On September 07 2012 01:59 Endymion wrote: i know that people in HK think it's stupid that China wants to exert their influence over HK, but it's their land legally isn't it? as much as it sucks i don't think the west is going to go to war over it, since 1. it's china's right to do so, 2. the china is an integral part of the world's economy and 3. it's only HK, it's not like china is invading SK (they're not even invading HK, they just wanna change the education.. they're not changing economic policies yet as far as i can see)
What does the size matter?
This is just so disgusting. These people are going to lose the freedoms that they care about, and they should just shut up and deal with it because they are only a small part?
What ever happened to individual freedom? Why exactly is their right to freedom any less crucial because they are a smaller group?
The people of HK don't want this, so by what right is the government rolling in and dictating that they have to hand over their rights?
You can't speak your mind because the rest of us has decided it isn't oke? Fuck that. One man has every right to fight the other 6 billion if they come for his freedom. The people of HK shouldn't take this, just because the majority of wolves has decided to eat the sheep.
do you want someone to fight a war??? everyone criticizes the US, Canada, and the EU for exerting influence on other cultures but as soon as the west has a contractual obligation to not intervene (HK is chinese territory by definition..) everyones feathers get roused.. 1. yes size matters, however HK is a huge economic asset so it would be worth keeping free, but 2. China isn't doing anything wrong, they control HK.. it's none of the West's business to intervene and fight China over HK, which is why the British Empire didn't do it 15 years ago
btw your individual rights are decided by the government that prevails in your region, they're not inherently given to you by being born.
Currently, China legally has no control over HK whatsoever until 2047 - Hong Kong is legally and politically an SAR, meaning that it has it's own political and legal system, entirely seperate from China's. The problem is that China isn't supposed to control HK but they do, through political and social manipulation. This new civics class that's clearly going to gloss over important historical facts, such as the vast negative consequences (not to say there weren't positives, however few) of Mao's leadership and more recent events, spanning from Tiananmen Square to the recent Uyghur massacre in the north, coupled with the government's inaction towards such change is clearly a sign that we are in fact losing our sovereignty, even though we're supposed to still be entitled to it.
Whether or not individual rights are decided by the person or by one's national government is more of a philosophical issue than a socio-political one, but surely we can both agree that freedom should be a given human right? Governments can decide what rights are 'given' to us, but that doesn't make it morally legitimate, nor does it make it something we should just suck up and accept.
Well this is how I see it. I've been in Canada since I was 3 months old. More precisely, I've been living in Quebec and my winter semester has been delayed and is scheduled to end at the end of September, while my fall semester is due to start in October. On the other hand, I am also a Hong Kong resident and I go back to HK often enough (I'm born in HK, I have the right to work there, use medicare system, vote, etc.).
The two protests are very different one from another. The (now cancelled) Quebec tuition hike would have brought very little change to social well being, general levels of education, Que.'s economic standing, etc. Even with the tuition hikes, there would still have been more people applying to universities than there are spots in universities. One of the party leaders, Francois Legault, said that if Quebec students worked as hard as Asians did, they would whine less about the hike, work harder, and get better jobs. Personally, I don't think that his claim is without truth, but I shall not argue about that. Point is, the tuition hike would have done nothing to decrease the well being of Quebec residents.
HK's protesting students, on the other hand, are trying to defend their very identity as Hong Kongnese. If anyone knows anything about China at all, they should also know that "national studies" has nothing to do with "objectively true" Chinese history and accomplishments. Chinese history according to the Chinese is full of propaganda and blown out of proportion acts of altruism/heroism/godliness/etc. Thus, what HK students are really trying to do is to prevent assimilation. HK is an awesome place. I consider it to be my home. We have a very unique culture (being Chinese and having being influenced by the west through the British Empire), we have a great economy, we have a very unique history. We do not want to be assimilated and become like the rest of China. We do not want to lose our heritage. This is why the HK protest is, for a lack of a better word, "better and more valid".
Unfortunately, China is very unlikely to react to HK ppl protesting. Unless HK students manage to draw significant international attention that is... Also to note (although I am really not certain of this): HK students will protest, but are unlikely to boycott their classes (i.e. unlikely to be a strike like here in Quebec. I do hope I'm wrong though)
Governments can decide what rights are 'given' to us, but that doesn't make it morally legitimate, nor does it make it something we should just suck up and accept.
