Any discrimination towards eurasians in HK ?

[MikaHell]

Hi,

I'm Michael, Belgian (white). Soon I will have a baby, my wife (HKese) is 6 months pregnant and we're thinking of whether we should stay in HK to raise our kid or move back to Belgium.

Our concern is that we think our kid won't be accepted here in HK as the local people think he's not 100% Chinese. So they will maybe look down on him. Especially if he goes to a normal public school.

Personally, I don't have any problems with local people. I think HK people are very friendly towards foreigners (errr white it is),

So I'd like to have some advice from you guys. Has anyone experienced discrimination being a mixed-blood in HK ?

Thanks

Michael

[Load Toad]

None that we've noticed. Infact quite on the contrary in HK, Singers and Mainland.

[carang]

i have two mixed kids (white & hk chinese). my son is almost 5 and my daughter is almost 3. my son attends a local kindergarten and has NEVER encountered ANY problems whatsoever. we are going to send him to a local primary school. i did have the same concern, but i was able to find a local school nearby that has a P1 class that is 1/3 mixed children. that set my mind at ease.

other than that, people still approach my kids to ask for photos with them. (if i do say so myself, my kids are gorgeous!) people are always very friendly towards them and a big deal is made of them virtually everywhere we go. we live in sai kung and we used to live in db. my parents-in-law live in sham shui po and hte amount of attention they receive is about the same no matter where we are.

[Sunfire]

Do you really want to put a child through the HK school system if you have a choice?

[PDLM]

Why not? It comes out far better in most international tests than, say, Belgium.

[carang]

sunfire, i had A LOT of reservations about using the local system.

BUT, for me, it was VERY important that my kids be completely fluent in Chinese. the ONLY way that will happen is if they go through the local system.

i have been teaching in hk for almost 15 years, so have a lot of experience of both the local and the international systems. for us, this is better... for now. i am keeping an open mind about it and i'm going to wait to see how it goes.

my 5 year old gets a little homework from school everyday now (5 minutes worth or so) and he LOVES doing it. he told me recently that his favourite things about school were his homework and getting to play with his friends.

i am still able to offer different methods of learning at home to supplement what they do at school.

[MikaHell]

@PDLM Actually Belgium has one of the best education systems in Europe, but I really don't know about local schools.

@sunfire I think if I have the choice I will put him in Belgium but I heard that schools in HK weren't that bad!

@ carang thanks for your advice and experience! Appreciate it

[Alby]

Recently a few mix-couple friends expecting have read this and found it thought provoking: THIRD CULTURE KIDS By DAVID C. POLLOCK

Personally haven't read it but I am sure other geoexpaters may have and can add more comments.

[UK/HKboy]

mixed race kids seem to be better accepted in hk. Much less likely to be looked down upon (esp if half white) than in most european countries.

in fact in HK, most people will look up to someone who is even partly international and from the comments from alot of locals i hang around with, they seem to automatically think that someone who is half chinese and half white is going to be handsome/beautiful.

in terms of schooling. i think it is much more difficult through the hk route to tertiary education due to the competitiveness and the education system. it would be much easier to take something like the UK GCSEs or A Levels (i dont know about the european system so i cannot speak for that), and use those grades which shud sound more impressive to apply for uni in hk or elsewhere. i was teaching in a secondary school a couple of years ago, and the kids in Form 5 (doing HKCEE exams) were learning the same stuff i would be learning at Uni in maths and economics!

[carang]

except that most international schools no longer do "A" levels... they mostly do IB programmes now.