Context

HK is a city located in South East China. It was a British colony till 1997.

TL;DR: 8% of the HK population are foreigners including Domestic Helpers which make up 5%.

The articles in this page are mostly from SCMP which is a subscription based online newspaper. You can bypass them by using the Wayback machine. Just copy the artile url and paste it in the wayback machine search bar.

Now let's get started.

Apartheid in Hong Kong

In 1997, the city of Hong Kong finally shed its British colonial government and became a part of China. This is, of course, a good thing. One of the changes during that time was the return of schools in the city to use the Chinese language as the medium of instruction. This change whilst welcome by everyone had some unintended consequences.

One of the biggest consequence was that there were now two types of schools; ones that taught either in English or Chinese. Naturally, this meant that the other language wasn't given much importance and students didn't have much exposure to it aside from a couple of hours a week.

This seemingly harmless change of language of instruction in schools here has given rise to two mutually exclusive parallel societies. One which speaks in English, and one which speaks in Cantonese.

Now unfortunately, caught in this changing landscape of Hong Kong's educational policies, were not only the local HK Chinese, but also the foreign communities comprising of South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalese), and the Filipinos. (I am not going to be including people of European origin because they remain unaffected, they go to their expensive international schools and I don't think they are negatively affected by the current situation as it stands as they typically move abroad where their parents came from.)

These communities had been brought to Hong Kong by the British and grew over time with immigration to the city.

The government of the city, with all its wisdom, decided to create separate English medium of instruction schools for the kids from these communities so before 2004, there were around 3 schools specifically for Non-Chinese kids. In 2006, the government decided to give schools with non-Chinese students designated funding to help with Chinese learning material and resources - remember, these schools use English. Thus the term "Designated" schools came about. By 2011/2012, with the growing population of Non-Chinese students, 30 such schools existed in the city.

Lets reflect on that for a second. Given Hong Kong's colonial nature, separate schools existed for non-Chinese kids from different countries from the Global South. The fact that this did not change and the fact that it still continues to this day is disgusting.

Needless to say, this apartheid has a horrible consequence for not only the kids, who become young adults under such a system, but also the broader Chinese society in general - a society, which frankly from my perspective, doesn't care about the problem at all.

By the way, I'm one of the kids that went to these designated schools and I'm now 27 so I have a bit of an idea of what I'm talking about.

Everyone lives in their own bubble and for the kids in such designated schools, everyone you know is from one of the countries I mentioned above. Now at the time, this didn't feel like a problem, but after I graduated, my bubble popped and I saw for the first time that HK society was actually a lot less diverse that I had believed because everyday for around 15 years, I went to school and grew up, formed friendships and brotherhood with Filipinos, Pakistanis, Indians and Nepalese kids. Hell, only our teachers were Chinese.

The lack of diversity in broader HK society is just the beginning of the problems that we all come to face, stepping out of our schools.

You see, because we went to English schools, we do not speak Chinese and the Chinese kids went to Chinese schools, and they do not speak English. Now the absolutely ridiculous thing is that you actually need to give a Chinese exam to get into university. Can you see where this is going?

In the designated schools, we were hardly taught Chinese at the level that we'd need to fit into HK society. Needless to say, getting a good score on the Chinese public exam significantly hinders our ability to get into university after graduation.

So you may be thinking: forget about university then, just get a job. Well this is where we face many hurdles too as a majority of the jobs here require Chinese. Surprise, surprise!

Some of the only jobs that do not impose strict language barriers are jobs like bartending, bouncing, construction work, and food delivery.

Basically, to cut a long story short: the system here is deliberately designed to entrap non-Chinese non-White kids into an inescapable intergenerational cycle of poverty by not only greatly diminishing their prospects of further education, but also by systematically herding them into low-paying jobs only.

Generations and generations of valuable lives squandered because the local government, whilst beating the drum of diversity on the global stage, actively enforced and encouraged rules that brought about apartheid in the city.

There was a study done by an NGO called Unison which found that a lot of us have a hard time dealing with life after graduating from our "designated" schools. I'm fucked up, and from what I see, a lot of my peers could say the same about themselves.

This also leads to some fucked up social dynamics in society which are that despite everyone having grown up in the same city, as kids eventually become adults, none of them know how to get along with people of different backgrounds because everyone, no matter who they are, have probably been socially isolated from people of different backgrounds. If you're rich, all you'd have been exposed to are other rich whites and rich asians. if you're Chinese, all you'd have been exposed to are other Chinese and if you're South or South East Asian, all you'd be exposed to are other South and South East Asians. People still do not feel comfortable around each other if they're of different ethnicities.