Exactly. I mean the CCP could just force their way to do things, and there's probably going to be very little action taken to punish them for betraying their word. However every action they make, whether they can or cannot will affect people's perception of them. Doing this is certainly negative to everyone that cares about HK, whether local or foreign. I just hope the negativity is enough to convince the party otherwise. And the party does care about how people view them. They've changed themselves to accomodate the changing opinions of the people and the foreign world, and strayed further and further from Mao's ideal of a socialist communist nation. They just happen to have a very high tolerance for haters and a high social inertia that makes things very hard to adapt to what a minority group wants. Which is sad, since everyone is a minority. If there was a majority, it's the people who don't give a shit about anything other than what's directly in front of them..
I'd feel a city-wide protest is the best thing they can do. At least they are allowed peaceful protesting to some degree, unlike the rest of China.
Among this thread, posts from HaFnium and InvXXVII gives the best insight of what is actually happening; The main reason why the people in Hong Kong are upset.
It's like in Japan, they don't teach their students about Nan Jing Massacre, and some context regarding world war 2 has been altered. The Chinese don't like that either.
On September 07 2012 02:56 InvXXVII wrote: Well this is how I see it. I've been in Canada since I was 3 months old. More precisely, I've been living in Quebec and my winter semester has been delayed and is scheduled to end at the end of September, while my fall semester is due to start in October. On the other hand, I am also a Hong Kong resident and I go back to HK often enough (I'm born in HK, I have the right to work there, use medicare system, vote, etc.).
The two protests are very different one from another. The (now cancelled) Quebec tuition hike would have brought very little change to social well being, general levels of education, Que.'s economic standing, etc. Even with the tuition hikes, there would still have been more people applying to universities than there are spots in universities. One of the party leaders, Francois Legault, said that if Quebec students worked as hard as Asians did, they would whine less about the hike, work harder, and get better jobs. Personally, I don't think that his claim is without truth, but I shall not argue about that. Point is, the tuition hike would have done nothing to decrease the well being of Quebec residents.
HK's protesting students, on the other hand, are trying to defend their very identity as Hong Kongnese. If anyone knows anything about China at all, they should also know that "national studies" has nothing to do with "objectively true" Chinese history and accomplishments. Chinese history according to the Chinese is full of propaganda and blown out of proportion acts of altruism/heroism/godliness/etc. Thus, what HK students are really trying to do is to prevent assimilation. HK is an awesome place. I consider it to be my home. We have a very unique culture (being Chinese and having being influenced by the west through the British Empire), we have a great economy, we have a very unique history. We do not want to be assimilated and become like the rest of China. We do not want to lose our heritage. This is why the HK protest is, for a lack of a better word, "better and more valid".
Unfortunately, China is very unlikely to react to HK ppl protesting. Unless HK students manage to draw significant international attention that is...
There are obviously certain posters in this thread that don't understand that. They don't see what you see. They don't feel what you feel. They think Hong Kong is just a glorified city full of these wild, Chinese people that don't hate westerners and speak a different language (what is this, English? How demonic!), and have their own set of strange, weird laws that promote human rights and don't conform with backward PRC values. They don't realize that their intentions for Hong Kong completely undermine the unique identity of the city.
They don't realize that you have your own identity cards. Or that your passport allows VISA-free entry to 150 countries, while China only has access to 50. Or that you drive on the other side of the road like in the UK. Or that there's a freaking border between China and Hong Kong. Or that nothing on the Internet is censored. Or that your public infrastructure such as bridges and trains don't randomly fall apart and explode because they weren't developed properly.
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
The fact that we have these FREEDOMS, despite the People's Communist Republic of China thinking we don't, is already enough of a reason that we don't want these things taken away from us. I know it's hard to understand why we value such things from a mainland Chinese person's perspective, just imagine how much harder it will be to convince the PRC government...
On September 07 2012 03:11 Fishball wrote: Among this thread, posts from HaFnium and InvXXVII gives the best insight of what is actually happening; The main reason why the people in Hong Kong are upset.
It's like in Japan, they don't teach their students about Nan Jing Massacre, and some context regarding world war 2 has been altered. The Chinese don't like that either.
That's another good point.
Like a previous poster in this thread said, he had a friend from China who learned more about factual Chinese history in the United States, things such as the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Imagine if Nazism is completely erased (or omitted) from modern history studies in Germany? Or the word "Stalin" is blocked on Google.ru?
