Vivek Mahbubani
After winning Hong Kong’s annual comedy competition twice (in Cantonese, then in English the following year), few would argue that Vivek Mahbubani is the funniest stand-up in the city. The homegrown comedian is also an accomplished musician and web designer with his own firm, and he talks to Andrea Lo about growing up in Hong Kong, his comedy career and the differences between performing in Cantonese and English.
I grew up in Hong Kong in an Indian household. I had a whole cultural mix-up—at home we spoke English, whereas when I went to school it was very local. I definitely faced a lot of challenges because I was surrounded by non-Indians.
When I was in primary school, other children thought that I looked weird, but the only reason was because I was an alien.
They asked me to do certain things to see what would happen if I did them. They’d say to me, “I’m going to have a sip of this chocolate milk—you sip it and see if you die!”—that sort of thing.
A lot of those memories stuck with me, but I’m happy to be different.
A lot of the time, the awkwardness occurs because locals see me as a foreigner, but I see myself as a local.
I feel it less and less now; maybe people are becoming more open to different cultures from around the world. Hong Kong is becoming more multi-cultural.