Sunday 2 October 2011

British Born Chinese Discrimination

British Born Chinese Discrimination 

Differences in Hong Kong Chinese treatment of Mixed Race Chinese vs BBC’s

By BBCZeitgeist in Asia.

Whenever I visit Hong Kong, my first thought is... how long will I have to wait until someone insults me? I don’t remember one single trip I’ve made to Hong Kong where I haven’t been insulted, I didn’t have to wait long, the first person I spoke to was a taxi driver, low and behold, he commented on my Cantonese sub-dialect –
 “What are you saying? Where the hell have you come out from? No one in Hong Kong speaks that dialect any more.”
Minority dialects and sub dialects such as Hakka etc are becoming extinct to Cantonese, but ironically for modern Hong Konger’s, Cantonese is under threat to Mandarin as Mainland China becomes a super power, the future of the Cantonese language will depend on the relationship between the owners of capital in Hong Kong and Beijing, though Cantonese Chinese as notorious trend followers are unlikely to go down fighting.

So I speak an ‘out-moded’ dialect do I? Being raised in the west among other rural Hong Kong migrants from the New Territories who also spoke the same minority dialect was normal, many British Chinese did not follow the Hong Kong trends in the Far East. This is one of the ironic things about Hong Kong, in its fast paced quest to be modern...many Hong Kongers no longer recognise its indigenous cultures or languages.

More huge more gasps of astonishment by the taxi driver that I, as a British Born Chinese, was entitled to the government’s 6,000 HKD, he obviously doesn’t believe overseas BBC’s should be entitled to it), these are problems largely faced by BBC’s or FOB’s of my parents generation returning to the homeland, yet Chinese would not dare to openly speak to a white person or a mixed race person that way, but just because BBC are ethnic Chinese, British Born Chinese are open season. FOB Chinese seem to get off on the fact that BBC’s are ethnic Chinese and can understand what they’re saying, so they can insult BBC’s even more.
There is undoubtedly a lot of disrespect and discrimination towards BBC, in my opinion far more so than is directed at ABC, CBC or mixed race.

The other evening, TVB’s low budget chart JSG show featured MC Jin (ABC) and BOY'Z (Steven Cheung is Eurasian) they looked so American they wouldn’t have looked out of place in a red neck wrestling ring. A few days earlier, the early evening TVB entertainment news programme SCOOP reported that one of the American born mixed race Eurasian  male actors Michael Wong AKA Michael Fitzgerald Wong (he speaks Cantonese with the same terrible accent as a white person, his Eurasian brothers Declan Wong and Russell Wong are also actors in Hong Kong) completed his helicopter training and was greeted by a bevy of famous women and models, some white, some mixed race, some ethnic HK Chinese.


Next up on the entertainment show was an interview with Cecilia Cheung (mixed heritage), Linda Chung, a CBC Canadian Chinese cosmos pageant winner) and Kevin Cheng (ABC). So where are the BBC’s? 

 Well, British Born Chinese are nowhere to be seen. One is certain there’s never been a British Born Chinese fictional character represented in TVB dramas, whereas there is usually a splattering of mixed race or North American Chinese characters etc. Nor am I aware of any famous British Born Chinese TVB stars or famous British Born Chinese singers in Hong Kong, nor a British Born Chinese winner of a UK Chinese cosmos pageant – that’s an indicator of the level of discrimination and exclusion faced by BBC’s. Yet the Australian Chinese Cosmos Pageant winner in 2010, was a mixed race Eurasian Polish Chinese Catherine Piotrowski. Similar to most mixed race, she wasn’t raised to be Chinese, however since winning the Chinese pageant, out of pure self-interest to take advantage of the money opportunities in the Far East for their fetish of the exotic Eurasian mixed race looks of the Maria Ozawa variety- she decided to jump on the ethnic bandwagon and ‘turn Chinese’ – by taking lessons in Mandarin.

There is a fundamental difference between mixed race and BBC’s in terms of linguistics. There have been surveys and studies of British Born Chinese in which they were asked why they learned Chinese? The most common reason was to be able to communicate with their parents, grandparents, relatives etc in Chinese. Mixed race however, don’t have such obligations, they were raised by a white parent to speak English, mixed race usually cannot speak Chinese or if they learn Chinese Mandarin, it’s usually for financial or career gain. Why don’t mixed race learn Hakka instead of mandarin? For the same reason why do White people always learn mandarin and not any other Chinese dialect? There is no financial gain nor career gain nor personal gain from learning languages such as Hakka.  