On September 07 2012 02:56 InvXXVII wrote: Well this is how I see it. I've been in Canada since I was 3 months old. More precisely, I've been living in Quebec and my winter semester has been delayed and is scheduled to end at the end of September, while my fall semester is due to start in October. On the other hand, I am also a Hong Kong resident and I go back to HK often enough (I'm born in HK, I have the right to work there, use medicare system, vote, etc.).
The two protests are very different one from another. The (now cancelled) Quebec tuition hike would have brought very little change to social well being, general levels of education, Que.'s economic standing, etc. Even with the tuition hikes, there would still have been more people applying to universities than there are spots in universities. One of the party leaders, Francois Legault, said that if Quebec students worked as hard as Asians did, they would whine less about the hike, work harder, and get better jobs. Personally, I don't think that his claim is without truth, but I shall not argue about that. Point is, the tuition hike would have done nothing to decrease the well being of Quebec residents.
HK's protesting students, on the other hand, are trying to defend their very identity as Hong Kongnese. If anyone knows anything about China at all, they should also know that "national studies" has nothing to do with "objectively true" Chinese history and accomplishments. Chinese history according to the Chinese is full of propaganda and blown out of proportion acts of altruism/heroism/godliness/etc. Thus, what HK students are really trying to do is to prevent assimilation. HK is an awesome place. I consider it to be my home. We have a very unique culture (being Chinese and having being influenced by the west through the British Empire), we have a great economy, we have a very unique history. We do not want to be assimilated and become like the rest of China. We do not want to lose our heritage. This is why the HK protest is, for a lack of a better word, "better and more valid".
Unfortunately, China is very unlikely to react to HK ppl protesting. Unless HK students manage to draw significant international attention that is...
There are obviously certain posters in this thread that don't understand that. They don't see what you see. They don't feel what you feel. They think Hong Kong is just a glorified city full of these wild, Chinese people that don't hate westerners and speak a different language (what is this, English? How demonic!), and have their own set of strange, weird laws that promote human rights and don't conform with backward PRC values. They don't realize that their intentions for Hong Kong completely undermine the unique identity of the city.
They don't realize that you have your own identity cards. Or that your passport allows VISA-free entry to 150 countries, while China only has access to 50. Or that you drive on the other side of the road like in the UK. Or that there's a freaking border between China and Hong Kong. Or that nothing on the Internet is censored. Or that your public infrastructure such as bridges and trains don't randomly fall apart and explode because they weren't developed properly.
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
The fact that we have these FREEDOMS, despite the People's Communist Republic of China thinking we don't, is already enough of a reason that we don't want these things taken away from us. I know it's hard to understand why we value such things from a mainland Chinese person's perspective, just imagine how much harder it will be to convince the PRC government...
I can totally understand you, in Taiwan we are in pretty similar shoes regarding relations to PRC :D
But putting every mainlander into the "barbarian" category is kind of too harsh, I know a few mainlanders and they are totally great people, while you should value the freedom you have there is no need to look down upon mainlanders that much.
If it weren't for MAD, any Chinese aggression against HK would be the perfect opportunity/justification for the US to rip China a new one. We have the "humanitarian / freedom" justification to go to war whether or not that would actually be the politicians' interest, we militarily wreck the greatest threat to our domination in Eastern Asia, and we exponentially further establish ourselves as the world's most powerful nation., and proportionally in world history, WHILE of course freeing Hong Kong. Everyone wins. Nothing's going to stop American imperialism, so I may as well stop condemning it and instead just embrace it as a fact of life .
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
Don't you think "barbaric hordes from China" is too harsh? That's like the typical Westerner's view of China, circa the 1800s.
The problem isn't that they're teaching patriotism. The problem is that they're equating patriotism with loving the Chinese Communist Party. That's bullshit.
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
Don't you think "barbaric hordes from China" is too harsh? That's like the typical Westerner's view of China, circa the 1800s.
China also view Westerners the same way back then so I guess it's even.
His language may be harsh, but really, no one is more racist towards the Chinese than the Chinese themselves. If you to go Shanghai and you don't speak their language, people will look down on you too.
Obviously not very healthy way to look at the world though, usually leaves a lot of place for hypocrisy and decadent elitism when you treat everyone else as "barbarians".
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
Don't you think "barbaric hordes from China" is too harsh? That's like the typical Westerner's view of China, circa the 1800s.
