Cocky HK people

harkau · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Birmingham

Why is it when BBC's go back to HK for a holiday we seem to get picked on for not the latest slang words? Although I can speak fluent Cantonese I can only read a little, why is this funny to HK guys?

Even stranger are the reactions of the Big 6 people, they cant understand why I cant speak Mandarin, when you tell them you where born and are from the UK they say 'but you look Chinese'.

I just reply to them now in Manc slang and ask them why they dont understand!!!

tenpence · Joined: 24 Feb 2003 Posts: 174

that sounds pretty annoying but I guess everyone picks on everyone elses differenes - look at the posts we've had about mainland people on this forum! it's a shame, we should celebrate everyones uniqueness, rather than using it against each other!

MaoTheCat · Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Scotland

Could be worse, could be mixed race. I automatically get handed a knife and fork when I go back in some places, it's pretty humiliating (I can use chopsticks, just for the record, hehe... Lived there the first five years of me life, use them every week since, that's what makes it so irritating!) Can't even compose a comeback 'cos I can't speak much Cantonese! I just leave that to my angry uncles :P

But seriously, I know what you mean and it can be damn right irritating. It's almost like narrow mindedness, but I don't believe it quite crosses the line of cultural prejudice (yet). Variety is of course the spice of life though, as tenpence says, so sod the "conformity"! Just because we're not 'up to date' doesn't make us any less people, nor do we have any less right to be in HK or China or anywhere we have roots. Be proud of the differences :D Although could you create a primer for Manc, I'm down here on a work placement and I'm having a hard time understanding the bus drivers :P

M.
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Meh ah?

picapica · Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Posts: 5 Location: London, UK

Does it really matter what people from HK say about you? - they live in a surreal (and enclosed) environment where their mentality is completely different from ours. Just accept the fact that we BBCs are less sophisticated compared to them, but once they leave their comfortable bubble and meet the real world, then cracks of their own security becomes evident.

On your next visit to HK, try speaking to them in English (and fast!) - that really rocks their boat! :lol:

vjai · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Essex

haha so funny...i last went back to hk in april - easter time - every one seemed to be scared of me and dared not to make any geusture or remarks bout me :shock: well, being 6 ft n rather round and big, they stared as if i was a clown. but speaking to them, i found it werent tooooo bad.

ordering food is the funniest, giving me a menu with loada chinese on it, and not being able to read it, haha :( i just asked for near enough the same lil things, lol jus point and stare haha :P

well, mr ... who ever started this topic, jus chill, they aint got a clue bout out side world, and it is true that when they come out of there buble they are a lost soul in the big city. llol

any way, av fun every one
dan :D

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

I know that the title of my post is going to get some from HongKong backs up. But I honestly want to understand HK people. So I will explain my position and my impressions. Please give me your reactions and your views. Maybe a few will now post to my stimulating observations?

(1) I speak Cantonese very badly, learning from my Amahs, and I was educated in the English medium.

(2) As a mature businessman, I went to HK to live and work for several years. I found it was difficult to find and mix with the more educated and sophisticated classes of HK people. The only places I ran into them were in exclusive clubs, millionare clubs, or exclusive dining clubs. You never seem to meet them shopping in Soho or the likes.

(3) When you accidentally bump into a HK person and exchange a few words, you feel that he is looking down his nose to condescend to speak to you, and then with gestures of dismissal sweeps sway with contempt. Well that is the general impression I got.

(4) However this does not apply to the ordinary HK person, i.e. the types who serve you in Soho or restaurants, because they are there to get business, and belong to a different class altogether.

(5) So, are the HK wealthier classes very snobbish, and class/money class conscious? Does that depend in the ambience you create like speaking snob Cantonese, or in the type of clothing you wear, or in the type of jewellry you adorn yourself with, or in the type of car you drive, or where you live? I think it is all of this. Do you agree? (At least this was a few years back when HK was still British. I do not know whether things have changed under the PRC?

Now there is a lot to talk about here, especially if you are from HK?

bettyleunguk · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 15 Location: London

I hope I won’t be assassinated after posting this.

I think most HKC are fussy.

Scenario 1, me & mum was in this Chinese Restaurant for ‘morning tea’. Mum goes there every morning. From the time she got there, mum grumbled every 5 minutes. About the time it's taken the waitress to allocate us a table (it’s no more than a few minutes for god sake); the location of the table given, the cleanliness of the crockery and the tablecloth; the lack of choices from the trolley, the speed that waiters collect emptied plates ……. and on and on and on …… I was sooooo embarrassed! Apparently, mum’s not the only one, my aunt does that, my elder brother does that and my old schoolmates do that !!! (that’s when I was on holiday this year)

Scenario 2, in my own shop (only a humble small café), these parents of HK students come visiting (we are next to a very famous private school), for a meal of one plate per person, they will ask for so many extra things like this is a 6 stars restaurant. The boys are regulars in the café, I can tell they are embarrassed of their parents' behaviour. I can understand that the parents are not familiar with the local, however, with common sense and judging from the price please. I doubt if they try this at xxx Kee coffee house at Kung-Tong!!!!

