Peregrine01 wrote:Some good discussions going on here. Most of the protestors are young, impressionable and full of idealism. They yearn for a nostalgic time that they were never a part of and they idealize that time of British colonial rule when their own kind were treated like second class citizens of their own land.
Truthfully, the real travails of HK’s young people have nothing to do with the 5 demands. HK is an unlivable place for a lot of people and has income inequality worse than a place like Angola. Minimum wage is $4, which many earn, yet housing is more expensive than NY or San Francisco. Lots of young people feel completely hopeless and a lot of their unrest is manifest in anger toward the PRC.
Mind you, HK is far less important in Asia compared to before - it’s less than 3% of China’s GDP right now, compared to over 20% just two decades ago. Within that time span, neighboring Shenzhen transformed from a swamp to a bustling growing tech hub that’s now the same size as HK. So many in HK are already feeling that their prominence is in decline which further adds to the disenfranchisement.
As somebody who has had the misfortune of growing up and currently living in this overcrowded hotbox of a city, the majority of these points are right on the money.
Treating nostalgia for British colonial rule as merely rose tinted glasses strikes me as being misinformed though. Were the British discriminatory and occasionally violent towards the local HKers during their time here? Absolutely, and most people here recognize that. But the tradeoff for that is under their rule and patronage, HK became a world class financial and business hub, giving many living here far better opportunities than available otherwise. I understand the lasting damage that western colonialism has done to many other countries but HK and its people have 1000% benefitted from being a colony.
So it's absolutely no surprise that the locals will be more inclined to identify with the British/westerners than "their own people" across the border which put the medical system here under more strain and inject more money into a housing market that absolutely does not need more money injected into it.
That's all I will say on the matter, now I need to get busy using my Australian passport to get a job elsewhere...
