I was in Moxie's the other day and the table beside me was a girl from Hong Kong and whole bunch of Caucasians and one guy was talking to her and was like so "you're from china huh" and the girl was like "no, i'm from hong kong " and then he was like "isn't hong kong in china?" and then she started to be all defensive and be like no i'm from hong kong and started talking about hong kong and mainland china, she said some pretty negative things about the latter which I won't repeat. Is anyone else like this? I know I am somtimes but I stop at I'm from Hong Kong because Caucasians just don't get it sometimes. And why does this like biased view exist between hong kong and mainland china? No offense meant to anyone but I just wanted to start a discussion about this.
It's not exactly a "biased view", ask a Shanghainese and they would get offended if you categorize them as China, and Shanghai didn't even got the colonial history as an excuse! It's a regionalism thing, Hong Kong (or for that matter, Macau, Beijing, Gongzhou and Shanghai, the more developed cities) is so different than the rest of China in terms of income, expenses, education and life style that it's natural to be insistent on clarifying. Plus, many mainland Chinese still don't consider Hong Kong part of China (or they intentionally put down Hong Kong for its colonial history and whatnot) so it's just fair to be insistent ont he matter. In fact, it struck me as odd that the Caucasians DON'T get it (unless they are born later than Britney Spears or something). Many Caucasian friends of mine are into history and can retell the story of Hong Kong (and other British colonies) better than myself, so they understand the difference between Hong Kong and China. Bottom line, Hong Kong doesn't even drive on the same side as China (or use the same electric current). So it's only natural that they are treated as two entities.
yeh people from HK wont say they are from china or even say they are chinese, which i personally find disappointing, cause in the end imo we are all chinese
normally the younger generation of people born b4 1997 consider themselves as HK people not chinese people since hk was part of Britain back then =O =O but no one really cares now.. imo its mainly the overseas born/brought up hk people that actually do that alot =D
Well, Hong Kong is NOW owned by China, but it's still got its privileges (no visa for Japan and WAY easier to get VISA for Taiwan and US) that the rest of China isn't enjoying. So in the end, it IS different. Plus, the "race" is Asian (or Semitic? LOL), nationality is Chinese. And seriously, considering the political and socioeconomic climate, Hong Kong is Asian but not Chinese <_< And no, this regionalism exist WAY before the Tibet controversy hit the news.
i disagree on the other hand, i say im from Hong Kong, not CHina, but im still Chinese i agree with most people that said that its a region thing. Everybody in China fights over the most retarded things and even argue about regions and etc, but at the end everyone calls themselves Chinese cepts the Taiwanese
ye i guess so. but then i personally wouldn't seperate myself from china. its just like those ppl who are like indian but were born in england and consider themselves 100% british.
The problem with "Chinese" as a term is that it connotates BOTH the race (people of Chinese descent) AND the nationality/region (people from China), so it's just so easy to refute both label at once... I mean, it'd be confusing to say, "I am Chinese but not from China" since many assumes Chinese == from China (not mutually exclusive, in fact)
thats exactly how i feeeel and i thought i was like the only one who thinks like that......i had many arguments saying that hong kong is not china and that mainland china are ugly fobs....i dont care wat ppl say hong kong is not china and is coooler than china so eff those mainland kids in canada who think they all that
but hongkong people ARE chinese....i dont think Hongkongese or Hongkie is a nationality. thats what i say when people ask me what nationality i am, i tell them im chinese.
i asked this girl if she is from china and she said the same thing, i am from hong kong and i ssaid what king kong? lols... so she then said some thing about how hong kong is better then mainland china which may be true at the moment. I said so we are all asians lol. You can't go against that. I don't get why people from hong kong say that, my cousin lives in hong kong and he told me that most people from there don't care about the pride crap. So i assume only international students do. I also had this argument with my ex, she kept on bragging about hong kong to me = = what's the biggie? lols. I am from Australia a much superior country in terms of income, life style etc... 1st world country XD But yeah, i type so much cause i have had this discussion with many people before....
but once u say u're chinese ppl assume u're from CHINA... ppl in taiwan r chinese as a nationality but they're prefered to be known as "taiwanese" to avoid teh confusion
Hong Kong will always be superior than mainland China as a whole, because the disparity of China in terms of education, income, lifestyle and privilege. It will take at least another century, if it is happening at all, for China to be in any way comparable to the economy of Hong Kong (of course, I can't say Hong Kong won't fall in the meantime, but at its peak? China will take more than a lifetime to catch up) And Hong Kong IS different from China! It is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. I mean, it has its own Olympic team (since EVERYONE's talking about Olympics lately) and is internationally recognized as a special locale. I can say I am born in Hong Kong without a country following this "city" in any official documents and it would be okay. I doubt the same can be said of a whole lot of other cities. I must mention that everything is different in Hong Kong than in China, they use different electric current, drive on different side of the road, has different education system (not to mention politics) and heck, there are numerous embassies and consulates in Hong Kong! I am surprised that your girlfriend didn't take offense at your argument of "we are all Asians". I mean, the whole Hong Kong vs. China thing has nothing to do with ethnicity but SOLELY on nationality, or in fact, REGIONALISM. And your argument of Australia is SO much better than Hong Kong is an INVALID one, because if you go and do a search on the respective GDP per capita of the two "places", you'll see Hong Kong is 6th highest in the world at US$38,127 while Australia is only US$32,900. So much for Australia pride and the first world country shite. And in case you don't know, the whole concept behind first world/third world or whatnot is based on the variety of industries, so given Hong Kong is severely limited in geographic size (it's like what, 1/1000 the size of Australia? If not less?) with little if any natural resources... Well, I'll just leave it at that lest I will be personally offending the voluminous Australian population on PA. But yeah, in short, it's not a valid argument, that's all. As for why Hong Kong people who actually live in Hong Kong don't feel so much "pride" in their city. It's a lie, they do, that's why they are still IN Hong Kong. Otherwise they would have migrated elsewhere, such as Australia, now, wouldn't they? Moreover, it is kind of pointless to be going all too cheerfully about the whole Hong Kong pride thing when your audience shares the sentiment. The defensive attitude of Hong Kong vs. China is only required when confronted with ignoramus who are culturally insensitive. So it's unnecessary to display the fiery Hong Kong pride WITHIN Hong Kong, people would rather save the time and make some money for luxury goods.
when people questions me if I'm from China, I would say.. no, I am not from mainland.. I am from Hong Kong.. Hong kong and mainland china are two different worlds
if that's the case... what do ABC's, BBC's and CBC's call themselves? they sure as hell don't say american, british or canadian... bet they say chinese
