What’s so weird about Hong Kong? #01 Do they all look the same?

No matter how much I wanted to disregard them, I have to admit that some prejudices and stereotypes where buzzing around my head before I started my year abroad in Hong Kong. I imagined crowded places with short, dark-haired people who could all be twins, undefinable rice dishes (and subsequent bathroom troubles), and pollution that covered the sun, to name just a few. Now that I am abroad in Hong Kong, here’s what I have experienced to prove true, as well as other weird stuff I have thus far come across during my year-long stay in Asia.

DO THEY REALLY ALL LOOK THE SAME TO US? 

After getting off the plane in Hong Kong after a 20 hour flight, my first prejudices already came true: the crowds that one encountered on public transportation, and the seemingly physical similarity of the locals.
At the airport I looked out at a sea of people and, at 1,73 meters tall, I felt like a bull in a china shop. Obviously I couldn’t avoid bumping other people in the mass, but instead of getting angry and shouting at me, people were apologetic. What’s more, after having survived my first plunge into the Hong Kong public transportation system, I tried to find my way to the exit. Looking around, clinging to the few signs with English translations under the Cantonese characters, a Chinese man approached and asked if I needed some help. Did I really look so desperate, or was this considered normal? Similar situations that occurred later in metro stations and bus stops has made me realize that Hong Kong, with what seemed like one of the highest city population density in the world, is way more respectful and caring than European cities. Especially now in times of the “Occupy Central with Love and Peace”-protest, Hong Kong  citizens prove once more how disciplined and peaceful they are*.

Another reason for such treatment is probably my Western appearance. Hong Kong locals would not imagine me to be a local. That’s why they somehow understand pretty quickly that I might need help in the jungle of Cantonese signs. 
To answer the question of whether Chinese people all look the same to us, I can only mention the experience I had in working on a group project with six locals. Even after we set up teams in the first lecture and exchanged our contacts and Facebook names, I couldn’t find my group in the second lecture. To solve the situation, I kept on smiling at local looking people, hoping to find any familiar face. The plan worked; the ones that gave me the biggest smiles back were my team colleagues.

DO WE REALLY ALL LOOK THE SAME TO THEM?

Hong Kong is an international city and Europeans are no rarity, but I have realized that some people secretly stare at me. I can’t be mad at them, because I have been presumably staring at them as well, but my first night out in Hong Kong made me feel “different” in terms of my appearance. 
I was out with a group of Dutch exchange students that I had met on campus on the first day, and we were in Lan Kwai Fong – the place to be. Loud music came out of clubs, people crowded streets and went crazy in front of a pizza takeaway. None of the neighbours seemed to care that it was Monday, in the middle of the night while at Lan Kwai Fong, a dance battle began. A group of people – I assume they were Chinese – formed a circle and two people were pushed into the middle to battle against each other. My friends and I were astonished and couldn’t close our jaws. At one point a lady discovered our group and started taking pictures with us. At first we thought that it was a unique situation, but then everybody got out their selfie sticks and started to take snapshots with us, and as soon as a mother put her son in front of me to take a picture I felt like a statue or an animal from the zoo. After a while we had to escape, or else fill half of Hong Kong’s Instagram photo albums. 
These first impressions I took away from my contact with Hong Kong locals helped me realize that I didn’t know anything about their culture, and made me want to learn everything about their way of thinking and living. The unspoken definition of whether somebody is Western or Asian, according to their appearance, plays such a big role. Thumbs up for this culture shock!

* Umbrella Revolution Timeline

by Real Hong Kong News written by Real Hongkongers (facebook) 

22/Sept
Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) announced the beginning of a one week class boycott.

26/Sept
Students and other Hong Kong citizens who had been gathering outside the HKSAR Government Headquarter climbed over the fences fencing off “Civic Square” for a sit-in protest (according to public documents “Civic Square” is a public space, hence the fences built by the government are illegal structures). Police sent out riot police in preparation for dispersing protesters.

27/Sept
Students at Civic Square were dispersed, citizens continue to the sit-in protest outside HKSAR Government Headquarters

27/Sept, 23:00
Civic Passion, a political organisation (not a party), proposed to expand the protest site and occupied the open space outside Admiralty Centre.

