Thread by @TheDailyMao

1/ Holy crap, this article by @thespandrell explains the HK situation so well

TLDR: HKers cannot reconcile their self-perceived higher status vs China, and the reality of their falling quality of life vs mainland Chinese.

Let me tell you some stories

spandrell.com/2019/08/25/hon…

2/ Once, at a reception, caught a bunch of HK girls gossiping about a mainland girl's lack of taste. "She's wearing so much Gucci. Doesn't she know that people who have been properly raised, wear Marni for casual and Valentino or Chloe for things like this?"

3/ Had a HK banker unironically tell me that "people like us are just working class, man" as he blew tens of thousands of HKD at a club.

4/ Another told me (while referring to her maid) that "HK really brings the best people from everywhere around Asia"

5/ Same girl: "I really don't understand why Chinese women have such a tendency to become second wives. 好low喔"

Another girl at the table: "Yes. All they know how to do is steal [men]."

6/ Heard innumerable times: "It's a mainland company, what do you expect, of course they're going to cook the books"

7/ Also, if you speak Mandarin at any sort of service staff, you get the rudest treatment possible. Was always amusing to bust out pitch perfect English on them afterwards and watch them go through a 蓝屏 in terms of facial expression

8/ Girl: "So many mainlanders ruining shopping for all of us. Before, you got good service. Now, I don't even get any eye contact unless I'm holding a LV bag"

9/ Guy: "Shenzhen is fun, so many mainland girls you can pick up for 300 kuai or less."

Different guy: "But the 300 doesn't include the extra phone you have to buy hahaha"

10/ "XYZ bank will always need us, they can't deal with the companies/laws/people/"complexities" of mainland China"

Cue massive shock in the mid-2010s, when the first crop of Western-educated Chinese kids came back and started taking their jobs...

11/ ...and Western MNCs broadly all figured out that they didn't need a HK intermediary to do business with Chinese people.

This is when a lot of HKers began saying stuff like "the CCP is corrupting the Westerners, so sad"

12/ So you had this crap during the riots: "I hope the West will use this moment as a chance to reassess how they work with China, and understand that they can only negotiate with people who respect the rule of law"

13/ Anyhow this is not to say all HKers are horrible but the status-driven xenophobia (mixed with a healthy amount of classist and sexist attitudes) permeating the local culture makes it really, really hard to empathize. But things are slowly getting better...

end/ ...and hopefully the Chinese government's emphasis on building more connectivity between mainland China and HK, sustained attempts at fixing wealth and housing inequality in the city, and deliberate cultural mixing via apps/games/content will bear fruit over time.