A few days in HK so far and I hate it. Tell me I'm being ridiculous.

[applejacks]

Is that what that is? I would guess politically minded people would know being self-racists doesn't serve them well.

It comes across as a need to not be classified as part of the poorer mainland contingent.

The phrase hive collective can easily mean local HKs once you're not talking to local HKs. Self-awareness here is a bit lacking.

[MASTER-OF-HK]

@applejack, I can relate. After about a year here, I was very happy to leave if the right opportunity came up. Several 'issues' were pissing me off, down to the most basic things as bumping into people on the street, to the constant Cantonese chatter. I've always been a positive guy so I was really quite surprised by how I felt. Anyway, I came to realize that I had to change my way of thinking. And it was simply to care less or not at all about the things that didn't really matter. If girls wanna go shopping, let them go shopping. Who gives a shit. The issues of HK aren't essential to my happiness. Besides work, having some good hobbies, interests (could be your cooking), getting out of the city to areas where there are NO people, and get some good friends (not many friends, but a few GOOD friends). I also learnt to stay away from negative people. I often had a lunch with a guy who hated it here, and looking back, I do think his negativity rubbed off on me.

I've been in HK 7,5 years now. All good.

[Mat]

Seems to me you are just hanging out at and with the wrong people, as simple as this.

We have friends from all walk of life here (from the public housing estate tenant to the top exe banker living in south side with driver, 3 helpers etc etc) and they are all very good firends who share the same values as us:
- love of the outside
- dinner at each others place (we live in a modest 900 sqf flat bought a few years ago in the NT and our firends living in South Bay or Mid Levels have no issue whatsoever coming over to our "smallish" place)
- trips in the neighbooring countries,
- sport
etc etc

Some of our firends do carry Hermes bags (but never mention it or show it off) and some carry salomon bags (ie for running). We all get along well.....but again OPEN mind....


-

[HK_Katherine]

How natural and/or immature is my "these people just suck" reaction?

This is my first impression thus far.

There are plenty of people in HK who suck. I struggle with the materialism and pride in silly things too. You get over it. Never forget who you are; keep with your own principles. If people are silly, ignore them and move on. There are many people in HK who are kind, who help others, who care about sensible things and make good friends. It's just a matter of finding them and ignoring the rest. You cannot change them; don't even bother. Just be yourself. I have no problem being myself here: the people who don't like it (the ones who care about fashion, brands, fancy restaurants) are not the people I want to be with, so I find the ones I do! Simple as.

[vmlinuz]

I would guess politically minded people would know being self-racists doesn't serve them well.

What on earth does "self-racist" mean?

[HK_Katherine]

What on earth does "self-racist" mean?

I assumed s/he was referring to the way local Chinese look down on other Chinese.

[applejacks]

It's more often termed internalized racism in the US.

In HK, local HKs actions/ideas/perceptions related to whites being better and more deserving of priviledges.

[MASTER-OF-HK]

Interesting view..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internalized_racism

There's definitely a fair bit of that going on.

[Claire ex-ax]

It's more often termed internalized racism in the US.

In HK, local HKs actions/ideas/perceptions related to whites being better and more deserving of priviledges.

You're out of date on that, unless you've met some very weirdly subservient locals. These days it's more about looking down on others than looking up.

[applejacks]

Ok. I haven't been here long, but I wonder how much looking down makes sense if they don't also look up, unless they believe themselves at the top.

Equally vile of course.