Hong Kong only had a population numbering the hundreds of thousands before British rule. Now it's home to over 6 million people. Most Hong Kongers today are descendants from Guangzhou province. It's also no secret that a lot of Chinese fled from China during World War II to Hong Kong (for the foreigners reading this, think Ip Man).
My grandfather fled to Hong Kong from China (and met my grandmother who's a Hong Kong native), may they rest in peace. It would be very stupid of me to call *ALL* mainland Chinese barbarians.
What I meant by that are the individuals who have recently become wealthy through corruption or abusing their neighbors, conducting shady ass businesses focused on short term success that undermines the social, environmental and economic well-being of their not-so-fortunate countrymen.
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
Don't you think "barbaric hordes from China" is too harsh? That's like the typical Westerner's view of China, circa the 1800s.
China also view Westerners the same way back then so I guess it's even.
His language may be harsh, but really, no one is more racist towards the Chinese than the Chinese themselves. If you to go Shanghai and you don't speak their language, people will look down on you too.
Obviously not very healthy way to look at the world though, usually leaves a lot of place for hypocrisy and decadent elitism when you treat everyone else as "barbarians".
While I do regret using that word (now that I look back, I've stooped to their level), it's no different from what the mainland Chinese call us.
"British dogs" "Paperdoll Chinese" "No identity, no sense of honor"
And those aren't phrases said by just anybody. Those three examples are from CCTV, China's largest TV broadcasting channel.
Peking (Beijing) University professor Kong Qingdong, an 'expert' at... whatever the fuck he does. Did I mention he thinks highly of North Korea? Quote from Wikipedia:
He said that in comparison, North Korea is a "great and impressive country," and that China was 'so far gone' that it was not even worthy of criticism from North Koreans. According to Kong, China should 'bow its shameful head' in front of the North Korean people.
Believe me, people like him come to our border each and everyday, spewing crap like he does in Mandarin, loudly in our faces. They think they're untouchable in Hong Kong, just because Hong Kong people aren't violent barbarians.
May I also add that a LOT of Chinese netizens rose up, criticized and condemned him. I don't consider those individuals the least bit barbaric.
On September 07 2012 03:11 Fishball wrote: Among this thread, posts from HaFnium and InvXXVII gives the best insight of what is actually happening; The main reason why the people in Hong Kong are upset.
It's like in Japan, they don't teach their students about Nan Jing Massacre, and some context regarding world war 2 has been altered. The Chinese don't like that either.
That's another good point.
Like a previous poster in this thread said, he had a friend from China who learned more about factual Chinese history in the United States, things such as the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Imagine if Nazism is completely erased (or omitted) from modern history studies in Germany? Or the word "Stalin" is blocked on Google.ru?
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
Don't you think "barbaric hordes from China" is too harsh? That's like the typical Westerner's view of China, circa the 1800s.
They seem pretty barbaric when it's about Senkaku Islands.
well senkaku or diaoyu islands is another matter altogether imo....I agree though that the current escalating stuff is stupid, but Japan also got to share some of the blame for it.
Also keep in mind that nationalism is one of the pillars on which the support for the CCP rests, they pretty much cannot back down, even if they hypothetically wanted to.
On September 07 2012 02:56 InvXXVII wrote: Well this is how I see it. I've been in Canada since I was 3 months old. More precisely, I've been living in Quebec and my winter semester has been delayed and is scheduled to end at the end of September, while my fall semester is due to start in October. On the other hand, I am also a Hong Kong resident and I go back to HK often enough (I'm born in HK, I have the right to work there, use medicare system, vote, etc.).
The two protests are very different one from another. The (now cancelled) Quebec tuition hike would have brought very little change to social well being, general levels of education, Que.'s economic standing, etc. Even with the tuition hikes, there would still have been more people applying to universities than there are spots in universities. One of the party leaders, Francois Legault, said that if Quebec students worked as hard as Asians did, they would whine less about the hike, work harder, and get better jobs. Personally, I don't think that his claim is without truth, but I shall not argue about that. Point is, the tuition hike would have done nothing to decrease the well being of Quebec residents.
