My Take | Hongkongers can’t agree if they are racist
- We probably haven’t become more racist in the past two decades – unless we count local animosity against mainlanders
How racist is Hong Kong? It very much depends on who you ask. A foreign domestic helper and a South Asian would likely give a very different answer than a local Chinese or a European expat.
Looking at the latest complaint figures from the Equal Opportunities Commission, the number of incidents seems to have jumped over the past decade.
That’s the bad news. But, examining the numbers more closely, the spikes seem to have been largely caused by mainland-Hong Kong conflicts rather than discrimination against local ethnic minority groups.
Nonetheless, that’s contentious; could some acts be considered racially discriminatory if directed only at mainlanders?
The number of complaints lodged with the EOC increased to 327 in 2020, from just 64 in 2010. In 2012, there were 43 complaints; in 2014, 39; in 2016, 202; and in 2018, 69. You have two big jumps, in 2016 and 2020, both of which happened to relate to Hong Kong-mainland conflicts.
In 2016, 174 complaints related to racial vilification against mainland Chinese from the oath-taking antics of several newly elected lawmakers, who used derogatory or racially charged words against China and Chinese. All of them were subsequently disqualified, not for racial discrimination but for failing to complete their oaths properly.