From the perspective of the Chinese, it would be really easy to think that all brown foreigners are lazy or incapable of getting into university when the fact of the matter is that we're not given a fighting chance at all.

Given the lack of empathy for us in this matter, a hateful resentment in the minds of the Chinese due to them seeing us failing in a system that favours the Chinese, and the general cutthroat nature of life in a big city, I am sad to say that those innocent kids and adults are subjected to a lot of cruel and harsh racism. In fact, personally speaking, that is all I know. In my day to day life, aside from colleagues, most of my interaction with the Chinese is them either avoiding me somehow or abusing me somehow. I was asked once by a curious HK Chinese colleague of mine, "Why do South Asians always stick together?" This is why we keep to ourselves.

It doesn't help that our parents' country of origin have many issues such as backwards cultural and traditions which make those countries a laughing stock on the global stage.

So with people's inability or indifference to discern which foreigner grew up here and which didn't, we're all put in the same basket.

With over 25 years in this city, I still just get blank looks from Chinese people because they simply feel uncomfortable to interact with me. Their discomfort is always palpable and that in turn makes me uncomfortable, like I'm not supposed to be there. You see had we gone to the same schools, the negative biases they hold and were taught would've been juxtaposed with first-hand experiences with South Asian and South East Asians. Instead, they pick up stereotypes and biases from their parents who grew up in a colonial society where racial hierarchies were the norm or the media, which of course only showcases bad apples.

Let's talk about bad apples here for a second. The general perception in the minds of the local HK Chinese that I can make out is that South and South East Asians are involved in illicit activities. Sure some of them may be, but what the local Chinese fail to understand is that there are more Chinese drug dealers than foreign drug dealers, that there are more Chinese criminals than foreign criminals.

Now if tell you me that we're more likely to be criminals then I say aren't there Chinese triad operations worldwide? Also it shouldn't be difficult to imagine that when people are left without any opportunity, they'd be pushed to do things less than advisable.

I'd like to add that this is the timeless old conundrum of the outsider. You get picked on, isolated, excluded and abused and if you justifiably retaliate, then you're met with "We knew it, you people are all the same". This is called reactive abuse. To be painfully honest, it feels like death by a thousand cuts and I've been bled dry. I've had enough.

At this point I'd like to address the local HK Chinese directly. Perhaps some of you got educated abroad in the UK, Canada, US and Australia for university or high school and a lot of you, of course, emigrate abroad too. I also assume some of you would have taken part in the "Stop Asian Hate" or heard about it by this point. Stop South and South East Asian Hate in Hong Kong. Can you understand that? It's a genuine question.

I ask that question because despite the teachings of the "Stop Asian Hate" movement which was shown worldwide, the local HK Chinese seem incapable of applying the learnings of that movement; one of which is to stop discriminating against minorities. I ask that question because how is it that the NBA is followed by so many here yet they still detest brown skin? From what I've seen, it appears that the local HK Chinese have failed to connect the dots between the minorities in the West fighting for equality against their wrongdoers and their own wrongdoings against minorities in the city.

Let me draw the connection for you. Given that there's a sizeable HK diaspora across the western world, if you emigrate abroad to the UK, Canada or Australia, how would you feel if the tables were turned and you or your kids were sent to separate schools or rooms away from everyone else, kept separated from others, excluded from everyone else, on account of you being HK Chinese?

Is your racism so blind, you put kids in separate schools, condemn them to an adult life of unrealized potential and relegate them to the periphery of society where you mock and judge them due to their heritage? Surely this couldn't be happening intentionally?

I have seen the most vile people casually call themselves racist, seemingly gleeful of the pain they cause others. Why be proud of it? I feel that there is a heart and soul missing in such individuals.

How can members of any society be proud of something like this taking place? How can this city seriously claim to be Asia's World City?

I think what happened was that after 1997, there was a drive to distance HK society from the West; and given that the movements that espouse empathy and equality typically come from the West, there was a grievous mistaken labelling of empathy and kindness for minorities as being a Western value. Needless to say, individuals that have this idea are bound to rebel against those values thinking incorrectly that they're rebelling against their western colonial history when in fact, all they're doing is being assholes.

And assholes there are a plenty. It means you're gonna get shit on in day-to-day life by some moron you don't even know intentionally going out of their way to show you that they dislike you and end up wondering if everyone around you hates you.

What I've mentioned here so far is the tip of the iceberg so here's some further reading going into deeper detail and in case you think I'm making this whole thing up:

There's plenty more online if you just google "Ethnic minorities (schools) HK"

Lack of minorities in media.

