Then & Now | For as long as Hong Kong has attracted arrivals, it has attracted moaners
- Griping is a recognised stage of culture shock, the problem is when the whining won’t stop
- From its earliest beginnings the city has never lacked those who like their complaints to be heard
Many new arrivals passionately loved Hong Kong on first sight; others – just as ardently – loathed the place, sometimes before they even walked down the gangplank.
Griping is a recognised part of culture shock – the liverish stage that comes when initial wonder at the new and different turns to querulous complaint. Some never even experience that first stage – they didn’t want to relocate in the first place, but economic necessity, or a spouse’s career, drove the move.
From its earliest urban beginnings, Hong Kong has never lacked full-throttle moaners, and we’ve all heard them down the years: wedged beside someone at the dinner table, stuck with a droning specimen on a boat trip, or cornered like a trapped animal at a drinks party. These noisome pests grumble their way through other people’s lives without pity or respite.
What did disgruntled long-term residents grouse about in the past? And were there any variants on seemingly perennial themes?
The chronic moaner’s repertoire of complaint doesn’t vary much, and as various period memoirs vividly attest, their inventory of bile-infused whining hasn’t shifted gear in a century. They don’t like the climate; they can’t stand the people; the language is incomprehensible; the food makes them ill; everything is overpriced and poor value, or else unavailable; public transport is impossibly packed, and chock-full of “them” anyway; and the street-side smells make them queasy, if not actually retch on the spot.
“What a dreadful, overrated dump Hong Kong is,” they dolefully opine. “Why we chose to come here I will never fully comprehend! How anyone could possibly take to it only proves beyond a shadow of doubt their own debilitated mental state! And the sooner I can leave the wretched place and its awful inhabitants behind me forever, the better!” So there!