Sorry I said that, now shoot me.
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MaoTheCat · Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Scotland

Since I have relatives in HK, I guess I can try and shed some light on this...

Wealth has always been a central part of Cantonese culture, as is face. The more wealthy one is, the more face one has, so the wealthier people showing off their affluence is probably a way of attempting to gain more face. I have to admit I myself have exhibited food snobbery before *cringes and hides* and although I didn't enjoy the all-you-can-eat buffet, I guess it really wasn't THAT bad, just wasn't what I was used to. Albeit I didn't direct any of this at the staff, this was towards my friends, but I guess that's the market it's aimed at, really, towards a more western taste.

The general snobbish attitude from the 'upper classes' is something that I do run into quite often. I personally think it's the way the children are brought up, to believe that they are better than everyone else, and conditioned to be very competitive (Controversy, anyone? It seems to be the case with quite a few Cantonese people I know, though friends of mine they may be). It's probably ingrained culturally among certain families, but I wouldn't say all families. And VJai's statement about people in HK being bubblewrapped, I find this to be true in some instances, my cousin sometimes seems to find coming over here to be very alien. I dunno if she's made any non-Chinese friends at all :S

Anyhoos, I believe it's a family-cultural thing. As for Hong Kong under the PRC, I find that things are pretty much the same as when we moved to Scotland, I get the feeling that in general, HK is left to do its own thing, really...

Lata!

M.
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Meh ah?

elle · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 334 Location: Nottingham, UK

Some of the characteristics described about HongKong snobs seem to me to be the characteristics of the "Nouveau Riche". I have found that the truly aristocratic and well established families usually show a great deal of humility. Perhaps because they have confidence in who they are, and have lived several generations with that status. They do not need to prove themselves any longer.

This also applies to "Intellectual and Cultural Wealth". The better you are educated, and the more cultured you are, the more humility you usually exhibit. Again, it is the confidence of a person's intellectual or cultured upbringing. You will also notice that cultured people have no need to shout, or use foul language to get their point across. Simply a word or two will be sufficient to establish their place in society?

student10 · Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 13

Yes but in my opinion I think that humility should not be equated with being a doormat, some people test these limits and I find it exceptionally hard to know when to snap back and when to back off. I think being humble is a good thing, because it seemed that whenever a person becomes overly proud of his/her own achievements society has a way of humbling that person again, but please I am open to further opinions on this topic.

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 342

If they're snobbish to you, do it to them right back. Snort your nose, look unconcerned, whatever it takes. They'll get the message - and they won't like it. The reasoning is that, and this applies everywhere, is that closed groups dislike differences in others.

In this case, you're ethnically chinese who doesn't speak the language. So they fob you off and TRY to degrade you, because they don't understand your stereotype in the world. Notice how they get all chummy with their white business colleagues - i's not because they actually like them, it's because they recognize that stereotypical niche of being a white man in a suit.

So what they don't understand, they demean. It's your job not to let that happen. If you're talking to a group of snobs then outdo them - it's not the preferred way, but it's how the world works unfortunately. Let them know of your differences, show them off even.

For example, if you're in a chinese restaurant and aren't too good with the chopsticks (they're useless for the greasy stuff anyway), make a point of asking for the ol' knife and fork. And for heaven's sake, don't feel embarrassed about it.

oh, happy new year. i should be preparing instead i'm posting on here. oh dear.

Kwok · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 3 Location: London

Haha, guys when i read this post i found it really funny and also related so much to it. I like big 6 expression, i only heard of it this time.
Well for my input from my experiences-
I have to take you back to 10 years when i was still a teenager, I remember getting into a taxi going somewhere in kowloon. Can't remember the place, i was with 3 other friends who were BBC aswell. Taxi driver struck up converstation as usual, and started to call me banana boy, as that time i was pretty naive. So i ask him what him meant by that phrase, he said i am yellow outside but white inside like a banana. I came back with 2 crappy statements (remember i was young). I said taxi man i can read your chinese name from looking at his taxi id (Mr Chan), and also if i was a banana i would be a yellow banana. As in i would yellow in and out. Also being a left handed, which i swear make using chop stick more harder, I always gather a scene while eating with relatives in HK. They watch me grab this meat from the middle of the table and watch me transport it to my bowl. If it does land into some sauce which it does sometimes, then i smile and i say yes i wanted that sweet sauce over the meat. Final thing is when in China last year, i was alway being called a local, my mate who looks a bit more pale everyone saw him as a BBC, but when they see me and i tell them i'm a BBC, they laugh and say you look like a local down the road, how exbarrassing....

PingPing · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 59 Location: KENT

no offence, one of my friend, grew up in America, holidaying in Hong Kong, shopping in the jewellery shop, the salesman asked if she's from the 'Big 6'. My friend's mum answered, "no, we're from the 'Big 7'" :)
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burntbread · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 37 Location: London

Yeah HK culture places more importance on 'streetwiseness' than the UK.

Smyles · Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 11:36 pm Post subject: Re: Cocky HK people

Harkau,

People that don't travel a lot or have never lived overseas don't understand race and background etc.

I'm English caucasian and just got back to England after 8 years in Singapore. Many people in Singapore presumed I was American - imagine that! :-)

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