I want to talk about another effect of the apartheid educational system. The absence of representation of minorities in media.

For a City advertising itself globally as Asia's World City, it doesn't have any sort of South or South East Asian representation in its media at all. Despite Hong Kong's film industry churning out movies, there's barely any representation of Non-Chinese Asian people.

Not in movies, not even in magazines as models. There's none, it's like we don't exist in their society at all.

Well fuck, its my society as well but you get the idea. I think it's reasonable to expect some level of representation given that 8% of the population are not Chinese whereas in the USA, only around 5% are Asian Americans and yet every fucking movie has Asian Americans nowadays.

This is why I find the HK actors and actresses who cry out passionately for roles in Hollywood on behalf of the Asian Americans to be hypocritical, self-serving, duplicitous and disingenuous people. They just want to fill their bags with Hollywood money. They don't actually care about the representation of minorities in media, because they've never spoken up about minority issues in HK, they've never given a damn about us. They just purport to care about the representation of Asian Americans because it'll land them roles in Hollywood and make them richer, you feel me? They'll hardly make any money doing the same for us, so they don't.

Now I'm addressing Michelle Yeoh and other hollywood sycophants. You motherfuckers; you've never even tried to help us. Fuck you all.

Well I don't expect them to help anymore because to even expect people who have no interaction (given the apartheid system) with another group of people to write or think of or represent the other group is unreasonable. In other words, this is to say that us South and South East Asian kids that grow up in HK know a lot more about the Chinese than what the Chinese know about us. Hell, the HK actors still think it's acceptable to do brownface to portray Filipinos, and typically only cast South and South East Asians as criminals. Lol, yeah it's a thing dude (just look up chungking express and hand rolled cigarette, from the top of my head). How fucked up is this? I don't think that dumb ass HK Chinese bitch would've done brown face had she grown up with Filipinos.

You see sending us to apartheid schools wasn't enough. We're marginalized and villified in society and its media consistently. This is the norm in HK - "Asia's world city".

BUT GODDAMMIT GET SOME ASIAN AMERICAN REPRESENTATION IN HOLLYWOOD PRONTO. lol

Let me revisit why the homogenous casting of actors and actresses in HK media has been a tragedy but this time not just for us minorities of HK, but for the Chinese of HK as well as everyone globally at large.

Think of Friends, the TV show. To get straight to the point, what would an Asian centric version of Friends look like? Imagine Indian Ross and Monica, Indonesian Chandler, Chinese Phobe, South Korean Rachel and Malaysian Joey; all living together in some Asian country, laughing, singing crying together, taking trips to countries close by - Asian stories by Asians. What would it look like?? WELL FUCK, WE'LL NEVER KNOW.

We'll never know because the thing is, we expect the West to represent Asians and perhaps we may view them as the only societies fit to do so given their superior inherent diversity but that would be incorrect; Asia has a lot of diversity too. Similar to what I said above, why should the Whities in the US care about representing US minorities when their interactions with each other may be quite limited depending on their individual experiences.

How fucking embarrassing is it that Asians cannot put together a TV show that showcases the diversity of the continent to captivate and entice global audiences and must depend on White people in the US to tell Asian (in fact, Asian American) stories, which will obviously be set in a Western context. My god it's fucking pathetic to be honest.

If the media moguls of HK had an ounce of creativity and brains, they would've utilized the city and/or region's diversity and the global audience's hunger for something new and funded/produced Asian centric TV shows a long time ago but they didn't because the only diversity they saw around them was when it was cleaning their house and delivering their take away or the HK media people simply never saw the opportunity before them cause again, they think it's the USA's responsibility to showcase diverse actors and stories.

The reason why the HK film industry is not doing as well as before is simple, it has failed to keep up with the times. It has been blind to the aspirations of global audiences which are to see themselves represented on screen whereas Hollywood hasn't. The HK film industry has been blind to them because its own society is one where South Asians cannot be anything more than menial labourers and South East Asians anything more than domestic help and so the very thought of representing them in media (controlled by the HK Chinese people) would be unthinkable, if not comical, to them. It wouldn't fit in to their world view.

I'm not even going to type out how helpful a modern and globalized HK media industry would've been to attract foreign talent to the city, which is what its leaders are currently trying to do (unsuccessfully) (One more example of HK organizing a global talent summit to get more people from Europe and South East Asia to come work here lmfao). HK's leaders and folks that work in media must Google what the term "soft power" is and think deeply about their own failure to sell this City to the world and why they failed. Their Chinese Dream package isn't going to sell itself.