HK's protesting students, on the other hand, are trying to defend their very identity as Hong Kongnese. If anyone knows anything about China at all, they should also know that "national studies" has nothing to do with "objectively true" Chinese history and accomplishments. Chinese history according to the Chinese is full of propaganda and blown out of proportion acts of altruism/heroism/godliness/etc. Thus, what HK students are really trying to do is to prevent assimilation. HK is an awesome place. I consider it to be my home. We have a very unique culture (being Chinese and having being influenced by the west through the British Empire), we have a great economy, we have a very unique history. We do not want to be assimilated and become like the rest of China. We do not want to lose our heritage. This is why the HK protest is, for a lack of a better word, "better and more valid".
Unfortunately, China is very unlikely to react to HK ppl protesting. Unless HK students manage to draw significant international attention that is...
There are obviously certain posters in this thread that don't understand that. They don't see what you see. They don't feel what you feel. They think Hong Kong is just a glorified city full of these wild, Chinese people that don't hate westerners and speak a different language (what is this, English? How demonic!), and have their own set of strange, weird laws that promote human rights and don't conform with backward PRC values. They don't realize that their intentions for Hong Kong completely undermine the unique identity of the city.
They don't realize that you have your own identity cards. Or that your passport allows VISA-free entry to 150 countries, while China only has access to 50. Or that you drive on the other side of the road like in the UK. Or that there's a freaking border between China and Hong Kong. Or that nothing on the Internet is censored. Or that your public infrastructure such as bridges and trains don't randomly fall apart and explode because they weren't developed properly.
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
The fact that we have these FREEDOMS, despite the People's Communist Republic of China thinking we don't, is already enough of a reason that we don't want these things taken away from us. I know it's hard to understand why we value such things from a mainland Chinese person's perspective, just imagine how much harder it will be to convince the PRC government...
Hong Kong is a FREE city, despite the countless barbaric hordes from China trying to enter our border each day. We enjoy our FREEDOM. We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to protest about unwarranted changes to our education system! We enjoy the fact that we are FREE to speak up without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night, or have tanks running wild on our streets.
Don't you think "barbaric hordes from China" is too harsh? That's like the typical Westerner's view of China, circa the 1800s.
Harsh maybe, but definitely not without reason. As Xspace mentioned, being a HK citizen is very VERY beneficial.
On top of being able to be "free" (which is already a big huge deal), you get access to HK's healthcare system, which, in itself, is already a huge boon. Let me give you an example: I went to an emergency room two months ago in HK. Within the span of three hours, I saw the doctor thrice, got a CT scan, got all my meds, and got discharged. And the only thing that cost me that night was the taxi. All this because I'm a citizen. Also, the waiting lists for surgery there is nothing like the Canadian and American waiting lists. Education is also way way way more accessible. YOU'RE ALLOWED TO HAVE MULTIPLE KIDS. There are also many other perks, and benefits I can't remember from the top of my head.
Anyone born in HK is eligible to be a HK citizen (and to get ALL the good stuff). In HK, we call mainlanders "locusts" not only because they are, generally speaking ofc, rude and they come in hordes. Recently, it has been a trend for Chinese mainlanders to come to HK just to give birth. There is currently no law or rule in HK to prevent this from happening. This is also another method of assimilation. It's like spreading creep tumors. AND, if your child is a HK citizen, it is also easier for you to become a citizen. Hence HK people's dislike of mainlanders.
On September 06 2012 19:25 Williammm wrote: I disagree with your position. Name a single piece of history which isn't biased? There is no such thing as objectively sound history, because it is always going to be the interpretation of the person writing it. Secondly, it is hard to avoid other opinions of what happened in China, because information is as free in HK as it is in the rest of the Western world. So your opposition of the scheme being brainwashing doesn't really make too much sense in a place like HK.
Also your prediction that people in HK will just flee China when the time came to completely convert the city into the Chinese system. It already happened prior to the 1997 handover, and what happened was people from the mainland coming down to fill the positions. Economic stability didn't change as Hong Kong is still the Asian centre for financial and accounting activities. You could argue that HK is worse off than it was prior to the handover, but I would point you towards the 1972 and 1988 stock crashes that severely lowered wages and increased unemployment that HK is still trying to recover from.
This is just news turned fox news turned pitchfork witching hunting
The people are great, everyone living in China are amazing individuals, but the Chinese government itself can go fuck itself (and then censor it out!). No offense to the people, plenty of offense to the government.
I beg to differ, I encounter a great many mainlanders who are rude, loud, lacking in social graces, boorish, tasteless, ignorant, and see the need to wear brand name clothing head-to-toe that shove logos in your face. Obviously not all of them are like this, I have a couple of mainland friends they are very decent people (although hardly average - they're more bohemian folks), but there are so many of the former that they tend to eclipse the latter.
