Quote Originally Posted by Jaz Paul:
To answer op's question- no, as this is a homogenous society and any preconceived notions of assimilation prior to my arrival on this land were quashed in no time. That's one of the reasons I don't learn/ want to learn Cantonese even though I had bought 'learn Cantonese' book before coming here and even started learning it.

In hindsight, while growing up in NZ, I felt very kiwi and equally importantly was accepted by locals as one to a great extent.

Being a local isn't limited to knowing the local lingua franca or having a particular accent or even gobbling local cuisines, it is much more than that. There isn't anyone to blame here, unfortunately, it's just how thinks are these days around the world.
Ye when the society is so much more homogenous, then it almost becomes automatic for people to assume someone is not a local HKer when they see a Caucasian face.

I'm not sure the proportion of expats in HK who would be able to speak fluent Cantonese (or be wanting to achieve some level of fluency) and came to HK wanting to live the rest of their lives here. It's a bit of a two-way street and you can't blame the locals if expats/migrants don't put in the effort.

Funny you mention NZ. Think someone just said the place is racist as... 'New Zealand is racist as f***' - Taika Waititi | Newshub
And it's not long ago when people like Winston Peters were scapegoating Asian migrants....We're barely over that and now it's the Muslims...