I said before that this affects everyone because I'm sure we're all tired of seeing a Hollywood movie with a White Hero and Heroine. The fact of the matter is, the non-western World and its people have, due to a lack of choice, handed over the task of telling their stories to the West and Asia with its inability or unwillingness to tell those stories has been a major culprit in this issue. Good job everyone. Well done. 👏

Want some representation? That can't happen; sorry, but watch this Asian American actor represent Asian Americans in America. Aight, thanks fam.

All this because of Apartheid in Asia's World City. Although honestly, when it comes to the fading of HK's Film industry, my stance is more of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZscBf10Y5A

As a result of this lack of representation, literally no one outside HK knows we exist and what is taking place, how we're marginalized from the beginning of our lives and throughout it. Recently Louis Vutton and Pharrell put on a show in HK, guess how many South/SE Asian models there were on the runway. None. Can you imagine the uproar if no African-American models would've been used had the show been in the USA? Hell, they even brought them over to HK for the show. LOL. Man we're invisible. Not anymore though hopefully.

Horrible, isn't it? Well it gets worse

Villification of South & South East Asians in media

By now you should know that the racism of Cantonese HKers knows no bounds but also, in fact, it is also encouraged and proliferated through its media, not just through movies as mentioned above but also, unbelieveably, through its NEWS media. To help me prove my point, get a load of the following article https://hongkongfp.com/2020/08/15/i-do-not-trust-the-police-hong-kong-minorities-battle-for-equal-treatment-following-suspects-death-in-police-custody/. It talks about how an unarmed Nepalese man was shot by the Police here in 2009.

It's worth a read but the interesting bit is here:

“Police Kill 'Savage'” read the headline of the March 18 publication of Sing Pao Daily that year. An Apple Daily report from the same day said that the Nepalese man was “not troubled by pepper spray because he was used to eating curry.”

The above quote contain excerpts from two newspapers in HK. The first is from Sing Pao Daily, a newspaper in HK. The second is from Apple Daily, a now defunct newspaper but the most popular one in HK during it's time.

SingPao daily called the Nepalese man a Savage and Apple Daily straight up made fun of him... the man died and that's the best the journalists in HK could do.

If it hasn't shocked you yet then let me put it in another way, journalists don't just publish whatever they feel like, what they write has to be approved by editors. The incredibly insensitive and racist headlines by those two newspapers shows not just that everyone in the chain of command in publishing at those newspapers are retarded, but also, the pervasive attitudes of racism in HKers. These are an incredibly close-minded and proudly racist people to say the least. Okay cool, be racist, but then tell your stupid fucking government to stop attacting foreigners to come here but we know that isn't going to happen, cause you need us to project the false image of being a "International" hub. Pathetic.

Bet you didn't know that about the people of Asia's world city. LMAO. They act that way because they know there are 0 reprecussions to their actions. They're very casual about it too. Here's an article (https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3252192/go-back-hong-kong-row-goes-viral-angry-vancouver?module=opinion&pgtype=homepage) where a HK journalist casually states that HK is more racist than Canada.

This leads me to my next point.

Erasure of historical South Asian and South East Asian accomplishments/work in HK

Okay first of all, when does this end? hahaha. Secondly, what?

Well the absence of minorities in media is somewhat expected. Most of the Indonesian/Filipinos are domestic helpers and so the local Chinese casting directors simply do not view them as anything other than domestic helpers. Not to mention that all movies are in Cantonese, which many foreigners cannot speak. (We could have diverse models in advertisements which wouldn't require languages but of course since this is Asia, and not the USA, diversity is not valued here, rather it is demonized).

This, however, is about the active erasure of historical South and South East Asian accomplishments in the city, out of spite, racism, just plain forgetfulness or the awesome Asian trait of not honoring the deceased. Well actually I'm going to tie this to the local HK Chinese's hatred of South Asians and South East Asians if you haven't figured that out already. Let's get into it.

Erasure of historical Non-Chinese Non-White peoples' achievements in the city which serves to further exacerbate their image/reputation in everyone's mind. I'll be using South Asian achievements/contributions to make my point cause it's going to absolutely mad what you learn here.

Guess what: Who do you think founded the University of Hong Kong?

an image of the university of HK main building

It's the city's best university. Everyone aspires to get into it. It has a great medical school. I bet no one, not even its own students would be able to give you the answer. It was an Indian man LOL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormusjee_Naorojee_Mody. LITERALLY LOL.

