Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Suzhou Hong Kong Club Inaugural Dinner
Four tables of Hong Kong 'expat' families got together at the Hong Kong Zen Restaurant last Saturday evening for the first get-together of Hong Kong Belongers. They decided to call it the Hong Kong Club (苏州香港同乡会) which is common overseas.
The idea of overseas Chinese getting together by themselves is a very old one. They form belongers associations for each xiang, or township, they come from. They have in common the local dialect, and it is the desire to speak that dialect with others that drives such associations.
Similarly at every university which accepts overseas students there are usually two Chinese student clubs. A club consisting of Chinese from all over the world including Mainland China who had in common their ability to speak Mandarin Chinese, and a Hong Kong Students Club who could not speak Mandarin but only Cantonese.
Earlier on, Hong Kong's position as a rich, free- trade port governed under a benevolent British colonial system meant that the Hong Kong students tended to take airs, assuming a level of sophistication they did not often find in overseas, or mainland students of the time. But with the advent of rich mainland students, usually the children of high officials, they've been forced to accept a degree of equality.
Hong Kong students lack of Mandarin had been contrived at by local and British officials who mandated the use of Cantonese as the means of instruction in local schools. But many parents, excited by the opportunities for their children both overseas and in Hong Kong, insisted they attend school where English was to be the means of instruction. In few of these schools Mandarin was taught. Generally only schools run by ex-Kuomintang officials taught Mandarin.
In his early years when conspiracy theories were a great comfort to China Hand, he believed the British contrived at this policy as being a handy way to isolate locals from their mainland counterparts, but it surely goes back to pre-Revolutionary days and is just as likely due to local intellectuals' prejudice that Cantonese was far superior to Mandarin. Indeed after the 1911 Revolution, which installed Sun Yatsen temporarily as National President, there was great pressure by Southerners to make Cantonese the national language!
Anyway we had had a very pleasant dinner and of course all were perfectly fluent in Mandarin as is becoming common these days in Hong Kong with Mandarin now compulsory for all students. Hong Kong's isolation from the mainland is being battered down by a daily flow of officials, tourists and immigrants for whom Mandarin is a first language. Fifty percent of professionals in Hong Kong do mainland related work and locals are reluctantly accepting that they will have to look in China for positions of real opportunity for the future although their strong preference still is for the unique Hong Kong lifestyle.
Four tables of Hong Kong 'expat' families got together at the Hong Kong Zen Restaurant last Saturday evening for the first get-together of Hong Kong Belongers. They decided to call it the Hong Kong Club (苏州香港同乡会) which is common overseas.
The idea of overseas Chinese getting together by themselves is a very old one. They form belongers associations for each xiang, or township, they come from. They have in common the local dialect, and it is the desire to speak that dialect with others that drives such associations.
Similarly at every university which accepts overseas students there are usually two Chinese student clubs. A club consisting of Chinese from all over the world including Mainland China who had in common their ability to speak Mandarin Chinese, and a Hong Kong Students Club who could not speak Mandarin but only Cantonese.
Earlier on, Hong Kong's position as a rich, free- trade port governed under a benevolent British colonial system meant that the Hong Kong students tended to take airs, assuming a level of sophistication they did not often find in overseas, or mainland students of the time. But with the advent of rich mainland students, usually the children of high officials, they've been forced to accept a degree of equality.
Hong Kong students lack of Mandarin had been contrived at by local and British officials who mandated the use of Cantonese as the means of instruction in local schools. But many parents, excited by the opportunities for their children both overseas and in Hong Kong, insisted they attend school where English was to be the means of instruction. In few of these schools Mandarin was taught. Generally only schools run by ex-Kuomintang officials taught Mandarin.
In his early years when conspiracy theories were a great comfort to China Hand, he believed the British contrived at this policy as being a handy way to isolate locals from their mainland counterparts, but it surely goes back to pre-Revolutionary days and is just as likely due to local intellectuals' prejudice that Cantonese was far superior to Mandarin. Indeed after the 1911 Revolution, which installed Sun Yatsen temporarily as National President, there was great pressure by Southerners to make Cantonese the national language!
Anyway we had had a very pleasant dinner and of course all were perfectly fluent in Mandarin as is becoming common these days in Hong Kong with Mandarin now compulsory for all students. Hong Kong's isolation from the mainland is being battered down by a daily flow of officials, tourists and immigrants for whom Mandarin is a first language. Fifty percent of professionals in Hong Kong do mainland related work and locals are reluctantly accepting that they will have to look in China for positions of real opportunity for the future although their strong preference still is for the unique Hong Kong lifestyle.
