Real Hong Kong News
7th December, 2015
From Football to District Council Election and Localism – Change of Hong Kong’s Political Spectrum
By RHKN Contributor
On 17th November 2015, the “Battle of the Year” took place at the Mong Kok Stadium in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Football Team drew against China’s Football Team at the FIFA 2018 World Cup Asia qualifier after an intensive 90 minutes of battle. Although looking at the game from a pure sports perspective, it was not newsworthy (after all, it was a qualifier game between two teams that are not highly ranked in the international level), however it brought out an extremely strong message that people should not ignore.
Source: NewsHongKong
Source: Apple Daily
Pictures of placards saying “Hong Kong is not China” were amongst the most debated subjects of the game, so much so that pictures of Hong Kong fans holding up placards showing the message were featured in international news websites. Hong Kong fans booing China’s national anthem, which was used to represent Hong Kong at all sports event, was another thing that was criticized. In fact, FIFA, which should be quite familiar with the fact that football fans often boo at a team as a way to demonstrate their support to the other, fined Hong Kong Football Association US$5,124 because Hong Kong team fans booed the China national anthem at the game against Qatar (which means Hong Kong fans were booing their “own national anthem”). In fact, vulgarity and profanity, also commonly observed at many sports games as enthusiastic fans got mouthy in the thick of everything, were highlighted in a number of newspapers as if they were rare and uniquely Hong Kong projecting an image of “Hongkongers as rude and uncivilised”.
The “Hong Kong is not China” placards resemble “Catalonia is not Spain” banners at football game between Catalonia and Spain. Many comments online say that sports and politics should not be mixed together. However, these people have forgotten that politics are in everyone’s life and sports and politics are intertwined: the Ping-Pong Diplomacy in the 70s is one of the many examples.
The match also set off a battle between university students in some universities in Hong Kong – Chinese exchange studentssabotaged posters on Democracy Walls calling Hongkongers British lapdogs – or worse.
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The reason for Hongkongers booing China’s national anthem is extremely complex. At the beginning of this year’s Asian qualifier, China Football Association designed and published a series of posters aiming to boost Chinese football fans’ support for the China National Team. A number of those posters contained racist elements, including one saying Hong Kong team has many “layers” because of the different skin colours of the players (BC Magazine), with the word “layers” implying the “hierarchies” people of different colours have in a society, infuriated Hongkongers. (This was, of course, not reported by any of the media that condemned Hongkongers for their “vulgarity” and “profanity” at football matches.) The poster was the immediate trigger of Hong Kong football fans’ resentment toward China National Team. The resentment grew even stronger after Zheng Zhi, Captain of the China National Team, was caught on cameraspitting at Hong Kong Team Capital Yapp Hung-fai (even though not recognised by the referee) and called Yapp a dog (confirmed by Yapp).
What happened on the football pitch was a direct reflection of the growing political awareness amongst Hongkongers, particularly the younger generation.
Hongkongers, especially the younger generation, are increasingly more inclined to identify themselves as Hongkongers rather than Chinese (ethnicity). Hong Kong has a complex history, its heritage as a British territory for over 170 years plays an important part. Many people from the West accuse (deliberately using this word) Hongkongers of nostalgia, perfectly in line with the view of blinded/brainwashed nationalistic Chinese, who have called formassacres in Hong Kong so that China can truly reclaim the land, and always call Hongkongers dogs (an insult in Chinese languages including Cantonese and Mandarin). However, what Hongkongers truly miss was not a “colonial master” but the glorious era of fairness, opportunities, prosperity, and most importantly a government that addresses issues and hardship of the citizens rather than implementing laws against people’s will and suppressing the people.
Source: Real Hong Kong News Facebook
When Hong Kong was under the British rule, despite the fact that there was a period of historical colonial superiority, things were better to many people’s mind – at least, an example many Hongkongers cite these days: we do not see (Chinese) people defecate in public in the good old (modern) days since the late 70s, and being labeled as victims of racism. The secret of Hong Kong’s prosperity in the 70s and 80s was the belief that if one works hard, one will be repaid (implying that one should not rely on the state and benefits).