He didn't just start HKU, he also contributed to starting the Jockey Club, currently one of HK's biggest employers. You think the local Chinese HKers know this shit? Nah. Kind of makes me think whether they just view all Indians as food delivery drivers lol.

Oh wait, it isn't done. You heard of the Star Ferry, right? Yes, The Star Ferry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Ferry. It's an iconic ferry service between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Here:

image of the star ferry in victor harbour against a background of Central

No joke - another Indian man started it as well LMAO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorabjee_Naorojee_Mithaiwala. Yo do you think the people using this literal icon and staple of the Hong Kong tourist and local experience know that it was started by a South Asian man? Literally no one fucking knows. This shit isn't spoken of anywhere. Literally millions of people use it every year.

Jehangir Ruttonjee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehangir_Hormusjee_Ruttonjee started a literal Hospital AND the Hong Kong Tuberculosis, Chest and Heart Diseases Association. Hari Harilela https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari_Harilela started hotels employing many. These are just the people with wikipedia pages. lol.

When such accomplishments are buried for whatever reason, and all people see is South Asians working menial jobs, it becomes easier to see why people may adopt biased views against South Asians. In my opinion, they should fuckin put up conspicuous Indian flags at all the piers of the Star Ferry. That is what's going to change peoples' attitudes. Not some fucking train banners or whatever little the government claims to do. Okay got a bit carried away there sorry but you see my point. If not a flag then at least something visible commemorating the founder.

Why is that important you may ask? In my opinion, it'll serve as a reminder to everyone that non-Chinese people have contributed to HK and improve Chinese peoples' perceptions of the members of the commemorated person's ethnicity.

Well you think I'm joking when I say the local Chinese of HKers of the city do not know about the contributions of non-Chinese to this city? Have a look at this article: https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3240729/celebrate-hong-kongs-colonial-past-chinese-peoples-vim-and-ingenuity?module=opinion&pgtype=homepage. Here's a quote from the local HK Chinese author:

But our colonial history isn't just about the wrongs of the British Empire. It is also about the endurance, work ethic and talent of the Chinese (and other ethnicities) that created Asia's greatest city.

Notice the "(and other ethnicities)"? That's what we are. Not even worth mentioning. All the contributions of the Indian men I mentioned above just casually neglected. Imagine if a white American said something similar: "America was built by the Europeans (and other ethnicities)". There'd be a fucking riot. That author illustrates my point of the local HK Chinese only caring about Chinese contributions to the city so perfectly without even realising what he's doing. It's so innocent, isn't it? Yet, it is revealing in my opinion; people either do not know better or don't care.

This is why I think what I've mentioned about South Asian contributions being honored somehow should be implemented ASAP. Not just South Asian though, why stop there, do it for all the things that were contributed by "other ethnicities" (lol) so that everyone can know that they had a hand in building HK.

Make a statue for the countless domestic helpers in Hong Kong past and present because they enabled local HK Chinese women to enter the workforce and sustain dual-income households.

Hong Kong's story isn't just a Cantonese one, no matter how much some assholes try to rewrite history.

At this point I should state that man people hate brown/black skin here. We don't get places to rent lol. I didn't know how bad the issue was until I became a part time real estate agent and had to deal with landlords who'd ask me where the clients are from and then they'd reject South Asian and African clients. It's like the moment they ask that question you already know why. Bruh Imagine how awkward those conversations are lol: I'm Indian and they reject South Asian clients to my face. They really dgaf.

Racial Profiling by the Police.

Let's just say that I'm constantly interrupted, pulled aside and checked by the police when I'm in public.

It's always "random" ID checks but it's obvious that they're just the idiotic bullies from high school trying to exercise their power and we're easy targets.

I've been accused of being high on marijuana by cops when I was actually just drunk cause they just look for any excuse to stop and search me.

Once I was waiting at a traffic crossing patiently while 2 Chinese guys gleefully jaywalked and 2 cops were witnessing them jaywalk. They started moving towards the jaywalkers but they actually were coming up to me and they asked me to pull out my ID card lmfao. Jaywalking is a crime punishable by a fine of $2000 HKD however everthing I do is also a crime cause I'm South Asian so despite the fact that I did nothing wrong and the 2 Chinese boys did, the cops clearly had their priorities straight and before you say that the police doesn't punish jaywalking, I've been pulled aside for jaywalking on one instance so they do reprimand jaywalking; when they want to.

They think we're all just criminals. They want to antagonize us, it's probably fun for them, it probably lightens up their day. They don't care.

Ahh so we're the criminals, right?

