Integration Anxiety
The long-simmering tensions between Hongkongers and mainlanders stem from a long, complicated history of resentment, fear and politics. Grace Tsoi takes a closer look at the issues behind the headlines.
The relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China has often been rocky, but in the past few weeks, things seem to have spiraled out of control. Following the Dolce & Gabbana fracas, and the mainland television broadcast in which Professor Kong Qingdong of Peking University labeled Hongkongers “dogs,” tensions between the two groups are at an all-time high. The climax came when a group of local netizens raised $100,000 in less than a week to buy a front-page advertisement in Apple Daily that depicted a giant insect—symbolizing the mainlanders that drain the city’s resources—looking threateningly over Hong Kong. With the publication of the advert, a heated debate was sparked: is our city xenophobic against mainlanders?
The Great Locust Debate
Netizens have been using the term “locust” for years, but the term became widely popular on the internet in April last year, when the government decided to give a $6,000 cash handout to all citizens aged 18 and over. The recipients of the handout, to the ire of many, included new immigrants from the mainland, which are stereotyped as being lazy and dependent on government welfare. The term gained even more momentum when newspapers began extensively covering the influx of mainland mothers crippling the hospital system by traveling to the city to give birth. The term “locust” also extends to mainland tourists who exhibit offensive behavior. “A lot of mainland tourists do not respect the local culture of Hong Kong... They do not think that it’s inappropriate to jump the queue. But Hongkongers value fairness and obedience to regulations,” says Stanley, a blogger and a staunch supporter of the Hong Kong City-state Autonomy Movement, a group of netizens that support Hong Kong autonomy.
The blogger does not think that popular use of the term “locust” means that Hong Kong has become xenophobic. “If Japanese people did all that [behaved offensively], Hongkongers would want to get rid of them too. The problem is that the Japanese would not do that,” he says. He adds that he knows a lot of mainlanders and is aware that not all of them are “locusts.” He emphasizes instead that Hongkongers are against any form of indecent and uncivilized behavior. The controversial advertisement has stirred up debate as to whether it is discriminatory to label mainlanders as locusts. The organizer behind the campaign says that the giant insect on the advertisement is in fact a grasshopper, not a locust, and he denies accusations of discrimination against mainlanders.
“As long as there is an insect on the advertisement, it strongly implies a locust, because the heated discussion on the internet has been centering on locusts,” says Professor Eric Ma Kit-wai of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an expert on Hong Kong identity. Regardless of the original intent, the “locust” label is all too often used to discriminate against mainlanders in general. Society must tread carefully when using such inflammatory language, as it can easily be used to stir up hatred between Hongkongers and mainlanders.
The use of the term “locust” by many members of the public reflects the city’s collective sentiments of anger, frustration and fear. With an uncapped inflow of mainlanders, Hong Kong is in the middle of an identity crisis. It is the fear of the disappearance of Hong Kong and its uniqueness, and the very real danger of the city becoming just another ordinary municipality in southern China; it is the fear of seven million against 1.3 billion people; it is the fear that Hong Kong will no longer belong to Hongkongers. It is the fear of colonization by the mainland.
The Impact of Mainland Tourists on Hong Kong
There has been much more contact between Hongkongers and mainlanders ever since the Central Government introduced the Individual Visit Scheme in 2003. The scheme allows mainland tourists to travel to Hong Kong on an individual basis. The measure was put in place to stimulate the city’s plummeting economy following the SARS outbreak. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, around 36 million tourists visited Hong Kong in 2010—63 percent of which were tourists are from the mainland. Of those, 62.8 percent travelled to Hong Kong under the Individual Visit Scheme.
It is undeniable that the Hong Kong economy was given a boost by mainland tourists back in 2003. Even now, the city’s unemployment figures remain low as many jobs have been created in the travel and retail industry. However, there have been voices among the public calling for a cap on the number of mainland tourists to Hong Kong. While the call sounds peculiar in a city where economic growth is more important above everything, and few places in the world would turn away the tourist dollar, there are valid reasons why many want these numbers controlled.