28/Sept, around 01:30
Benny Tai, spokesperson of Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP), announced the “Occupy Central” movement (originally scheduled to begin on 1/Oct) had officially started. Many protesters and students began to leave as they did not wish to be represented by the group which has been discussing the movement for almost two years and which had raised substantial funding but which then proposed a sit-in protest, aiming to be arrested.
Legislator Leung Kwok-hung (nickname Long Hair) got on his knees and begged protesters to stay and that not wanting to be represented by OCLP should not stop them from fighting for democracy. 

28/Sept, 14:00
Police blockaded the roads that lead to Government HQ, protesters began to gather outside Admiralty Centre, where Civic Passion occupied earlier. Pepper spray was deployed, and protesters defend themselves with umbrellas (it was a sunny and hot day, and many protesters brought their umbrellas with them)

28/Sept, 16:00
Protesters broke free from the police cordons, and occupied Connaught Road Central. Police deployed teargas with an aim to disperse the crowd, but protesters continue to stay.

28/Sept, 22:00
Protesters began to occupy Nathan Road in Mong Kok (no leaders)

28/Sept, 23:00
Protesters began to occupy Causeway Bay (no leaders)

28/Sept, 23:30
HKFS and OCLP urged protesters to retreat, but most protesters, spread across all three protest sites (Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok), ignored them 

29/Sept
Police confirmed that 87 canisters of teargas were used besides using pepper spray and truncheon on protesters (reports and pictures posted to Facebook suggest a female student was beaten with truncheon, at the hospital she was asked if she was injured during protest, but she declined to answer and the hospital allegedly refused to treat her)

30/Sept (evening)
A private vehicle drove straight through the protesters stationed at the Mong Kok protest site.

30/Sept, 11:30
Protesters began to occupy Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) (no leaders)

1/Oct (around 06:00)
A small group of protesters gathered outside Bauhinia Square, where the China National Day flag hoisting ceremony was held, protesting silently by turning their backs and raising their crossed arms.

2/Oct
HKFS called for protesters to surround Chief Executive (CE) Office. CE Leung Chun-ying (CY Leung) called for press conference and said that Carrie Lam (Secretary in Chief) will engage in a dialogue with the students but the negotiation has to be within the NPC’s political reform framework (one of the demands protesters have made is to withdraw NPC’s political reform proposal). HKFS agreed. Some protesters disagreed as they saw it as a caving-in on the original demands, and protesters started arguing.

3/Oct
Benny Tai of OCLP urged protesters to remove all barricades outside the Government HQ. Most protesters began to say that OCLP, HKSF and Scholarism (another student-led activist group) do not represent them. 

3/Oct, 15:00
Protest sites in TST, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok were attacked by Triad gang members. Recordings made at various sites suggest these agents provocateurs were paid by the police or by groups affiliated with them.

3/Oct, 18:30
OCLP, HKFS and Scholarism called protesters to retreat from Mong Kok and go to Admiralty. The call was ignored.

3/Oct, 20:30
TST protest site was cleared by force.

3/Oct, 22:00
HKFS announced that they would not engage in negotiations with the HKSAR Government (as the public do not accept that negotiation has to be based on the NPC’s proposed framework – which is in large part the subject of the protests), Mong Kok protest site grew stronger. 

4/Oct
Violent attacks against the Mong Kok and Causeway Bay protest sites, with men in masks destroying protesters’ tents and medical supply stations. Some protesters, including students were beaten up and some protesters’ blood was spilled. Attackers were surrounded by protesters, but almost all of the attackers who were arrested were released shortly afterwards by the police, triggering outcry.
HKFS and OCLP called for a gathering at Admiralty to denounce violence against peaceful protest, and set the condition that negotiation could only begin after an independent investigation of the violent attacks.

5/Oct
“Volunteers” at Mong Kok called a press conference and announced that all protesters would retreat to Admiralty. The announcement was found to originate from pro-government stooges. HKFS later on clarified that they had never asked protesters to retreat from Mong Kok.

5/Oct, 22:00
HKFS and the HKSAR Government started their first engagement in preparation for the first round of negotiation.

6/Oct
Footbridge towards HKSAR Government HQ reopened.

6/Oct, 21:00
HKFS and the HKSAR Government engaged in the second meeting in preparation for the first round of negotiation.

