Problems when East goes West

AH-BAH is having some problems. First of all, No 1 daughter marries a Westerner, skips off to North America and returns with a grandson who can't even learn a poem that every Primary Two child in Hong Kong can recite backwards.

Then No 2 daughter starts meeting all sorts of undesirable boyfriends.

And then, to cap it all, No 1 son, who can usually be relied upon to do the right thing, brings home a nice Chinese girlfriend - who can't speak a word of anything but English! According to RTHK's head of educational television, Lina Lo, this Lily Wong-type story is one that is coming true for more and more Hong Kong families - which is why RTHK is currently recording a sitcom about it - and why they are looking for foreign bit-part actors to help them do it.

The eight-part comedy, called All in the Family, is set in a Tang family village near Fanling, where the traditional older family members are surprised by the sudden complication of Western values in their lives.

''It is as much about the conflict between generations as the conflict between cultures,'' Lina told us.

''Of course, some funny things happen, and we hope this will be a good comedy, but we also want to treat the subject quite sensitively to show the similarities as well as the differences between Chinese and Westerners.