Here's some articles about your precious chinese students and actual criminial misconduct:

Fucking disgusting

Every new academic year, the incoming freshmen students do Orientation camps and fresh cases of criminal misconduct from HK universities come in, and of course these are just the ones that are reported. And how do I know those students are all Chinese? Cause only the HK Chinese do Orientation camps.

Oh you thought it's just the students that are commiting sexual crimes? Nah fam, there's a new one almost everyday. Here's a little taste

Ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Sexual crimes in HK are common as hell. But the pure hearted (lol) Cantonese HKers really believe it is us, the South Asians who're the problem. LMFAO. God bless their small minds.

Maybe the fuckin police should check the HK Chinese people for a change but I know that's never going to happen. Moving on.

Domestic helpers

Now let's examine how Asia's world city treats its biggest group of foreigners. It's time to talk about domestic helpers.

Domestic helpers here are mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines. They make up about 5% of the population here. They're women who get paid roughly $4,870 HKD (625 USD) per month. Their food and lodging is provided by their employer with the helper staying at the employer's house. They work as indentured slaves basically and you know what the creepy thing is? You won't see many of them during Monday to Saturday because they can't go out unless running errands. Their only holiday is Sundays which is when you'll notice their presence. Needless to say, some people don't treat them very well. Here's proof from the International Labour Organization: https://apmigration.ilo.org/news/hong-kongs-hidden-shame - Another great article.

A quote from the article above:

The extreme discrepancy between reported cases and actual instances of abuse may be attributable to a law that prohibits foreign maids from working while involved in a case, putting them in a Catch-22.

Let's read this article: https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3241896/children-domestic-helpers-also-deserve-best-start-life?module=opinion&pgtype=homepage

In it, a high school girl laments the lack of support received by pregnant domestic helpers. Well. Not sure what to say but why say anything at all when Anthony Bourdain said it so perfectly here about the similar situation in Singapore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvTfd-tiOfo or this version with subtitles.

"You're living off of the labour of an oppressed underclass."

The fact that such a system exists in the first place, and its defendants would be quick to counter with it being legally enabled and an outcome of the free choice of the domestic helpers, showcases how inured the general population is towards the issue. Just because something is legal, it doesn't make it right. Look at the history of the United States for example.

We need a giant fucking statue of a faceless domestic helper somewhere prominent ASAP. Fucking Pronto. But of course we won't get it. All this city cares about are the Chinese. Chinese stories; Chinese representation.

The end

They don't even give us a place to rent. Asia's World City? That's just misrepresent!- Me, circa 2023.

I see only five real ways to make amends moving forward:

The government of HK should formally apologize to all the attendees of designated schools instead of blaming the students in those schools. This is simply the right thing to do.
Universities should drop the Chinese language requirements for kids from designated schools AS LONG AS designated primary and secondary schools exist in the first place.
Remove Chinese language requirements for jobs AS LONG AS designated primary and secondary schools exist in the first place. This one would be the easiest to bring about. If you're in a position to do this at your company, I implore you do it.
Make a monument to signify the contributions of the countless domestic helpers in this city. Something conspicuous, preferably in Central or Tsim Sha Tsui, along the harbour. It should be iconic.
Put up some noticeable plaques commemorating non-Chinese Asian founders at the vicinities of what they've built.

I know none of these will actually be carried out. I also know that the ones that need to read this the most likely won't out of a hatred for what I've said. I know how to make these people hurt too. You see our plight is well known in the city, but the city doesn't care about us.

They care about the international university students they can bring in, they care about the expats and foreigners who come to work here. They care about the city's international reputation and after the protests of 2019 and 3 years of Covd, they're trying to rebuild it. It's time to hit em where it hurts.

So the next bit is for the potential students interested in studying university in HK and the people looking to work in HK.

Given the recent government drive to promote HK to foreigners to work here, I consider it unconscionable to not inform other foreigners about what those adverts do not reveal. They do not reveal the existence of 2 parallel societies divided by languages. They do not reveal the lack of opportunities if you do not know Chinese.

I'll talk about it.

Also, in addition to attracting foreigners to work here, recently, the leader of the city announced that they want to double the intake of international students in the universities here: https://hongkongfp.com/2023/10/25/hong-kong-policy-address-universities-to-welcome-more-non-local-students-in-push-to-become-global-education-hub/.

If you're someone considering studying in Hong Kong or looking to get a job here, don't move here unless you know Chinese! Why? Here's why:

Parallel societies divided by language

This is intended to give potential students or professionals a real glimpse into life in Hong Kong minus all the bullshit of it being "Asia's World City" or whatever charming thing you may have heard.

