Okay, it's fair to say I'm not much of a sociologist. Looking back at some of my previous diary entries, my take on the ethnic dynamics here has been sweeping at best, and at worst a little flimsy - a case of clumsy clumping and bunching together. True, it's not a "Mickey Rooney plays Mr Yunioshi" tragic piece of comedy. `Breakfast at Tiffany's' is class and Audrey Hepburn is simply wonderful but, really, it wasn't Hollywood's finest hour in East-West relations. No, I'm the kind of guy that likes to cut a few corners, throw in obligatory generalisations and miss some of the important cultural nuances. So for one night only I'm going to fill in some gaps, join a few dots and probably roll out a few more clichés.
Let's start with the "us". Well, "we" - the gweilos/gweipos, the Westerners, the gatecrashers in many senses - make up a small percentage of the population here but "we" maintain a highly visible presence in economic and social terms, to some extent aided by the historical precedent of planting the visiting flagpole in some of the nicer parts of town, and thereby creating the occasional corporate ghetto. And let's not forget we've carried with us a few trunks worth of culture from back home as well. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the Bulldog pub can't trace its roots too far back into any Chinese dynasty, while I doubt whether there's an easy Cantonese translation for the bar Wooloomooloo. That all said, the concept of being part of such an "us" was pretty much alien to me as a kid kicking about on a South London council estate. To me such a collective stood for all sorts of nonsense I wasn't a big fan of - colonialism, conversion and "Keenya" instead of Kenya. And yet here I am branded along with the same label once the preserve of chaps with a furry top lips and elephant guns. But times change and the world has evolved. Expats come from all walks of life now and people have arrived/stayed on these shores for a variety of reasons, not simply because of financial incentives or to spread a doctrine. Sometimes it's simply because they just can now. Just as well as I can't grow a proper moustache to save my life.
In its most simplified and unsophisticated way, "us and them", I suppose, could be packaged along ethnic/colour lines. Certainly in the heady days of the Empire the world was compartmentalised more easily across the globe; each territory with its own spiffing little double-barrelled fella in a huge colonial house pulling the strings for crown and country. The days of minority rule are over, of course, and the "us and them" is more balanced. Here, apparently at least 95% or so of those living in Hong Kong are of Chinese extraction. But that's not the whole story. As one of the characters remarked in `Soul Man' (yet another moment for Hollywood race relations), "There ain't no black and white. Just shades of grey." Amen brother. So going "grey", second-, third- etc generation expats are, of course, `locals' in their own way, even if their whole blood line can be traced back to Canvey Island. Two years back I met a middle-aged woman at 3am buying a doner and chips in the kebab shop, proudly professing to be a fifth-generation Hong Konger, though sounding more Fulham than Pok Fu Lam. I've been wondering about it all ever since - that and why the hell she was buying a kebab. I found it all fascinating - I was drunk - but it was fascinating. And it got me thinking about loads of things. For example, although ABCs (American/Australian-born Chinese), BBCs (Brits) and CBCs (Canadians) should be seen in the same way as non-ethnic Chinese expats, are they seen in the same way by locals, given that their ear for Cantonese isn't always as sharp and they have more of an appreciation for HBO than any Cantonese celebrity channel? I wonder whether amongst this group there is some form of demarcation line based on how well you speak the language or how close you are to the culture here. I suppose I could ask (but that would be too easy). And apparently, the `banana' insult (yellow on the outside, white on the inside), is used both by mainlanders talking about Hong Kong Chinese and by Hong Kong Chinese talking about ABCs etc. What with the different social and economic histories and current realities, you can imagine the relationship between Hong Kong locals and the PRCs (those from the People Republic of China) isn't too tight. In layman's terms, mainlanders are very looked down on. I once read that 90% of locals disliked the mainland Chinese. And as far as I can tell, Hong Kong locals aren't top of the mainland Christmas card list either.
Where next in my in-depth analysis of society? Ah, yes, the AEC etc versions (e.g. Australian-educated Chinese born here rather than in, say, Sydney), which makes them part of the `locals' but more able to understand the Western way of thinking. (See, I bet you started reading this article hoping to be simply entertained. Well, I'm glad to say you're being educated as well - just like watching `Play Your Cards Right'). And I now realise that those quiet overseas students at university that never went out, sat in the front row at lectures and moaned about having their rubbish food stolen, have all ended up working for investment banks out here.
I haven't quite grasped how NRIs (non-resident Indians) and the rest of the small Indian community are viewed, a group which includes some of Hong Kong's wealthiest families and settled here yonks ago. And at the low end of the spectrum, for the 200,000-plus principally female Filipino, Indonesian and Thai maids, nannies, exotic dancers, who have left their families back in their homelands, it's a whole different story. Long hours for meagre pickings (which they send back home anyway) kind of shows where they fit into the pecking order here. And, of course, my African trading brethren pop up here and them. Some will do `the nod' that black people sometimes do to each other as if to say "so, I guess you're not from round here are you?" Then there are others who want to be "the only gay in the village." Unique. Almost like some exotic fruit, so to speak. Whatever, girlfriend. And I shouldn't forget that `expat' in essence also denotes the thousands of Japanese and Koreans and those from other Asian countries who are similarly working for banks and the like. But I'm as guilty as the next man (read "expat") in doing the generic Asian grouping thing.
So, you see, it's not all as simple as ABC. I'm sure there's more to it all but sadly there are far sillier things for me to write about. So I'm afraid that's about as deep as I can go on the issue. That is, of course, until you get me talking about how these dynamics fit into the whole mating and dating scene out here. Saved for another time. That's when it really gets entertaining.
