Racist talk does add up ā why casual racism by Hong Kongers against Mainland Chinese makes me so angry
If youāve not lived amongst Cantonese-speaking Hong Kongers or interacted with them a lot, then this is something that youāve probably not noticed. I spent ten months in Hong Kong in 2014 and, by the end of it, Iād had enough. Not just because of the climate or the food (none of which really suited me) but also because of the pervading racism that ran through society, from the courthouse to the family.
Even though Iāve moved back to New Zealand (a place not without racism, but I can genuinely say that the majority of us are working on making it a more welcoming place for everyone), I still keep in touch with my family in Hong Kong over Facebook, and one thing that Iāve noticed is the amount of anti Mainland Chinese rhetoric.
Iām not culturally Chinese in any form. I donāt identify with it, I donāt agree with the values; Iām probably the whitest Banana I know (aside from my brother). But it makes me really angry when I see my extended family members posting articles with headlines like, āSeven out of ten hospital beds are occupied by new immigrants. āAre we sacrificing the lives of local Hong Kongers for foreigners?ā ~ Nurseā, āMajority of hospital inpatients are new immigrants while local Hong Kong birth rate has droppedā, or saying things like āYay, no more Mandarin on the street! Give me back my true Hong Kong!ā or āThis place is so peaceful. No noise, no loud people speaking Mandarin!ā (In this instance, I asked, āWould it not be noise if the loud people had been speaking Cantonese?ā To which I received the reply. āCantonese is different. If it were Cantonese, it would be lively and bustling, like the Lunar New Year Market.ā)
What really concerns me is that some of the people posting these things are raising young kids. Racist comments do damage, not just to the psyche of those targeted, but it may also build up the hate in other people.
We recently had a terrorist attack in Christchurch where fifty innocent people died just because they spoke, dressed, looked, ate, and behaved a little differently from the majority here. Dozens more are recovering from injuries, including a five year old girl who canāt remember her parents because of the injuries she suffered. These people, however, have long been the targets of racist rhetoric not dissimilar to what Hong Kongers and Hong Kong media are saying about Mainland Chinese immigrants to the island. The terrorist also was afraid that his race would get āreplacedā by newcomers (itās called āReplacement Theoryā, something popular with the Alt Right) because Caucasian birth rates were lower than the birth rates of other people and immigration was increasing. Replace āCaucasianā with āHong Kongerā and āother racesā with āMainlandersā and you get headlines that are being published on established media sites in Hong Kong.
To put it into perspective, Hong Kongās net immigration rate was 0.17% in total in 2017. The majority, but not all, were Mainland Chinese. In the USA, it was 0.39% and in New Zealand, it was 0.22%. (CIA Factbook). About 1.9% of people in Hong Kong speak Mandarin as their main language, and 88% speak Cantonese. In fact, more people speak English in Hong Kong (4.3%) than Mandarin. Some people argue that places like New Zealand and the US have room for migration, to which I will reply that even if you take away the net migration rate of 0.17% from Hong Kong, the ālocal bornā population is already unsustainable and you will still end up with the same population crisis, possibly just delayed.
When the terrorist attack happened, I got messages from family and friends in Hong Kong saying, āAre you okay?ā and āGod bless your family.ā And I really wanted to say, at the time, āYes, weāre fine, but only because this time the terrorist chose to target a minority that werenāt my type of minority. Next time, who knows?ā Because, for our part, it really was luck that the terrorist decided he hated Muslims, and not Asians, or some other visible minority in our society. Itās because no one has been spouting racist rhetoric about people who look like me on mainstream media for quite some time. It was only a century ago that Chinese, both Cantonese and Mandarin speakers, but mostly Cantonese because they were the ones who moved away in droves in the earlier part of the 20th century, were persecuted in other countries because of the rhetoric being thrown around, some of which was about how they would, yes, āreplaceā the dominant racial group. In the western world, this talk centres around Muslims. In Hong Kong, itās Mainlanders.
Maybe the people who say these things wonāt think of actually hurting anyone, but what about the listeners who hear these things and internalise them? Iām angry at this talk because there might be someone who will take these things to heart, let them fester, and it could bloom into violence against innocent people. And whatās more hypocritical is that, for most Hong Kongers, their parents or grandparents were immigrants from Mainland China too.
So what if they speak Mandarin? Everyone has the right to speak the language they choose. So what if they dress differently from you? Theyāre not forcing you to dress like them. So what if they were born somewhere else? They didnāt have a choice about that. And maybe they behave in a way that you think of as rude. Different people have different etiquette and etiquette has changed immensely in every culture. I have my biases on certain behaviours. Iām not claiming to be perfect, but I will defend anyoneās right to behave as they wish so long as theyāre not hurting anybody. Speaking Mandarin or dressing unstylishly does not hurt other people and, frankly, itās nobody elseās business.
And if theyāre buying up all the baby formula and nappies? Theyāre parents who want the best for their kids and they canāt help that they live in Mainland China where a few unscrupulous individuals have ruined things for everyone. If you were in their situation, wouldnāt you do the same for your kids?
As an immigrant, I can put myself in those Mainlandersā shoes. How would I feel if Kiwis called my mother tongue ānoiseā, treated me as āotherā, and derided everything about me? What if they blamed me for the actions of my birth countryās government, which I donāt agree with and can do nothing about? I doubt I would have wanted to learn about them or be like them. But they havenāt. Almost everyone I have met has been open and curious about my birth culture, and far more accepting of its oddities than I am. But I have experienced some racism in my childhood. A woman called me a āgookā at a McDonaldās playground and it was unpleasant. It made me feel angry, hostile, and very aware of my differences, and triggered my fight or flight instincts. (Just a note, that womanās kid was a little sh** too. Parental attitudes are infectious to their children.)
So the next time you want to say something or post something divisive based on race, please think about whoās listening to you and how your words could snowball into something else much uglier.