It’s a tripartite network of Whites, FOB’s and mixed race Eurasian's based on high social class and privilege, as such Mixed race Eurasian’s in particular rarely encounter racism or discrimination these days, there is a book for sale on the Guardian newspaper website called on Eurasian’s in Hong Kong titled 'The Eurasian Face' by Kirsteen Zimmern, it contains many interviews and profiles of Eurasians, many state they lived in Hong Kong for over 20 years, they can’t speak Chinese and have ‘NEVER encountered any racism.’ 

So where does this leave BBC’s? Well, the following day, I caught up with another British Born Chinese for lunch in Hong Kong, he informed me that he had applied for several jobs in Hong Kong, he was rejected because he couldn’t read and write Chinese characters, being able to speak Chinese simply isn’t sufficient, he’s competing with literate Hong Kong Chinese natives for the same job, it’s extremely unlikely most BBC’s will be able to read and write Chinese to the same standard as a native. Consequently, BBC’s are treated rather like white foreigners in that they’re usually forced to teach English to Chinese schoolchildren, however BBC’s are ethnic Chinese, therefore BBC’s don’t carry ‘white privilege,’ teaching English is a job reserved for White people so BBC’s are intentionally refused English teaching positions in Hong Kong schools for policy reasons. 

Welcome to Hong Kong...the land of no opportunity for BBC’s.

49 comments:

  1. Self hate and white worship. I can't decide which is worse. Can u?

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  2. Although I'm crap at speaking both, I prefer the sound of Hakka compared with Cantonese. Maybe it reminds me of my Gran...

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  3. Actually Hakka is a main branch of Chinese languages(Wikipedia, 2011), and it have many different types/dialects. Also I think many countries would rather have a Caucasian/European teaching English as it would seem more 'authentic', however I wonder how fluent they are in their host country's language to properly teach English?

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  4. All of you, you ALL bring it on yourselves. Its part of Being British and Chinese, double conservatism.... for once in your lives stand up for yourselves. It only takes a few people to stand up to change this culture.

    My dad gets bullied all the time when he goes to HK because he's no longer really a local person. He takes it on the chin because he doesn't want to cause a scene...

    I am not so restrained and will give people a piece of my mind. Only once has it gotten me punched out.

    TVB sucks shit, they always have. But they do have some BBC types:

    Lukien Wang for instance

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ILN6LH7Cs&feature=related

    She puts on a faux American accent.

    But TVB is a popularity contest, outstanding and major achievements that are not considered to be popular to draw a big enough audience are simply not considered. Americans and Canadians form a much bigger population than us so therefore we're ignored.

    Take for example Jeb Corliss, first wingsuiter in China.... except he isn't the first wing suiter the first wing suit was a Norweigen guy off the IFC.... but he wasn't popular enough to score viewing points. But an American, Jeb Corliss yeah he's famous enough... lets publicise him...

    Meh I'm just ranting now.

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  5. Canada's Chinese population is 1.3million, UK Chinese population is about 500,000, sure its twice the size, but still not monstrously huge, we are talking about proportional representation of which British Chinese, in particular BBC are nowhere be seen in Hong Kong media compared to Canadian Chinese etc.

    The level of bullying your father encounters in Hong Kong I would imagine is only slight, many of Chinese from new territories migrated, you have almost entire villages that have a member of their household that migrated, this is nothing new. In fact, another fact I read was that 30% of Hong Kong residents hold foreign passports.

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  6. Its improper to say British Born Chinese BBC bring it on themselves, after all people don't decide where they are born, the decision was made for them by their FOB parents.

    Anyway, on an another note, Ken are you the same person who runs the ask a Chinese guy blog?

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  7. ah, who punched you out? and why?

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  8. never heard of lukien wang, what is she? a model or what?

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  9. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15164970

    Recent research suggested that mixed race people are "over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions".

    Despite the false crys of racism and discrimination by mixed race Eurasians such as Daniel York and Paul Hyu - who are just playing the race card for their own PR, the reality is that mixed race don't encounter much racism at all, therefore mixed race shouldn't be falsely claiming to be victims of racism/discrimination nor should they be fighting for the real repressed minorities such as the British ethnic Chinese.

    As the BBC article says..."mixed race is mainstream," there are twice as many mixed race in the UK than ethnic Chinese.

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  10. what do the successful bbc's do in hong kong career wise?

    if you dont watch tvb, then there is nothing else that is regular chinese entertainment for you to watch. what do you watch regularly that is 'chinese,' nothing right?