Behavior like that is not limited to any particular ethnicity...
Obsession with brands is just a very Asian thing in general. I'm pretty sure Japan wins if we do an LV per capital comparison. lol...
Agreed, esp trophy wives with no job no kids and their husbands spend half their time away on business.
Once met a lady who had an entire apartment unit in Hong Kong as her fucking wardrobe.
On the flip side, these ladies are easy pickings if you have bedroom prowess and quick hands. I know of one particularly enterprising ex-banker who slept his way through a whole bunch of trophy wives while stealing/fencing all their shit. Then he reinvested the proceeds into drugs which he sold back to the wives... on top of filming them naked/drugged up so that when they found out about his habits, they couldn't do jack.
Most awesome i-banker exit opportunity I have ever come across. A pity he got arrested though
It's a pity that the drug dealer who seduced rich women in order to get them hooked on drugs so he could take their money and then blackmail them got arrested?
Because I was trying to meet him to pick up a mental snapshot. He would have made an excellent supporting character for the script I'm trying to write
There are tons of swindling casanovas out everywhere in the world. I don't deny the authenticity of this example, though, as it's not exactly a rare occurrence. Remember that Taiwanese businessman who did the same thing in Taipei? Except he fucked with the wrong woman (the wife of a government official). This isn't unique to Hong Kong, but your point that Hong Kong women are very materialistic can't be denied. But remember, these women are married to rich businessmen who more often than not have second, third, even fourth families scattered all over China, and they don't exactly keep it a secret. Having one or two mistresses is very common when you're working for an international conglomerate or own a business in Hong Kong, and there are millions (or billions, barely) in China making cents for a hard day's work.
It happens both sides, there are tons of attractive mainland Chinese women (and boy are they always dolled/pushed up) entering Hong Kong and seducing lonely men who aren't even rich, but they get married so the woman can have a Hong Kong ID card. It's also much more convenient to conceive a child with that man because the process gets sped up rather than waiting years. It's definitely disheartening, because I bear no ill will against these women, but c'mon. There are better ways of escaping the PRC...
Edit: The post above me elaborates further. It's scary that you don't even live in Hong Kong, yet you know all these things! I'd also like to add that while the word "FREE" healthcare sounds strange, it's free because of taxes. 15% on income, 15% corporate tax, no purchasing tax, ie. VAT (or GST/HST, none of that stuff!), and non-residential property owner tax.
You can see how someone from China would be lured into coming here, to escape the hell that is the Chinese government.
On September 07 2012 03:51 ShiaoPi wrote: well senkaku or diaoyu islands is another matter altogether imo....I agree though that the current escalating stuff is stupid, but Japan also got to share some of the blame for it.
Also keep in mind that nationalism is one of the pillars on which the support for the CCP rests, they pretty much cannot back down, even if they hypothetically wanted to.
The disputes over the sharp corner infuriated the barbarians to destroy their own cop cars ( tax payers' money ) because they were made in another country.
Cooking oil made from sewage... antibiotics made from sewage... bridges collapse after 9months of use...
On September 06 2012 18:18 KwarK wrote: They're in the unfortunate position of having sovereignty in their state essentially handed over to a foreign nation with a totalitarian government. They're fucked. They're right to protest, their history is one of a liberal colonial western system and being told they need to learn to conform with the antithesis of that is horrible.
You say colonial western system like its a good thing. As if colonialism was some gift from the great Brits. You know what? I hope China fucking crushes the protests from these faux fucking Brits. There isn't a country or culture in the world more scummy than the British and if it will take a massive act of oppression to destroy the British influence in a region, its completely worth it.
User was warned for this post
Given that the North-Western Muslim state (now known as Pakistan) only exists thanks to the British Raj, this is a hysterically misinformed post.
"if it will take a massive act of oppression to destroy the British influence in a region, its completely worth it"
Spoken like someone whose female literacy rate runs at 3% outside of cities where people are legally obliged to not act like Neanderthals.
P.S. The above are irrefutable facts, please check. If you wish to ban me for stating them, you may wish to consider a job in Homeland Security.
I don't doubt for an instance that British rule overseas resulted in oppression. But this isn't something unique to the British, it happens when any civilised culture encounter a group of people who lack a similar logistical backbone.
EPT
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