Hong Kong

[lineupandwait]

Someones done a great job here, slightly one sided, but good:

Hong Kong Sucks | Hong Kong Sucks (http://ihatehongkong2.wordpress.com/)

[AAIGUY]

Thank you for that.

Sitting at home in Vancouver I forgot how much I hate them all.
Your reminder will let me appreciate Canada all the more.

[Oval3Holer]

Wow! That would take me until the end of my lovely career at CX to finish reading!

I think he missed adding the video of the mainlander shi##ing in the street! That's another reason Hong Kong sucks!

I'd rather be DEAD than have to live in Hong Kong (really)

[Flap10]

Yet another moron looking for his fifteen minutes of fame via the net. :ugh:

[AAIGUY]

@ Oval..no he got that its a ways done.. but its there.

I've added the link to my signature line of my email so all may enjoy it.

[broadband circuit]

I can't find any fault with his blog.

[NoAndThen]

His posts are supported by indisputable evidence. I have no argument.

[atpcliff]

I am only a visitor, but HKG is my 2nd favourite place to visit of anywhere in the world.

Note: I have not been to Scandinavia...think I would like that more.

cliff
BAH

[spleener]

AAIGUY;

forum rules include "No racist comments."

Quote: "Sitting at home in Vancouver I forgot how much I hate them all."

Wanna review that before the mod gets to it? :yuk:

[crwjerk]

"them" is not a racist comment. Nowhere does he state WHO he hates.

[AAIGUY]

I STILL hate them all.. but almost got one with my Suburban tonight trying to cross against the light...
I love how having a negative opinion on something means you can't say it...
That blog is classic. I've emailed to over a 100 people.

I'm gonna get a bumper sticker made of the link..

I was in no way specific to whom I have issues with.. Its could be long sleeved pommy captains... but its not :ok:

[Oval3Holer]

Long-sleeved pommy captains! Yeah! I wish a video game existed in which THEY were the targets!

ROIT!, they would all yell as they came at you! Then, if they fired at you they would say, "Happy with that?"

[MrClaus]

I've often wondered why a culture becomes the way it is. I believe a cursory look at our own history provides the answers.

The first mistake we make with the mainlanders and Hong Kongers is to assume that we are all on the same sheet of music from a social deveopment context. Most mainlanders are one, maybe two generations removed from low level merchants and peasants. This is where many of our ancestors were about 200years ago, in the first phases of the industrial revolution. The Chinese are cramming our 200years of industrial development into 20years, while not developing socially at the same rate.

I could probably safely say my own ancestors at that point were unsophisticated, superstitious and rude. Sound familiar? Add into the mix the cultural revolution and 50yrs of isolationism under the commies, and we get the classic mainlander. The only difference with the Hong Kong Chinese is that they were able to get out. Ironically most Hong Kongers are not really locals at all, but the descendants of refugees. Remember too that the Chinese nationalists with the money mostly went to Taiwan, not to Hong Kong. Thus the oldies picking their noses, screaming on their mobiles etc. Pretty well what I would imagine my ancestor to be like if I put him into a time machine and transported him to 2012. What scares me the most is not that they are rude, I can live with that, but that these guys are going to be a world superpower.:sad:

[Steve the Pirate]

Most of what this blogger says is true but surely the same, or similar, can be said of many cities/people/cultures around the world?

Personally, I don't like people driving around in cars with their music so loud that I can hear it 3 streets away. Personally, I don't like the graffiti culture that is so prevalent in the "developed" world. Personally, I don't like groups of youths terrorising neighbourhoods. Personally, I don't like the obesity epidemic that is gripping the western world. Personally, I don't like drug-crazed drunkards hitting unsuspecting passers-by so hard that they end up either dead or so brain-damaged that they can no longer function unaided.

Yes there's a lot wrong with Hong Kong but there's also a lot right with it. So many are quick to criticise and yet happy to ride on the back of the lifestyle that Hong Kong has afforded them. Many of those who criticise have made significant fortunes courtesy of Hong Kong and yet are happy to deride the place that has an investor-friendly tax system.

If Hong Kong really is that bad then those who cannot stand the place should distance themselves from their reason for the connection - it really should be that simple.

STP

[geh065]

I think all those haters should resign then they would never have to step foot again in the place they hate so much. Everyone else would move up the ladder which would be okay since you all also hate the job so much as well.

[Madp1lot]

I think the right word would Xenophobic, not racist...

Seriously, I grew up in SEAsia, I know how all those cultures work, behave, function and relate to foreigners. No, I don't relate myself to those cultures, I have my own culture... but I don't impose my culture to anyone, and I learned to live among different ppl, enjoying what I can learn from them, making me a better person.

