Westerners like me who have lived in Hong Kong for a long time now have an identity problem

Being told to ‘go home’ in a city that feels increasingly unwelcoming poses a problem when I have few connections to Australia, my country of birth, never mind my ‘ancestral home’ of Munich

Peter Kammerer

Published: 6:45am, 1 Jun 2021

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The regularly-voiced response from some readers to political opinions in this column, “if you don’t like it here then go home”, is somewhat problematic for me. Hong Kong is where I have lived for more than three decades and I have few connections to the place of my birth, Australia.

My father was from Germany and my only links to that country are relatives I met for the first time two years ago. Tell me to go back to where I am from and I can only shake my head.

This is no doubt mystifying to some Asians, and especially Chinese. The concept of “ancestral home” remains strong, to the point that it can still be a matter-of-fact part of official forms.

Most broadly, for Chinese, it is the place of origin of a surname, and more specifically, the patriarchal birthplace in China of someone’s great-great-grandfather. This factors into personal identity and can lead to stereotyping.

For a country like China, which is the size of a continent, “ancestral home” is therefore also a form of cultural shorthand. The Chiu Chow people from eastern Guangdong province have a reputation for being shrewd businesspeople, Shanghainese for being fashion conscious no matter the cost, and those from Fujian province, enterprising.

Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing is from the Chiu Chow community. Photo: @lksfoundation/Instagram

Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan are reputed to produce the most intellectually gifted scholars. Hongkongers, once perceived as glamorous and wealthy, are now looked upon as lacking respect for what the mainland has achieved and ungrateful for the greater freedoms Beijing has given them.

All the Chinese people I know have an inkling of ancestral home. Some can only place it in general terms to the province, but others can be specific to the county or even village. Whether they have visited the locality or not is irrelevant; it is knowledge that has been passed from grandfather to father, to son and daughter.

It is a badge of identity and with it comes an understanding of place and culture. Beijing’s preaching that Hongkongers need to love their country therefore makes no sense; they know where their roots lie, it can’t be denied and what is not to love?

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Westerners like me who have lived in Hong Kong for a long time have an identity problem, though. There are things we like about where we live – we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t.

But it is difficult to love a country that we don’t have a blood-and-bone connection to. Beijing’s frequent warnings about “foreign interference” make us feel uncomfortable, like outsiders, and even unwelcome.

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Of course, it would probably be different if I could speak fluent Chinese and had a Chinese family. Chinese people I encounter in everyday life usually approach me by attempting to speak English.

Their first conversational remark is to ask me where I’m from and although my answer of Australia is not wrong, it’s the country that issues my passport and is where I’m born, but not where I feel most at home. Longer than half a lifetime away from a place does that to you; I don’t speak with a broad Australian accent and Australians have since acquired a reputation for brashness.

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The population has increased by more than 50 per cent since I lived there, mostly the result of migration, which has changed the country’s cultural face. Diversity is good, but I am still surprised at how it has pushed aside many of the things I remember.

By the Chinese definition of ancestral home, I could answer “Munich”. The southern German city’s atmosphere and people are agreeable to me, but I can’t say I feel part of a place that I am clearly a foreigner in. Nor, beyond my liking for beer, sausage and mustard, am I terribly German.

Hong Kong the international city increasingly feels like a thing of the past. The future, we’re told, lies in the mainland and the Greater Bay Area. As a Westerner, I’m not being made to feel part of the Hong Kong of the present, let alone the future.

Peter Kammerer is a senior writer at the Post

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