When Chinese tourists defecate in public in Hong Kong, Hongkongers despise their behaviour and call them locusts (it is worth noting that Hongkongers criticise misbehaving Hongkongers regularly, describing them as locusts too), Hongkongers have been called racist* and have been accused of being jealous of Chinese people’s wealth. (Another important fact is that Hongkongers provided their relatives across the border in the 50s and 60s with the daily necessities, and set up factories over the border in the 80s which directly resulted the prosperous industrial sector in Guangzhou – albeit many Hongkongers got burned as the Chinese kicked them out after “learning” all the trade secrets and skills).
*During the 60s, a period when Hongkongers brought daily necessities to China for their relatives, anti-Hongkongers propaganda in the form of posters were everywhere in trail stations, calling Hongkongers yellow-skin dogs and British lapdogs.
When immigrants from China can emigrate to Hong Kong without being checked by the local authority (Hong Kong has a border that is independent from that of China), are backed by some pan-democrats to get benefits with close to no checks (the pan-democrats even took cases to the High Court), while the hardworking, minimum-wage-earning Hongkongers have to queue for years before getting a public housing unit (council flat) and have to go through scrutiny before getting a less-than-enough-to-survive amount of subsidies,Hongkongers are being called xenophobic and racist when they demand a filtering system and to regain control of their border.
When dancing Dama perform at maximum volume to get paid in the middle of the residential areas are protected by the police (video), and local Hongkongers and foreign artists performing in pedestrian zones are prosecuted and harassed by the Dama and their pimps.
When Chinese smugglers occupy the streets, massing in public spaces near residential areas, Hongkongers despise their behaviour and call them locusts. As the HKSAR government has refused to address the issue, police refuse to uphold the law, MTR station staff refuse to enforce their rights to stop them from taking the train with bulky items (like washing machines and mattresses) but at the same time stop local Hongkongers from taking the train when carrying a snooker cue or cello or fine local Hongkongers for having a sip of water in thirst, Hongkongers were left with no choice but to confront these smugglers (some are Hongkongers) themselves. A girl cried when her mother brought her to the protest zone as she was scared by the crowd; the media as well as some pan-democrat Legislative Council members condemned Hongkongers’ “violence”.
Source: Passion Times
When Hongkongers go to their local shops and restaurants (if they are lucky enough to find one), and are served in Mandarin instead of their mother tongue Cantonese, or the second – and official language – English, they were told by local businesses, international media and the western world that they should face the fact that China is a growing economic power and should succumb to the language genocide (slightly better than Tibet’s situation but China cannot yet start killing people in Hong Kong, an international financial hub).
When Chinese students are granted scholarships or admitted to Hong Kong universities (quite a few were found to have used fake qualifications to get their spaces), demand lectures to be taught in Mandarin instead of Cantonese or English, and refuse to interact with the local students (white students are often spared this discrimination), leaving Hongkongersfewer spaces to apply for, the international media and local public figures condemn Hongkongers for not working hard enough and for being jealous of Chinese students’ outstanding academic performance. Whencampaigns were launched to demand priority be given to local Hongkongers and a fairer system established, Hongkongers were, once again, labeled as racists.
Ming Pao: Multiple Kindergartens Tell Local Parents Only Mainlanders will be Admitted
After 18 years under China’s sovereignty, Hongkongers are becoming the minority in their own land, and their voices are ignored and banished, if not completely silenced and labeled as xenophobic and racist. The interest of China as a country, Chinese immigrants and Chinese tourists are put before the interest of Hongkongers. What could possibly be more depressing than being under a worldwide suppression of such scale? Hongkongers began to ask the question, “why is being a Hongkonger a sin that when we are merely trying to defend our rights and interests we are labeled as thugs and racist pricks?”
Dr Mirana May Szeto from Hong Kong University equates localism with terrorism in a public presentation she gave in 2013 in Taiwan [Source: requested to remain anonymous]
Localism began to blossom roughly around four years ago. It was first disregarded, later labeled as discrimination, fascist, extreme right w
From Football to District Council Election and Localism – Change of Hong Kong’s Political Spectrum https://therealnewshk.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/from-football-to-district-council-election-and-localism-change-of-hong-kongs-political-spectrum/
