Ferry collision triggered a collision of cultures

The day after Hong Kong's worst ferry collision in four decades, the top story on China's primetime state television news, CCTV's 7pm Xinwen Lianbo, caught the eye of many in the city. It was about the Lamma ferry tragedy in which 39 people died.

The activities and edicts of state leaders are the usual CCTV headlines, but viewers soon realised why this was the top story. President Hu Jintao , Premier Wen Jiabao and leader-in-waiting Vice-President Xi Jinping had all made phone calls to Hong Kong expressing their condolences to the families of victims and "gave instructions" to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and his team to spare no effort in the rescue work.

Some viewers were puzzled about why on earth Leung and his administration needed to be "instructed", since efforts were already under way. Some complained that, while it is true the central government is responsible for the foreign affairs and defence of Hong Kong according to the Basic Law, rescuing victims of a ferry accident did not fall into either of these two categories.

But were the critics being too sensitive? Had this disaster happened on the mainland, instead of a mere phone call from central government headquarters, a state leader, most properly Wen himself might have flown into the scene to "direct" the rescue works. He did just that after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 and the Wenzhou high-speed-train crash in 2011.

Instructing local governments in disaster relief is common on the mainland and these "instructions" always get prominent news coverage. The CCTV headline news coverage on the Lamma ferry tragedy was just a typical news item "with Chinese characteristics".

Yet that does not make it well understood and accepted in Hong Kong. Though the attention may have been sincere, some still felt uncomfortable seeing the city's leader being "instructed".

Nevertheless, one can't jump too quickly to the simple conclusion that Beijing was being overly concerned about Hong Kong.