Hong Kong
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Hong Kong
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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)
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)
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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
Note: I have not been to Scandinavia...think I would like that more.
cliff
BAH
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?
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?
Join Date: Oct 2004
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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
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
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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?"
ROIT!, they would all yell as they came at you! Then, if they fired at you they would say, "Happy with that?"
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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.
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.
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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
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
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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.
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Xenophobic
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!
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!
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!
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!
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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?
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?
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.
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.
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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
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