[faguo]

and you will understand the undercurrent and inconcient racism...

Examples:
1-Black French teacher in Alliance francaise Wanchai who during his 2 years stray always have the lift for himself even when a thousand of local waiting for the lift.
2-Black Australian Lecturer of a Marketing Executive MBA who have only 3 students eating lunch with him when tradition was all students at the same table that the lecturer. Funny part what that mature chinese woman that was afraid to ask questions... afraid to get eaten ?

[connecta]

i completely agree to the other points made above already.

but to focus on the particular questions which have been initially asked before:

- getting a job:
usually only your qualifications count. but it might be that employers put indirect restrictions by asking for fluent chinese language skills to knock out non-locals for improving internal communications. still, openly specifying a preference for race/gender/etc. is strictly forbidden for job ads like in most other countries as well.

- getting a flat:
as long as the landlord is fine with english in the negotiation and for the contract (yes, next to english ones, there are chinese only tenancy agreements as well), then usually expats from the western hemisphere are often even preferred. it's about setting up the picture of e.g. being cleaner than the standard most landlords would expect from local tenants. of course even that is some kind of racism, but in such a case it might be to your advantage.

in general there might be some kind of 'mild' racism here in HKG, but i completely agree that it's still quite easy to live with it. you need to consider as well, that although chinese are the majority here in HKG, there are lots of expats out of really many countries. so it's not that difficult to find open-minded people (expats AND locals) to socialize with. Geoexpat is definetely a good starting point for that.

[Mat]

The biggest discrimation you will find in HK is towards south east asian...meaning if you are filipina you gotta be a maid, if you are thai a hooker...and the list goes on...
Sad but true !

[rune]

Hey btw. what is it with furniture dragging? I thought I was going crazy but my neighbours seem to drag their furniture across the floor all day long. Is that normal? I have my aircons turned on 24/7 to focus my attention elsewhere.

[Lammarite]

Originally Posted by faguo

1-Black French teacher in Alliance francaise Wanchai who during his 2 years stray always have the lift for himself even when a thousand of local waiting for the lift.

I get that as a 6' tall pink gwailo- it's great! Even better is having both seats either side of me on the packed MTR free. It's their issue not his.

[hullexile]

Originally Posted by Lammarite

I get that as a 6' tall pink gwailo- it's great! Even better is having both seats either side of me on the packed MTR free. It's their issue not his.

I'm used to having an empty seat next to me on the mtr and watching people suddenly stop getting in the lift if I am in it, but a new one for me this morning when walking to work. Came side by side with a local who on noticing me burst into a fast walk to get away from me! Trouble was they could not keep it up and I kept catching them, instant fast walk to get ahead of me again. Madness.

[Asian1]

I have to chime in and offer my perspective having spent time in Hawaii and in the US as an American of Asian descent. What you folks describe happens to people of color elsewhere so it is not as if HK is unique in discrimination. You hear the same stories in Hawaii by non locals (non Asian or Polynesians) and on the mainland you hear the same stories by African-Americans, etc. Ever heard of protective housing covenants? Slavery, KKK in the deep South. Glass ceiling? "job ghettos"? Happens in France and the UK too. In Japan there is racism toward Koreans. The majority race always has control and attempts to maintain it. If there is discrimination in HK, why on a theoretical basis should it be any different from an Anglo country? Better put, why should HK be an exception if other locales are not exceptions?

[KnowItAll]

>> Slavery, KKK in the deep South. Glass ceiling? Nothing in HK could be as bad!

Yes, but it is often the first place where caucasians find themselves in the minority.

[Asian1]

I'm not trying to be a jerk here but this is an interesting subject. What you are then saying is that for the first time in their lives having transplated here one is not able to take advantage of what some describe as white privelage. It is sort of a colonial mentaility. Would tend to argue that it still exists due to the expat class. So how does an African-American man or woman in the states or in London feel? Just a matter of trading places and locales...

[Lammarite]

Yawn- discrimination isn't confined to Anglos or caucasians. Look at the caste system in India, the heirearchy of Arabs, the discrimination of non-Jewish Israelis ad nauseum.

By the way- what is an Anglo? Are you referring to people of Angle descent prior to the saxons? If so, I think you're discriminating against millions of other pink skinned people and their right to discriminate against and be discriminated against.

Why do you have to mark your territory right off saying you are an American of Asian descent who has spent time in Hawaii and the US (which, according to my atlas are one and the same). Surely non-locals of Hawaii covers a broader spectrum than non-Asians and Polynesians?

Now who's being a jerk?