One Country Two People

It is no secret that since the opening of Hong Kong to Chinese travellers tensions between the two areas have been building. The difference in culture and life style had become more and more apparent and clashes in these areas have escalated discontents between the two groups of people under the One Country Two Systems rule. These issues were brought to the forefront earlier this year when a new television show portrayed them point blank at the audience. There were backlashes and supports alike. The New York Times even covered that in one of their articles.  But the issue here was, if these problems do not exist there would not be material to be put on. Further does avoiding such issue by not talking about them help at all?

The show went on from being sanctioned in China (the southern region of China can receive television signals from Hong Kong, but all ad times and news were replaced by “local” contents instead) to become one of the most popular shows in Hong Kong as people started to appreciate it in a different light. But the issues that were raised continue to exist and continue to pose problems across the borders.

Opening Hong Kong for Chinese tourists to visit was a measure adopted to save the Hong Kong economy during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC, which was also known as the Financial Tsunami locally). The measure did save the Hong Kong economy as a lot of wealthy Chinese tourists took advantage of this opportunity to come to this shopping paradise and buy genuine products (as compared to the predominance of counterfeit products in the mainland). This kept the retail business alive and thus the general economy. It was a great move, but then it opened up something that was more deep-rooted – the difference in life style and perception between the very distinct groups of people.

Hong Kong people have prided themselves as the more etiquette trained and sophisticated group as compared to the mainlanders (people from mainland China). The colonial rule probably had done good to “class up” Hong Kong in a way that common social etiquettes were well observed and respects for others are highly valued. So it is not surprising that the more “earthly” behaviours of a number of Chinese visitors continued to cause discontents among the Hong Kong residents. Before the influx of Chinese visitors, in the up market CBD and shopping areas, there weren’t people squatting along the streets smoking. Also spitting in the streets was virtually eliminated after decades of continued education. So it is not surprising when all these happened, a lot of Hongkongers were very upset. However, this was tolerated at that time because they needed these visitors for the money.

However as the economy recovers and the need for this money lessens, Hongkongers have become less and less tolerant. At the same, the mainlanders who still think that they are “doing Hong Kong a favour” have grown more and more arrogant. Under such circumstance, clashes are bound to happen. Last year when a certain brand name specialty shop started to blatantly practice favouritism to mainland shoppers (which was understandable as these shoppers do shop without considering the price), it caused an outrage among the Hong Kong communities. Further when stories about the complete lack of respect to the Hong Kong society by mainlanders such as parents asking kids to urinate or even excrete on public transport or in front of other people’s shops surfaced, tensions between the two groups of Chinese immediately reached new levels.

In the midst of all these, Hongkongers is by no means pure and innocent either. There were local companies that organise these tours aiming to rip off mainland tourists. Stories about tourists being forced to shop at overpriced outlets were not uncommon. These so called “shopping tours” were very cheap to sign up for but people who joined would be butchered financially during the trip. These unsuspecting victims soon started to fight back by complaining and going to the media. Calls for compensations were frequent. Funny enough though, it seems that recently some of these mainlanders were skilful enough to even exploit these by signing up and then complain to the media asking for compensations that were a lot higher than their sign up costs.

Having moved overseas for some time now, I was repeatedly told by my friends in Hong Kong that I am lucky that I do not need to tolerate or deal with these mainlanders. Nonetheless, I was by no means immuned from them during my last visit home. Mum and I were at the check out of a shop in Tsimshatsui, one of the major shopping districts, when mum was pushed aside aggressively (they nearly knocked her down) by a group of Chinese women jumping the queue to the cashier. I was shocked to experience this first hand but immediately could understand the anger of the Hongkongers when considering this is what they are dealing with day in day out.

There is really no easy solution to this. The mainlanders and Hongkongers are basically two distinct groups of people. As nice as it sounds to have a unification the social differences would continue to exist until the current generations of Hongkongers disappear. But this will take decades to happen. The lack of intervention form both sides of the border did not help either. It seems that at this point it is really up to the civilians to tackle this difficult problem, but I don’t see either party would be giving in. I am sad to see that it comes to this but then being sad about something that has no solution did not help either. I just sincerely hope that one day this could be resolved in a civilised manner and the two territories could have a real unification for the better of the Chinese race, if that is going to happen at all in my life time. 

It was a glorious moment for China, but has the shine worn off?