7/Oct
HKFS and the HKSAR Government agreed to hold the first round of negotiations on 10/Oct. Jasper Tsang, Chairman of the Legislative Council (LegCo), announced that LegCo meetings would be postponed to 15/Oct after the pro-China camp complained that they could not drive to the Council. It was accessible on foot.

8/Oct
Protesters agreed to remove barricades set at Lung Wo Road and Tim Wah Road, allowing vehicles and ambulances to enter HKSAR Government HQ.
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun condemned HKFS for hijacking OCLP, calling protesters and students to retreat, and let the OCLP to negotiate with the government.

8/Oct, 20:00
Australian media exposed CY Leung’s alleged corruption in failing to declare several million (US) dollars paid to him in connection with the sale of DTZ.

9/Oct
Pan-democrats took two chairman seats at the Establishment Subcommittee and the Public Works Subcommittee within the LegCo, breaking the “negotiate with the pro-China camp” tradition (pro-China camp dominates the LegCo because of the existence of Functional Constituency). In revenge the Pro-China camp took the chairman and deputy chairman seats of multiple subcommittees at the LegCo. (The pan-democrats claimed that by chairing both subcommittees, they could stop unpopular policies being passed, but the legislature can bypass both subcommittees if need be – with pro-China camp dominating the legislature, it is extremely easy.)

9/Oct, 19:30
Carrie Lam cancelled the negotiation with HKFS. Pan-democrats announced the launch of a series of civil disobedience actions – although some insisted that these actions would not continue long-term as they do not want to interrupt the operation of the government.

9/Oct, 20:00
Jaco Chow Nok Hang and other activists (including Left 21) set up mahjong tables and hotpot table at Mong Kok protest site. Other protesters stopped them on the basis that the movement is not a carnival and that the “entertainment” – particularly the naked flames of hotpot burners – could cause potential danger should gang members return.

10/Oct
Joshua Wong of Scholarism called for an escalation of the movement by expanding the occupied areas.
Legislator Raymond Wong Yuk-man’s proposal to investigate collusion between police and triads (organised gangs) was voted down at the Legislative Council (LegCo). LegCo did however pass a proposal to investigate protesters in the occupy movement.

10/Oct, 19:30
HKFS, Scholarism and other groups held a gathering at Harcourt Road

11/Oct
HKFS reopened Queensway temporarily and allowed 8 trams to pass, resuming the tram service to Happy Valley.

11/Oct, 23:00
HKFS and Scholarism issued an open letter to China’s President Xi Jinping demanding that the NPC withdraw its political reform framework.

12/Oct, 09:00
CY Leung announced that he would not resign, that the launch of teargas was a decision made by the police force, but that in future only minimum force would be used to disperse protesters.

12/Oct, 15:00
HKFS held “forums” at three protest sites (Mong Kok, Causeway Bay and Admiralty), but protesters and occupiers made it clear that there is no need for an organiser to manage the movement as protesters have demonstrated maximum self-control and restraint over the past days. 

12/Oct, evening
Clashes broke out at Mong Kok protest site, a private vehicle drove into a taxi near the protest site, and the driver was arrested after failing to escape by reversing the vehicle into the crowd.

12/Oct, 19:30
Police removed the barricades at Portland Street and Shanghai Street.

13/Oct, morning
Scholarism proposed to open up Queensway in exchange for the opening up of Civic Square, some occupiers at Admiralty objected to the proposal.

13/Oct, 06:00
Police removed some barricades in Admiralty. Volunteers rebuilt barricades with bamboo scaffolding.

13/Oct, 13:00
Queensway was raided by anti-occupy people, most wearing masks (suspected to be gang members), who proceeded to violently attack students and protesters. Most barricades were removed. Only two people were arrested, one of them being a protester.

13/Oct, 19:40
Causeway Bay barricades were reinforced with mortar.

14/Oct
Most roads in Admiralty reopened, traffic as usual with huge jam.

15/Oct
Protesters, disgusted by the thug attacks the day before, took over Lung Wo Road before mid-night of 14/Oct. Police began dispersing protesters. Some barricades rebuilt. 
One protester (Ken Tsang) was taken by 6-7 police and beaten up by them whilst his hands were tied behind his back. There were also reports of journalists and other protesters being beaten up or pepper sprayed at close quarters (pictures and videos show protesters had their goggles forcefully removed by police and were then sprayed directly in their face at the range of a metre).