Many generalisations here, but alas, most are true about the HKG cabin crew. Some months ago I overheard some very junior crew make some very offensive comments about one of the FO's on the crew behind his back. I can understand Cantonese fairly well, although speaking it I find difficult. When I approached the persons involved, with the backing of the Malaysian ISM, they were genuinely shocked that I had understood and proceeded to apologise to the bewildered FO. Afterwards, they were giggling and laughing as if nothing had happened.
To me, this is just typical of the standard of the junior crew. Maybe CX has finally woken up to the fact, hence the move to increase recruiting from other than Hong Kong.
I go out of my way to try and foster good relations with any crew I fly with. Unfortunately, the cliquey bunch of immature newbies that have been hired over the last few years make that very difficult. No wonder CX service standards have fallen well behind our competitors over the last few years. They purely see it as a job that gives them cheap travel. They don't see it as a career.