Is Hong Kong racist? The subject is at the centre of a debate that’s raging in the city, with expatriates, both black and white, claiming that the Chinese are — not to put too fine a point about it — racist to the core.
HONG KONG: Is Hong Kong racist? The subject is at the centre of a debate that’s raging in the city, with expatriates, both black and white, claiming that the Chinese are — not to put too fine a point about it — racist to the core.
The debate was kicked off in early April by a Kundi Gore, a “black African residing in Hong Kong”, who in a letter to the editor of the South China Morning Post, shared details of “racial discrimination (that) black Africans have to endure in their encounters with institutions and ordinary folk” in Hong Kong.
Gore claimed that black Africans encounter racism right from the time they arrive, when they are “singled out for inspection” at the Customs checkpoint. Further, he claimed, “it suffices for a black person to show up at nightclubs… to discover the extent of racial prejudice.” Black entrants, he claimed, “are required to pay arbitrary and exorbitant admission fees that do not apply to other entrants.”
The message of that letter evidently resonated with a few other readers. Paul Kotto, another black African, wrote in to concur with Gore’s views, and said that the colour biases manifest in Hong Kong were a “peculiarly Chinese extension of the ‘black is evil’ metaphor...”
Curiously, Gore’s letter drew another response — this time from the other end of the racial spectrum, from Roger Shuttleworth, a “white European living in Hong Kong.” Invoking the term gweilo (a Chinese racial slur directed at Caucasian men, which means, “white devil”), Shuttleworth said he sympathised with Gore for the treatment he had to endure but said he wasn’t alone.
Shuttleworth’s characterisation of the Chinese as racists drew a gentle rebuke from Dan Waters, a fellow white European who “has happily lived here for over half a century”. Waters noted that in this period, similar letters had appeared off and on in the newspaper, but said that it was the Europeans who were to blame for their inability to be sociable.
Waters advised fellow-whites to make a greater effort at cultural assimilation. “First, learn Cantonese and, second and most importantly, you must smile. Go on, give it a whirl,” he exhorted. “You’ll find it works.”
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