This week: Politics
I had my say on November 18 and cast my vote at the district council elections. I found the decision rather difficult. Even though I am born Chinese with an oriental physical appearance, much of my practical schooling has been overseas. Since returning to my birthplace here in Hong Kong 10 years ago I have delved deeply into my roots and reclaimed some of the steep culture that belongs to all those that call Hong Kong and China home.
The first task on arrival was to learn Cantonese. Culture is intrinsically linked to language and so I made it a priority. It took two years to speak common Cantonese fluently but after 10 years I still find my Chinese vocabulary lacking and I am still unable to fully enjoy reading literature in Chinese. Hence I still rely on English sources of news in the form of this newspaper and the internet mostly, with a smattering of Cantonese radio and television as a supplement.
I think many readers would probably notice that it is difficult for an English speaker to make an informed decision at the district council elections because most of the publicity is aimed at the majority and hence is in Chinese.
It took active efforts on my part to know the policies and histories of my local district council members. In fact I had to make a phone call to their offices to get any substantial information. I didn't get to speak to the actual representative; I only got to speak to one of their aides. I started off speaking in English but found it rather inefficient and had to revert to speaking Cantonese to get the information I wanted.
So overall I was disappointed with my voting experience when compared to the myriad of choices available overseas, where during any elections I was bombarded with a multitude of electoral information for filtering. In the end I made my vote as best I could but I felt I was making only a semi-informed decision.
Speaking to my nurses - all of whom are locals, and I am proud to say all of whom are voting citizens - surprisingly even they had trouble making an informed decision. They made their decisions based on informative posters and with luck were able to catch some information on the radio that happened to be talking to their district representatives.