[Asian1]

Today I witnessed at a food bar a curt coversation escalating to a screaming match between a Mandarin speaking tourist or HK resident and a local Cantonese lady. The Mandarin speaking lady seemed to insist on ordering a certain item and was pointing and bossy. The local HKer was irritated but pleasent then went into a state of anger. She specifically said the customer was loud and obnoxious. Funny neither could understand the other but you could tell 5 more mins and a cat fight would have ensued. Is this common in HK to have this kind of tension?

[Bobbybo]

Asian1, try not to generalize too much.
Mainlanders are the major tourists in HK, so what you've seen is an unhappy tourist and an unhappy seller fighting. The tourist was Mainlander cause around 50% or tourists come from PRC. They spend more than Westerners and are very welcomed by HK shops. In Nathan road shops Mandarin is widely known.

[lowlight]

There is a certain disdain for mainlanders, especially here in HK, but also at other parts of the world where China people visit a lot. They bring with them their unsavoury table habits, and poor hygiene, and they are often extremely rude, such as what you saw in the food court.

It's very common, and I'm surprized Bobbybo disagrees. I guess the tourism industry loves it, but 'regular' people really don't seem to like them very much. It will probably get worse as 2047 approaches... I don't want to be here when that happens...

[Bobbybo]

Originally Posted by lowlight

It's very common, and I'm surprized Bobbybo disagrees. I guess the tourism industry loves it, but 'regular' people really don't seem to like them very much. It will probably get worse as 2047 approaches... I don't want to be here when that happens...

I don't disagree (and I can't see it in my message anyway) that there are loud and obnoxious tourists and that a lot come from Mainland (as I said they are the higher percentage of visitors here).
I lived in Shanghai and Shanghainese are racists towards "outside" Mainlanders.
What I personally learnt is that China is too big and there are too many Chinas in China. People from the cities behave in a certain way and people from countryside in another. Someone from Shanghai behaves differently compared with someone from Chengdu.
But they all bring RMB and A LOT. And this makes HKers accepting some minor problem. This is happening in Europe, too. 10 years ago a lot of shops in Milan fashion streets had people speaking japanese. Now they all speak Mandarin.
Lowlight, even if you leave HK you will always meet a Mainlander on your way

[lowlight]

Belive me, being from Vancouver, I come across many mainlanders in my time

I agree that HKers will put up with some 'hassle' china people bring, as long as they bring the big bucks. But I can't help but feel that part of Disneyland's failure in terms of attracting local traffic is that it is so popular with mainlanders, and got a lot of bad press because of it when it first opened. I even blogged about this, titled "Chinese bring culture shock to Hong Kong"

[sunniefaith]

To a certain extent tension between mainlanders and locals is common. It happens in Singapore as well. I do feel sorry for the mainlanders as some in Singapore do tend to generalize them and put them in an unpleasant category. But then again, there are some mainlanders that do bring certain situations upon themselves. I apologize if I do offend anyone.

[Bobbybo]

Disneyland: imagine the panic of the HK govt when Disneyland will be opened in Shanghai. How much money they will lose with this move? They invested so heavily there.
Let's see.

[Bobbybo]

Originally Posted by sunniefaith

To a certain extent tension between mainlanders and locals is common. It happens in Singapore as well. I do feel sorry for the mainlanders as some in Singapore do tend to generalize them and put them in an unpleasant category. But then again, there are some mainlanders that do bring certain situations upon themselves. I apologize if I do offend anyone.

Some good, some bad. This happens everywhere. I hope we can train ourselves to avoid any generalization.

[Asian1]

I was actually shocked and sort of amused by the scene. Only thing is the HKer got hasty (as a result of her touble with the mainlander) with my wife and I when we couldnt decide to order. It was pick your items for a certain price but I didnt know I selected the wrong category (one priced higher). I acthally saw chow mein and said to myself wow I want that instead of some beef stew. Since when is chow mein more expensive to make than any meat dish? I let it go because it was crowded and wasnt about to start arguing with someone who was selling food notwithstanding the embarrassment of holding up 20 people waiting for their food. BTW the mainlander was surly. As I recall I was pushed out of the way and a group of them (3 women) walked in front of us as if we were not even in line. lol.

[carang]

i have encountered some absolutely wonderful mainlanders when i have travelled in china. but it seems that a different set of mainlanders are the tourists in hk.

i often take my 18 month old son to ocean park by myself. (not a mean feat in itself, with public transport etc!)

i always get a "kick" out of the fuss they make over him (he's half chinese), but 10 seconds later, they are busy pushing me out of the way, as i try to ake him out of the pram and fold the pram, and carry the bags, and carry him up to the cable car. there have been times when i have completely lost my cool as they pushed to get past me. i wasn't even holding the queue up as there were still about 20 people in front of me. i was just trying to think ahead so that i wouldn't hold anyone up when i got to the cable car...

all the gooing and gaaing over the baby, and not one person ever offered to help!