I suppose you've seen some form of advertisement that showcases HK's glamour. Discard that. You've seen the phrase "Asia's World City". That's good at marketing, that's all.

The majority of the people here do NOT speak English, either they may not know it at all or feel uncomfortable speaking it (remember the schools do not teach the other language well; same reason I don't know Chinese). This is not an indictment of course, it is simply stating reality. Just as the French do not speak English in Paris, HK is the same. Same thing in Japan.

However those other places are not clamouring for international students and foreign talent and and unlike the case of Paris, HK was an English colony so it makes sense to assume people speak English here. If you cannot communicate with others, you really cannot do anything. Good luck forming any sort of meaningful personal relationship or climbing the corporate ladder.

Now you must be thinking, how come? It's Asia's World City! Surely that cannot be true. This is such a grave and yet genius marketing slogan because implicit in it is the idea of being able to converse freely with everyone, not every city claims to be a world city, so surely the fact that communication issues will arise between others is false. Nope, it's a well known issue here, in fact, here's an article summarising it: https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3240310/if-hong-kong-stay-successful-good-english-essential

The first paragraph from the article is:

The slide in English language skills in Hong Kong has long been a popular topic of discussion in the local community, particularly among companies.

Actually you've probably mixed up Hong Kong and Singapore. Singapore is the city in which everyone speaks English, without any qualms, not Hong Kong. Here's a video of Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, explaining why Singaporeans came to know English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkYEFeHUGPw

Due to this reason alone, Singapore deserves the title of Asia's World City. Save yourself and consider Singapore instead if you want to scratch your "Living abroad" itch.

Now you may think. but surely this won't impact you, you know English! Who cares if you'll never form meaningful relations?! You'll be soaring the skies professionally while everyone else struggles to keep up. Nope, because you forgot one thing.

Perhaps because the locals do not know English (again, the fault of the school system) or they do not care to speak it, the majority of the companies here have language requirements which actually ask candidates to know - wait for it - Chinese! (Cantonese, but of course, if you know Mandarin, even better!). This means you're actually at a disadvantage when applying for jobs! Asia's World City! Yayyyyyyyyy!! So what if you have to pay high rent, live in a small space, have no friends, qualify for fewer jobs, face discrimination, you're living in Asia's World City! Get with the program Loser!

People here are always quick to mention that foreigners should learn the local language. That's true. However, can you blame foreigners for expecting people to know English in this city given all the BS of how the city promotes itself globally? Consider this a public service announcement to inform them in the first place: So AYO IF YOU'RE A FOREIGNER LIVING HERE OR PLANNING TO LIVE HERE, PLEASE LEARN THE LANGUAGE BEFORE YOU COME HERE. 👏 OTHERWISE 👏 SHIT'S 👏 FUCKING 👏 FUCKED 👏 Y'ALL.

There.

Just going to state this again cause it's a PSA:

MOST OF THE JOBS HERE REQUIRE CHINESE!!!!! BUT BUT WE WANT MORE FOREIGNERS HERE!!!

lol, fucking retards I swear to god

The funny thing is, these HKers came out in absolute droves to protest the CCP so that HK doesn't become just another Chinese city but they don't even know English?? All the jobs require Chinese??

Wake the fuck up you HK Chinese morons, IT'S ALREADY JUST ANOTHER CHINESE CITY LOL

oh but yea we still have facebook /s. Thank you for protesting Cantonese HKers! /s. They've all fucked off to the UK, Canada or Australia after shitting the bed leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces.

Personal note

I wrote the majority of this post a long time ago. I don't know if I intended to publicly promote it back then. However recently I learned a guy I know, similar to me, Indian guy grew up in HK, killed himself. I used to see him around in University. I spoke with him at a friend's wedding.

I learned of this and I asked the people giving me the news of any reasons that may have contributed to his decision to take his own life. They gave 3 reasons but one of them stood out to me. That reason was that his manager at work at JP Morgan was giving him a hard time.

My heart sank and I immediately understood what that meant. That's because roughly 2 years ago, another acquaintance of mine who worked at Barclays said his manager said she didn't like Indians and that she was giving him a hard time. He decided to leave the company.

At GoGoVan, a company I worked at for 1 year, one of my colleagues used to openly berate Indian offshore workers he worked with, one day exclaiming "Diu (Fuck), why are Indians so stupid?". I was shocked. I stoped talking to him. I have a lot more incidences to share but I wrote this article in a way with news sources to back up my claims because no one is going to believe the words of someone else.

