In an official promotional campaign, Hong Kong was entitled “Asia’s world city”. The former colony historically opens arms to the world. While it served as a transitional place for many, others chose to stay.
Unlike their Chinese counterparts, locally raised residents of alternative cultures often find themselves to be permanent guests in the Chinese city.
In November 2009, we talked to five sons and daughter of immigrants and expats. Vivek Mahbubani gives his testimony of the home city.
The laughing business
Vivek Mahbubani (blog) may be kidding most of the time. But he is serious about collecting laughter- it’s his career.
The avid stand-up comedian became a Youtube hit and appeared on local TV after he was awarded the funniest person in Hong Kong twice. His routines often deal with light-noted encounters with general cultural ignorance, typical Hong Kong scenarios, and being a hairy Indian, in Cantonese.
A Chinese person being able to speak English wouldn’t make news in, say, Britain. In Hong Kong, however, the language skill combined with his exotic facial features, is Vivek’s very edge. Edward Said would have called this Orientalism, except it’s happening in the Orient.
At a Saturday Chinese comedy night, Vivek entertained the mixed audience with a dramatic mimicry of girls’ screaming when they first hear him talk, “Oh my god, you speak Chinese! AHHH!”
A black guy from Guangzhou, a nearby mainland city, grinned in empathy from the darker back row.
“Hi there, I can see you now that you are smiling,” Vivek greeted, Hong Kong style.
When he is not busy being funny, Vivek works as a freelance digital artist and sustains a heavy metal band. The variety gives him what he calls the “freedom to jump around” in the creative realm.
Melting in, melting out
“The majority of my friends are Chinese simply because I was born and raised here in Hong Kong.”
Many of his Chinese friends attended international schools or grew up in other countries. With these guys Vivek has the most fun.
“Sometimes I get mischievous when they ask me certain words in Chinese. I tell them the wrong one or the rude one.”
Very classic prank, except it’s more often played the other way round.
“They go innocently tell someone that… and because they don’t have that foreigner look, people don’t forgive them as much. They think they are actually trying to be rude, not trying to be cute.”
Vivek hasn’t been able to obtain a Home Return Permit, a passport equivalent for Hong Kong Chinese to visit the mainland.
“I mean, look at me- what home would I be returning to?”
In a culture where people are supposed to have a matching face for the language they speak, Vivek can’t seem to have gone through enough conversion. Even though he calls it home and has a local girlfriend.
“My teacher made me pick up a Chinese name, I was reluctant and I dumped it right after I graduated.”
At least, in the eyes of other locals, the Cantonese-speaking Indian eccentric has a matching name for the face.
