How comedian Vivek Mahbubani came to be the funniest person in Hong Kong – in both Cantonese and English

Hongkongers: I was born in Hong Kong in 1982; my parents are Indian. I have a sister who is two years older than me. We are third-generation Hongkongers, Hong Kong is home for us. My mother was an English teacher at a local school and my dad was “in business” as he blanket-termed it: “If it makes money, I’m doing it.”

My parents realised the limitations of not speaking Cantonese, so they wanted my sister and I to learn. I think they were too lazy to learn themselves. They sent us to local schools. I went to St Joseph’s Primary School in Wan Chai and had to learn to read and write Chinese. There were only five non-Chinese kids in the school.

By Primary Two I was struggling and came second last in Chinese in my year. My parents couldn’t help me with my Chinese homework, and they were worried. I got a private tutor and then went to a private tutorial college after school. I hated it, but it helped me a lot and my grades improved, and I learned to speak fluently.

Fitting in: For secondary school I went to Diocesan Boys’ School in Mong Kok. It was an all-boys school and there were only four non-Chinese students. I was fluent in Cantonese, but there was always that initial impression of “oh, you look different from me.” I was a typical teenager trying to fit in and find my identity. The first few years there was a lot of jostling and people making fun: “You have a lot of body hair, you look like a monkey.”

Identity crisis: The biggest challenge for my identity was when I started meeting girls. Every year the school collaborated with a girls’ school to hold a dance ball and I was on the organising committee. When we met the girls to arrange the party, one of the girls pulled back when she was introduced to me. I was mortified. I just thought, “Why can’t I just be normal – be Cantonese, speak Cantonese, simple? Why is it that everywhere I go I have to explain myself?”