Love thy neighbour? Hong Kong ranks low on racial tolerance

Updated May 19 

A Reddit user has pointed out that the data used by the World Values Survey, on which The Washington Post bases its article and map, was mistranslated.

In fact, Hong Kong may be one of the most racially tolerant places because of inverted results. The Reddit user writes:

The correct result should be: In Hong Kong 78.1% found it acceptable to have different race neighbours, while less than 20% found it acceptable to have drunks, emotionally unstable and drug addicts as neighbours.

May 16 

What kinds of people would you not want as neighbours?

Apparently, 71.8 per cent of Hongkongers said they would not want a neighbour of a different race, said a World Values Survey, cited in The Washington Post on Wednesday.

So Hong Kong is one of the most racially intolerant places in the world - along with India, Jordan and Bangladesh, according to the report, which shares the survey results in a world map.

The survey's conclusion about Hong Kong seems to support findings in an informal poll by SCMP.com on Thursday: Have you experienced racism in Hong Kong?

As of Thursday, 70 per cent of responses, or 248 votes, said "yes".

Comparatively, the World Values poll says people in Britain - and its former colonies Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US - and Latin American ranked as the most tolerant.

The Washington Post article points out a couple of interesting outliers, such as Pakistan, which is “remarkably tolerant” despite sectarian violence and being surrounded by not-so tolerant countries.

It also notes that economic freedom is not an indicator of racial tolerance. Because if that were the case, wouldn’t Hong Kong be the most racially accepting place on earth?