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    1. One of the most successful BBCs to be in Hong Kong (and now in Beijing) is James Chau. http://james-chau.com/about/index.html James is a shining example to all us Brits. he was born and educated in the UK (Cambridge), is British. Yes there is discrimination in HKG, but James Chau should be seen as a positive example of the work he has done for the BBC community.

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    2. FYI: James Chau is rumoured to be Gay (not confirmed). He lives in Beijing and reports for CCTV9. He is a British Born Chinese (educated at Cambridge).

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  11. Naw...

    I do know the guy though. We've had a few skydives together when we met through Henry Chow as Henry is one of the coaches based in the UK.

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  12. Firstly like the article, err there is a missing point and that is social class, money speaks in HK more so than in UK, if you are of that class then you are part of that "club", a few of my cousins work in top corporate finance company its the play hard (yacht parties, Macau stag nights etc), work hard work (late hours and saturdays)ethic there.

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  14. Ken, You should take over his blog, I heard he's quitting his blog.

    MIngrev, haha, actually, I did not speak Hakka to him, but a sub-dialect of canto which is very similar. hakka was just an another example to illustrate a point.

    And no no, speaking English is most definitely not tolerated in HK, even if you they understand English, they flatly refuse to speak English, maybe because I'm ethnic Chinese and Chinese must speak Chinese to Chinese or maybe its confidence issue, HKChinese are not used to using spoken English unless they have no choice in the matter.

    Unfortunately this was a green taxi driver, maybe some of the red ones can grasp some basic pidgin terms in English as they serve the Hong Kong island area where there are more tourists, but not the green ones.

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  16. I did not start a conversation with him, he was asking me questions during the journey so I replied to him, when he heard the way i speak - he reacted.

    I'm paying him money to drive me from A to B, nothing else, as customer I deserve to be treated with respect.

    By the same token If I take elders to the doctors I'm paying the doctor for professional services to be treated for a medical condiiton not to be questioned as to whether I deserve the 6000HKD or not etc etc

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  18. That's hilarious, so if a permanent resident of Hong Kong that pays taxes to the Hong kong government doesnt deserve the payment, then tell me who does deserve it!?!? You won't find anyone who qualifies.

    oh dont tell me the person who deserves it is ming rev - the British Malaysian that has no ties to HK except a tourist trip there and thinks he's an insider! haha.

    Seriously, if you're going to troll from the perspective of a pro-FOB Hong konger, at least you should actually be one, not some fake wannabe propagandist.

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  20. mixed eurasian michael wong had no acting experience prior to making it in hong kong, and the only reason he madeit in hong kong is because of his eurasian looks, if he was a BBC and spoke limited bad cantonese as he does, he would not even make it through the audition door.

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  21. Not much add to this topic, except to say,Since getting back from travelling i can say id much rather have Cantonese than Mandarin as the major Chinese language. Cantonese is more expressive and mandarin is bland sounding. But you have to admit, HK'ers have had their fair share of the spotlight. We just have to see where the future lies regarding cultural influence, etc. Re white worship in HK id say theres a paradoxical relationship of being colonised by the brits and getting all the advantages - health service, laws, that china lacks but at the same time hating England due to colonial history. But on the whole id say HKers are more white worshippers than China because if you think about it, despite Cantonese being an older language, HK didnt have its real history/significant cultural development until it became a British Colony. Also regarding Sun Yat Sen, he wanted to bring westernisation to China because the qings refused to change - and now, look at Guangzhou - its doing pretty well for itself with its westernisation/modernisation and hiring Chinese from outside to do the cheaper labour. In that respect, SYS ideals were acheived. If anyone disagrees with me, fire away. Im all ears

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    1. cantonese is more expressive for stronger emotions like frustration and anger but its not as effective as mandarin for communicating concepts thru logic and reasoning. cantonese is not as well developed and well regulated as mandarin. cantonese is actually a more backward or less evolved (or politically more correct or culturally more sensitive way of saying is "more conservative") langauge than mandarin due to warm weather in the south and segregation from the rest of china by mountains. cantonese sounds less pleasant to ears than mandarin. language is a communication tool. the aesthetic appeal of a tool is like the light house to guide the tool's development to become more user-friendly and more efficient. the aesthetic appeal of a language is its pleasantness to ears. cantonese is the least liked chinese dialect in china and its background accent is often mocked mean-spiritedly by non-cantonese chinese.

