalms in the Bible.
“thinks the Communists will invade and occupy Hong Kong”
That is not their style.
They normally pursue corruption/intimidation of politicians and influential people, intense police state surveillance of the population (each individual, in great detail), and complete control over information/media.
Regardless of whatever happens in the short term, the existing organs of the Chinese Communist Party will relentlessly press on those fronts.
I had a very wise uncle who told me, “If you’re not in bed by 11 o’clock you might as well go home.”
“As an aside, get rid of any girl who picks a fight on a first date.”
That’s AOC to a T, everyone’s first date from Hell.
Uh, Nixon?
I know, right? I thought the same sort of thing about our first African-descended president.
If need be the Butchers of Beijing *will* send tanks down Nathan Road.
I come across them in the business world. Same thing for many of them.
Everything you said about mainland Chinese students is exactly what my husband has said about them during his years at Berkeley. Everything.
Yet I will bet if someone says they are from Beijing, Shanghai, or Xiamen that no one blinks an eye.
Had Harry Truman let MacArthur handle this problem long ago, there wouldn’t be a Communist nation anywhere in Asia today.
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