Ppl that create blogs like this or make negative comments all the time like the ones I read almost everyday on this forum, only show one thing and one thing alone... that they are just too stupid morons, who can't see anything but themselves.

By the way, AAIGuy... CANADA?, REALLY? lolol Talking about "Culture" when you're from.... CANADA? no comments... (this comment is not directed at you personally, but to everyone who makes negative comments all the time. Just toke you as an example).

Go to the street, breath the same air, learn the same jokes, grow a conscience... and make yourself a man!

Life is beautiful, and the world's a ball... play with it! :)

[spleener]

Madp1lot, yep you're right:it's just good old xenophobia.
AAIGUY has thankfully enlightened us that he may in fact hate more widely than the "race" referred to in the OP's original link. We can all rest easy then:
no forum rules against that manifestation!

[711]

Agreed, the blog has a few funny points. But I still think we must resist to blame a whole nation just because we made a few unpleasant experiences and find the personal ads awkward.Ever read through ads in Western papers? Look out for the words "solvent" or "independent"..

Do you guys honestly think the majority of your wives would have married you if you would have been a (real) bus driver ?

When I started with CX I was stunned when 20y+ Cpts told me proudly they had never been to China.

How many of you ever made serious attempts to understand the Chinese culture?

How many of you made a serious attempt to learn cantonese?

How many of you can name and explain the local religion?

How many of you have ever read a Chinese novel? ( No, Suzie Wong doesn't count)

How many of you do send your kids to bilingual schools? ( I have flown with SFO's born and bred in HK without the capacity to speak a single chinese word, that tells you a lot about their parents imho)

How many of you have visited the mainland, the national parks, the temples ? ( No, Macao doesn't count either)

How many of you have visited the excellent Palace museum in Taiwan on a layover, rather than the Irish pub?

How many of you realise that the neoliberal , naked capitalism ( and the pollution! ) of Hong Kong is really the result of outsourcing of production by Western companies for Western markets?

How many of you can name and distinguish the 5 main cooking styles of Chinese cuisine?

How many of you have made a saucy joke in the presence of a Chinese female flight attendant, without realizing that only binge-drinking Gordi girls actually find that funny?

Yes, true, you hear sorry and excuse me all the time on Oxford Street or Fifth Avenue ( less so on the latter..), but how many of you are REALLY sorry about the millions of dead people our ancestors caused by slavery and colonial warfare? The misery of Opium addiction caused and sponsored by the fathers of Hong Kong ? The missionary lunatics infecting and killing millions of native people while preaching arrogant "superior" religious rules?
The Chinese, to my knowledge, never did anything comparable. Now, looking at the big picture,who has the better manners after all?

I think a bit of modesty would suit us well. If I were Chinese, I wouldn't know if I would want any of us in my country at all, and my fear is that blogs like the one mentioned above are promoting nationalism among the Chinese people. They surely wont laugh about this, make no mistake.

I find it puzzling that so many guys, especially those from English descent, stubbornly ignore the local culture, still freezed in a sort of post-colonial mind set, without realizing that exactly this attitude was the reason you lost your empire in the first place.

Do you guys have any idea how tiring, how extremely irritating your culture can be? The endless and constant irony about anything and everything, the servant-like behaviour as soon somebody more senior enters the room, the same bar jokes since centuries, the back-stabbing, the patronizing and insulted attitude as soon as you have to enter a former colonised ( and now savage) country, the resistence to learn any foreign language ( not only chinese) and of course your terrible dress sense. BUT I still see the positive sides, because of course you can list things you don't like about any country. Overall you guys are not too bad ( certain STC's excluded), so please refrain from nonsense like this blog, we can and must do better than this. I know I sound like a preacher, but this just isn't funny anymore.

And, finally, how intelligent is it to decide to move to China without an affinity for this country and their people?

[airdualbleedfault]

Hong Kong is my 2nd favourite place to visit too, wanna know my favourite place ?....... EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD.

STP, with respect which lifestyle is that ? The one where you pay absolutely ridiculous prices to live in a shoebox in one of the most polluted, crowded, expensive ( as an expat ) cities in the world.
In 40 odd years I have never been beaten up, raped or graffitied on ( yes, a bit of luck ), yet in HK I breathed in nothing less than poison 90% of the time for 5 years, I will have to wait and see if that has any long term effects.
I now live at home on acreage, my family and I breathe clean air, and yes we have to be careful when the 4 of us (inc 2 toddlers ) go out night clubbing (joke) but we are happier and healthier than we have ever been in Asia.......ON HALF THE MONEY.

[atpcliff]

As I said...it is my favourite place to visit.