      throughout history, cantonese and its speakers have always been viewed as less civilized by other chinese. the economic success of hk might have given a bit twist of fate for cantonese but its destined to be delutional and short-lived as the south has always been the recieving end of cultural influences from the north. the economic success of hk has little to do with the cantonese language. hk benefited a lot from the political misfortune and ideology failure in the mainland in the last century. the take off happened in 1960s after the influx of immigrants from china in the 1940-50s(war and power change). most of the affluent immigrants were not of cantonese origin. they brought along with them capital, connections and business and techno know-how. the tension between mainland and taiwan and the mainland's close-door policy helped business in hk boom like nothing before. business just poured in uninvited. it was easy money. hk hardly needed to compete. a very different picture now. the only advantage left for hk is its international exposure and the rule of law instilled by the british. in terms of human resources, the best brains of chinese are still in the changjiang river delta (the shanghai area) and the yellow river delta (from beijing to shandong area). pearl river delta only started to project influence on the chinese course of civilization after the british took hk and the influence is based on western culture rather than anything of cantonese origin.

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    2. one more thing, i think china might have been in a better course the last 100yrs without the revolutions led by Sun Yat San. i think he is a dishonourable man and an empty talker.

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    3. Did a Southern Chinese rape you as a child? If so, my condolences. Just try not to project your insecurities here, where we have pro-unified ethnic Chinese political and cultural interests.

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  22. Classic cheesy grin pic of michael wong btw.

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  23. I would say that most would be lawyers or property investors no? btw, check this crap out. This is an Ah Cha! who thinks that Cantonese people in Hong Kong are racist...WTF?!. Why does the British media allow such crap to be published? Racism is most in the UK, and then they make a FOB write an article about racism in HKG...something not right here:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/navjot-singh/hong-kong-racism_b_2346577.html

    I suppose he is an indian/pakistani by his name...most probably a FOB. Does anyone else have anything for this or similar stories?

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  24. Ya'll, this blog is about ABCs and BBCs suffering racism...not anyone else. Please don't mention things like this on this blog. That man (Navjot Singh) is not Chinese, he is a British Born Indian. We see his articles in China and Hong Kong most of the time. BUT, with all due respect to the man, I personally have to disagree with people like him because 1. he does not represent Chinese people, nor does he have anything to do with China except being a writer. and 2. his article points to HIS experience of racism from Chinese people. This blog article is about BBC's suffering racism from HKG people. It's two different points. I am an American Born Chinese and I believe that Cantonese people in HKG can be racist towards ABCs (and maybe BBCs as well). That is what this blog and debate is about.

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  25. Agree, this man (Navjot Singh) is not a representative of the Chinese community. FOB or not, I wouldn't give his article any second thoughts if I were u.

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  26. He also unwittingly illustrates how the Chinese are racist towards themselves - in their OWN countries - this is from his follow up comment:

    ".....where it is very difficult to get a job if your name is not Cantonese or English sounding. "

    So basically, the Chinese in Chinese countries favour whites for jobs. Self hating complex. White warship. Call it what you will, it is racism - to ourselves.

    Do the Indians and other south asians do this to their own people???

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  27. *white worship

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  28. Well know we know how to respond to Indians when we see them then. Plenty of racial stereotypes, accents to use against them. Everyone of those racial insults his piece of shit used against us, there are more insulting ones to them.

    Of course it takes two to tango - and as I have mentioned in previous posts here, the lack of resistance by our race in response to racism - perceived or otherwise - is pathetic. David and Vicky easily could have refused to play ball, but instead did the ago old oriental thing of "laughing with them" even though everyone else was laughing AT them

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  29. OMG...surely this is unacceptable, no?. I just saw this and its highly uncomfortable to watch. This is hardly a comedy club..its racism. Imagine what David and Vicky are going through. Of course, if Russell Peters was a white bloke, I am sure there would be mass complaints or even boos in the audience. This man is insulting Chinese people, and even more shocking that people are laughing (even AT David and Vicky)....

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  30. How about this for a lovely bit of ironic reverse racism towards her own race by ABC towards FOBs in China.

    American Chinese designer vera wang (who is an ABC) is milking the PRC brides charging them 3000YUAN £318 pounds to try on her designer wedding dress in China, only her stores in China are charging Chinese this rate.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2296930/Vera-Wang-race-row-Brides-designers-Chinese-store-charged-300-just-TRY-ON-wedding-dresses.html

    I suppose it could be argued since they discriminate against us overseas born Chinese, we might as well prey on their naivety and take them to the cleaners. Isn't that lovely?

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    1. No. Further divisions between subsets of our race. Whites seeing infighting amongst others, hurting ourselves whilst they take advantage of it. They did it with the Muslims (Sunni and Shi ite) recently.

