City’s cultural ignorance is no laughing matter says actor Q Bobo, launching new book Made in Hong Kong
Despite South Asians’ significant contributions to Hong Kong society for more than a century, many people are only aware of the negative media portrayal
“Why do you speak Cantonese? What is your favourite curry?”
These are just some of the questions Vivek Mahbubani, an Indian stand-up comedian born and bred in the city, is commonly asked by the ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong.
Over the years, Mahbubani has got used to the misconceptions Hongkongers have about South Asians and is no longer bothered by comments with racial overtones, but he said the cultural ignorance is no laughing matter.
“[Hong Kong is a modern city], yet there are such ignorant views. There are families who say ‘don’t touch them’ [of South Asians],” he said.
Jeffery Andrews, an Indian social worker also born and raised in Hong Kong, agreed that while discrimination against ethnic minorities was not as bad as in other places, it was still appalling for an international city to be so “backward”.
Together they hope to educate people through a book titled Made in Hong Kong, an initiative by perhaps the most well known South Asian in Hong Kong – Gill Mohindepaul Singh, more widely known as actor Q Bobo.
The book contains the stories of Singh and four other South Asians, “manufactured” in the city and proud to be Hongkongers.