Have HK girls stopped looking for Mr White?

Columnist Chip Tsao claims local women no longer date western men. Is there any evidence?

Dating a westerner used to be frowned upon because it was controversial, but dating experts and commentators say locals are now avoiding cross-cultural relationships because they are no longer 'fashionable'.

Spurred by the media frenzy over actress Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi being seen with a westerner identified as Jeroen, a prominent media commentator recently devoted his column to the lack of appeal in dating westerners.

In a controversial and often scathing indictment of today's expatriates, the former BBC journalist and regular television pundit Chip Tsao said in his column: 'In this day and age hanging out with a gweilo is 'out'. Before 1997, Hong Kong was a British colony so showing up with a gweilo at a ball or in Lan Kwai Fong escalated your status 100 times. Gweilos were high society and they either lived at the Peak or on Tai Tam Road.' Writing in Easyfinder magazine, Tsao said Hong Kong's pre-colonial population of rich westerners sailed off into the sunset with ex-governor Chris Patten and the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation after the handover.

'The ones who stayed behind were left to fend for themselves. They had no choice but to move to dorms on Lamma Island or to rent stone houses that people in Sai Kung use to house pigs,' his column said.

'Clad in T-shirts, shorts and a pair of flip-flops, nowadays you see them buying beer from 7-Eleven so they can get the free gifts. They even try bargaining with the new mainland immigrant cashier to try to get a 10 per cent discount.'