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  31. I have had a look at this thread carefully. The issue is that British Born Chinese DO suffer racism in Hong Kong by the local Cantonese people, AND the white folks too (expats). But I think it's the general set up of the city, no? I mean, let's put this clown Russell Peters aside and focus on the real issues that Hong Kong is suffering. Divorce rates are high as well among Cantonese couples..BUT there are plenty of gold diggers in Hong Kong, so the local women are choosey on who they date...a few things that Navjot Singh did not mention in his article because he is not Cantonese, and I am surprised that a Chinese people never wrote an article about this subject. I wonder how Indians would feel if WE started taking the mickey out of THEIR accents, and names. Russell Peters? Gimmee a break...its like Mr. Patels cornershop man, and Mr. Singh angelising their names to become white.

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  32. Rubbish!! Cantonese are racist people. Full Stop!! Have you read the news today??!:

    Hong Kong's top court has ruled that domestic workers are not eligible to apply for permanent residency, ending a two-year battle that has split opinion.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21920811

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  33. Hmmm...after 1997 1 yr contracts for most normal jobs in HKG too if non profit making, shows the kind of competition for space here

    Maids need family sponsorship, as they work for families, Mainland Chinese also now cannot give birth in HK because there are way too many women wanting a better life outside of China, that's the kind of troubles that plagues Cantonese people

    They say it’s a man's world here, but I can't see much good in it to be honest

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  34. It is exploitative, its one thing to be a spectator but another as a victim of society's ills, this is where the Western countries play a pivotal role in its change. It may come across as unfair...but try to understand it from another side.

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  35. So all foreigners who work as maids in homes should be given permanent citizenship after a couple of years? Ridiculous. FYI, I take the same stance in Britain.... so many illegals and economic migrants who have worked or stayed here for a few years, and then given citizenship or permanent leave to remain... it is plain stupid.

    As an economic migrant you work the terms of your contract. It applies equally to white expats in Dubai, most of them come back after earning big tax free bucks there.

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  36. additionally.... the argument has always been that britain is a tiny island, we're full... well what about hong kong? practically a dot on the world map.... they're smaller still, and unlike britain there are no vast areas of empty land, the place is filled with skyscrapers and overcrowded flats. Tbh I have no idea why foreigners want to STAY there, its not like asylum seekers escaping war torn countries to live in a little bedsit.... it's moving from one overcrowded country to another overcrowded country with a slightly better economy.

    Furthermore, why do Hongkongers need maids anyway? I lived there for a while, saw them everywhere but even with a stay at home mother they employed servants, it's stupid. Do your own cleaning, its not hard.

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  37. Yo mofos, y'all suck big time. Y're mamma so dumb she cud not see between my big nose...innit rudeeboyyyyyyyy? Ragga muffin styleeeeeee.....I was in Hong Kong and singing the ragga muffin song from Brixton styleee...me lanky this, me lanky that...yo yo yo yo yo...'Mu-sha-kay booooooooooooooo....dum dum dum dum dum dum....oh boooyaaaa...mu-sha-kay mu-sha-kay...mu-sha-kay booooooooo!!!!!!!'

    Whatcha gonna do...whatcha gonna do when y're mamma breaks down....mamma breaks down....rudeboyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

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  38. HONG KONG, the world's most racist country....check it out:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325502/Map-shows-worlds-racist-countries-answers-surprise-you.html

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  39. No, this is not true. If you believe this, then you believe anything. Thank you

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  40. Is this some kind of joke of an article? None of this makes sense...just like that article in the Daily Mail (that HKG is a racist country) and the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/navjot-singh/hong-kong-racism_b_2346577.html)....if you believe these people then you believe anything. These people are journalists, their job is to get people's attention and MAKE money for a living. That's it...and they will write any kind of rubbish to get people's attention. And further more, least you guys forget that if you believe what a non-Chinese writes about racism in China the you are seriously out of touch with reality (sorry but that's the truth)...and Navjot Singh?! come on...please...*sigh* If that article was written by a Chinese then I would understand.

    and finally one of the reasons why this website is not getting any new articles is because there have been a lot of complaints to Google about this website and its content...go and figure rest yourself...

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  41. Singh, that's an Indian surname....he comes across as more like an Indian man pretending to be white man....same old story...no different from anything else...I heard him speak last year on the Anna Chen radio show...he sounded like an ass-licker of the Chinese people. Keep trying son...keep trying.

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  42. And what has the author PERSONALLY done to deserve the $ HK 6,000 from Hong Kong, exactly? How much personal income tax has he ever paid back in back into Hong Kong, exactly? At least the people of Hong Kong know how to and dare to put foreigners like him who are stepping out of the line back to his rightful place!

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  43. I meant you can't, not you can.

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