To think that that guy from my university killed himself because of some racist fucking manager... I'm an emotional person. My emotions drive me.

Enough is enough.

This image of HK being a cosmopolitan city with worldly, friendly, even normal people is propagated solely by its government in order to ensure that it maintains its "International standing". You see, the economy needs people to come spend their money here.

We work hard and mind our own business, we don't get selected for jobs, we don't have any opportunities, they segregate us, they deny us opportunities, they don't let us live respectable lives. They don't respect us. They harass us, they abuse us, they ostracize us, they disrespect us. They keep us down. They keep us down. They keep us down.

THEY KEEP US DOWN

and they enjoy it

Don't believe that shit's fucked?

https://hongkongfp.com/2018/05/01/living-learning-parallel-foreign-students-feel-left-universities-rush-internationalise - An article about frustrated international university students languishing in HK instead of flourishing.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3244285/can-hong-kongs-top-universities-attract-overseas-students-scholars-security-law-deters-some-not-main?module=top_story&pgtype=homepage - a more balanced article talking about the close-minded racism an international university student encountered and another international student who loves it here (innocent naivete).
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3230129/hong-kong-jobseekers-dependent-visas-hampered-language-skills-employers-pivot-mainland-china-market - An article about foreigners being unable to find jobs cause they don't know Chinese.
https://www.happyhongkonger.com/is-hong-kong-friendly-to-foreigners/ - an article from the Covid time in Jan 2023. HK lifted Covid restrictions in March 2023. Note the segment about minorities.
https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3263359/how-learning-cantonese-allowed-me-fall-love-hong-kong An article about a woman who broke down after experiencing the language barrier and rudeness of the HK Cantonese. She advocates learning Cantonese. Let me tell you that if SAs and SEAs learn Cantonese, it won't make a difference because of the racism in this city.

Oh by the way, the universities here count the Mainland Chinese students as international students to inflate the number of international students the university can claim to have because this improves their rankings.

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2188883/hku-student-calls-university-out-lack-diversity?module=inline&pgtype=article - Here's an article by an Estonian girl and basically said she was tricked into thinking HKU is more diverse than it actually is because the numbers put out by HKU stated that like 40% of HKU is just international students. In fact, they even beat ETH Zurich on that metric. LOL. Proof: https://thepienews.com/news/university-of-hong-kong-worlds-most-international-uni/ HAHAHAHAH FUCKIN LOL! Fuckin unreal man. The universities here blatantly fool the rankings and lie. Truly World Class city.

Being rude is part of the HK culture

Being rude and uncaring is part of the culture here. I've personally been the guy to help people when they've collapsed in public 2 times now whereas others just walked by.

In fact, because the government keeps trying to promote HK to tourists and foreign workers but the local Chinese HKers are so rude, the governement actually has to put out adverts on TV expressly to remind the locals to smile more, or to treat others with respect. The classic one is this video which may still be running now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2dGagcc-gk

Well guess what, a new advert telling local Chinese HKs to SMILE MORE is coming: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3264090/smile-more-hong-kong-prepares-hospitality-campaign-getting-service-sector-and-civil-servants-be-more

Also, an advert for the service sector here to be more hospitable LMFAO: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3264721/hong-kong-address-citys-poor-service-quality-campaign-featuring-movie-stars-such-louis-koo-stephy

If people want you to move aside, they don't say the equivalent of excuse me here, they make the "TSK" sound. Like you're a goddamn nuisance to them.

I swear this poor HK government keeps trying to turn a pig into a horse lmfao.

The actual end

The irony of Hong Kong is that its government promotes the city as cosmopolitan and international whereas its local chinese people don't want any of that. In a blind fervor to reclaim their own identity after 1997, they've overcorrected and have normalized xenophobia or maybe it was always there to begin with.

From my own personal experience, it's clear that Cantonese HKers do not view those from South East Asia or South Asia as humans even.

Told you it's fucked up. Now you know. #AsiasApartheidCity

"Every kid deserves to live in a city that loves them" - Netflix Show: Eric.

This next message is specifically for all the designated school kids in HK:

via GIPHY

Seriously. After 25 years in this city that's the only sound advice I can give. Don't make the same mistake of trying to make this city your home. You'll only ever be met with disappointments both in your jobs, and personal life. Life elsewhere is different. People will treat you with basic respect and not disrespect you the moment they see you. Don't waste your time here.

This was for all the Designated school kids (past, present and future) in HK. We deserved better.

an image of the Delia schools which cater to Ethnic minorities of HK