Hong Kong is Racist. Let’s Acknowledge it Now.
In the early hours of 23 January 2021, the Hong Kong Government imposed its first ever lockdown on Jordan — one of the city’s most impoverished, densely populated neighbourhoods. This move, while unprecedented, was in fact one that many saw coming. News reports in previous weeks already alluded to Jordan being an area with abnormally high infection rates.
It is worth noting that the area under lockdown is home to many residents of Nepalese descent. In fact, one third of the city’s Nepalese population live in Jordan and nearby urban sprawls south of Waterloo Road.
Earlier in the month, Raymond Ho Lei-ming, a senior official of the city’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP), insinuated that Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities were at a higher risk of spreading the virus, citing their ‘social behaviours, living conditions, and workplace hygiene’ as factors ‘that will make [them] more vulnerable to catching this virus’.
While Ho’s remarks were met with substantial criticism — particularly from the city’s more progressive, liberal citizenry — some in the city’s South Asian community reported a rise in discrimination and racist incidents. Indeed, anti-racism watchdogs reported that some customers on Deliveroo and Foodpanda requested that their orders not be couriered by drivers of South Asian descent.
Such aforementioned examples of discrimination are, unfortunately, nothing new. Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities have long been scapegoated and blamed for the city’s sociopolitical difficulties. When convenient, they are tokenised to fit easy social narratives — for example, pictures of South Asians in Hong Kong’s 2019 protests were widely lauded as exemplary of Hong Kong’s ‘multicultural identity’. When the hype dies down, however, the stereotyping reignites, while such examples of supposedly ‘positive’ stereotyping serves as a comfortable answer to those questioning the status quo.
COVID-19 is only the most recent issue that has once again betrayed the subtle, yet invidious racism deeply entrenched in the city’s culture.
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In a recent taxi ride, I struck up a conversation with the very friendly driver, who told me about his visit to the US before the pandemic. Citing the widespread protests and the storming of the Capitol Building in Washington DC, the driver declared his pride in being a Hongkonger, claiming that ‘we don’t have the same sociopolitical issues that those Americans have’, and that ‘nobody in Hong Kong gets shot because of their race’.
And today, while visiting my good friend’s Korean restaurant, I overheard a conversation between two teenage girls sitting near me. Chuckling behind their fibreglass virus barriers, one of them recounted her seeing an ‘Indian-looking guy’ on the train, then subsequently switching carriages to ‘avoid catching the virus’. When I glared at her, the girl’s expression in reaction to my incredulousness was one of confusion, unawareness, and bewilderment.
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I have many, perhaps a couple dozen more anecdotes like this to share — overheard on the street, in school, and even uttered by my own extended family members. But I chose those examples precisely because they illustrate two co-mediating layers of Hong Kong’s unique brand of racism.
1- There is a widespread misconception that racism is only racism if it is ‘in your face’. When society’s definition of ‘racism’ is inherently outward (expressed verbally and physically), then why would inward racism, (views left unexpressed, or long-held stereotypes and assumptions), be considered a problem at all? As illustrated by the taxi driver, there is a pervasive lack of acknowledgment of Hong Kong’s potential to be racist. Yes, people aren’t murdered here for the colour of their skin, but surely that should not be the standard we set for ourselves in the first place?
And given that a blind eye is turned to this social phenomenon, then it’s unsurprising that:
2- There is no public discourse and dialogue to combat inward, discriminatory views. As illustrated by my fellow diner today, her failure to categorise her words as discriminatory reflects poorly on our city’s education system, our city’s social media spaces, and our city’s culture — all of which fail to concede that there is an elusive, seemingly unapparent, yet deeply harmful gap for such significant, consequential conversations to fill.
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Hong Kong has long been biased against its South Asian and Southeast Asian citizens. As uncomfortable as this is to talk about, there is a glaring double standard when this mistreatment is compared with how the city views its local Chinese and White population.
When the local Chinese population ignored COVID restrictions and insisted on going to hotpot dinners, where was the outrage? When the local Chinese population hosted dance parties and singlehandedly started an entirely new fourth wave of cases, where was the discrimination? When the city’s expats vehemently rejected wearing masks until several months into the pandemic, and partied late into the night in Lan Kwai Fong and Knutsford Terrace, where was the profiling and vitriol? And when the vast, vast majority of COVID patients are of non-South Asian and non-Southeast Asian descent, where is the self reflection?
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Today’s lockdown was not the first event in recent months that catapulted Jordan to infamy. In November 2020, a fire broke out in a tenement building just one block outside of the current lockdown zone, killing seven and injuring thirteen. All victims of the fire were of South Asian descent. Movingly, tributes did come in when the news broke, and a fleeting feeling of solidarity ensued. But within a day, news reports already moved on. If the victims of the fire were local Chinese, I do wonder how the narrative would be different. I wonder how many more tributes would have been written.
The victims of the fire are Hongkongers. The Nepalese and South Asians who are currently forced into a lockdown (through no fault of their own), are Hongkongers. Southeast Asian migrant workers are Hongkongers. Hell, some of them have been in Hong Kong for longer than I have. And since they are one of us, we should do nothing else than to stand with them in times of crises. Namely now.
After countless reminders, COVID-19 has once again revealed to us the hatefulness our city is capable of. Let’s finally acknowledge this problem, and finally live up to our brand of ‘Asia’s World City’.
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