I would NOT want to live there, just because of the air pollution (though we go to PVG a LOT, and the air pollution there is MUCH worse!).

I have never lived as an adult in a large city, so it is fun for me to go to HKG and try something different. I find the prices there, for eating, buying stuff, and tourist stuff, to be lower than most of the rest of the world.

cliff
BAH

[airdualbleedfault]

Cliff, yes some stuff is cheap as HKD is worth nothing except in US where it never changes.
Agreed, if I had just visited HK I would have a totally different perspective, you get absolutely no idea what it's like living in a place from a 1-2 week visit.
Cheers

[spleener]

711:

Well said. :D I remain guilty of more than one of your observations. Ironically though, I found your commentary a breath of fresh air...

[Steve the Pirate]

airdualbleedfault

I now live at home on acreage,

Need I say more? With respect, the question that some need to ask themselves is whether they would be able to afford acreage had it not been for their encounter with Hong Kong and all of its shortcomings.

We all know the pollution is bad but it has been for years. Those who came to Hong Kong within the last 10+ years should have been well aware of that and had they either chosen to bring their families or chosen to start a family in the intervening years then, arguably, they are in no position to criticize the place with respect to pollution. Instead, they should be questioning their own judgement. I simply refuse to believe that people were forced to come to Hong Kong because there were no alternative employment opportunities in their own countries.

Some have been very fortunate in that they have been made wealthy people courtesy of the Hong Kong property market and have been able to return to their home country on a basing, others less so.

As I said in my earlier post, if people really hate Hong Kong then they should sever their connection with the place - simple.

STP

[Oval3Holer]

http://www.jumpingfrog.com/images/epm09dec26/era2151.jpg

[boxjockey]

While I definitely found the blog humorous, and have found myself thinking many of those same things, I was very happy to read 711's post. He or she is absolutely right, and sometimes all we need to do is look back a little in our history to find some of the very things we are so quick to complain about.

box

[airdualbleedfault]

Steve, in my case, financially, my time in Asia was not that fruitful, we, like most other expats spent large amounts of money trying to make the place liveable, including large amounts of money getting out of the place for vacations.
Not saying we made no money but I certainly would have/could have enjoyed the time at home much more for the relatively small profit we left with.
Our property is nothing that anyone in our income bracket, in this country, could not afford, I am saying that had we not gone to asia for 5 years we would still enjoy the same lifestyle now.
As for the pollution, yes you are right, its all there in scary living colour on the internet, but I guess it's human nature to think " how bad can it be " or " I'll see for myself ". We gave the place a good go until our first child arrived and that's when I started really researching how bad the pollution is for us and the kids, after a few months we decided it was just not worth the risk. You could go through your whole life as a smoker and die only of old age, but it's not something I was willing to risk with our children, if they are stupid enough to smoke when they reach legal age then so be it, in the meantime I am responsible for their health.
All the best.

if people really hate Hong Kong then they should sever their connection with the place
Good advice, I took it ;)

[Oval3Holer]

airdualbleedfault,

I admire you for knowing that the health of your children is way more important than the thickness of your wallet and acting accordingly.

Too many CX pilots put the mighty dollar ahead of everything including their children, their spouses and their colleagues.

[Steve the Pirate]

airdualbleedfault

Like Oval, I applaud your decision to move your family away from Hong Kong. Just a query, and it's not intended to be pointed in any way, but are you still with the same employer (or wholly owned subsidiary thereof) that you were when you were in Hong Kong or have you "moved on"?

STP

[Adam Nams]

"Here is the news at 7.30 with Heiling Chan. If you don't like it here, then you do not have to stay. Leave.... now... go on...Go! Tomorrow's pollution index will be very high... thank you. Goodnight"


Quote:if people really hate Hong Kong then they should sever their connection with the place

Good advice, I took it http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/wink2.gif

I only wish that the rest of those who whinge and moan would do the same... :rolleyes:
Either that or get off their backsides and do something about it.

[airdualbleedfault]

Steve, I moved on, let's just say that HK and the pollution were not the only things giving me the 5hits ;)

[Steve the Pirate]

airdualbleedfault

Well done. Enjoy the acreage.

STP

[raven11]

STP
I totally agree with your points. Well said. Yes Canada is a beautiful Country, but try stating an opinion that is anything contrary to the "occupy"movement and the politically correct culture will quickly choke you 10 times faster than the pollution in HKG.

And if you are really concerned about your kids.....why would you put them into a public education system run by bat-****e crazy left-wing teachers, who are more concerned about their working conditions, and inculcating your kids with a perverted view of history regarding the evils of the west, than they are about educating them.

I like HKG....but having said that, my current salary and conditions are what keep me here. Could I live here on the current salary package being offered? Not a chance.