Floating in Hong Kong. One | Hong Kong, where you can leave without leaving, Hong Kong, where you can’t stay | 01 Weekly

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Written by: Cheng Xue

2021-06-17 19:45

Last update date: 2021-06-17 19:53

The "Hong Kong Drifters" group, like the "North Drifters" and "Shanghai Drifters" popular in the millennium, are a group of people living far away from their birthplaces and wandering to earn a living in big cities. They are a group derived from the background of the Chinese society of population migration.

Among them, the word "drift" vividly outlines the living conditions of this group: they do not have a registered permanent residence, so they are not sure whether they can take root in the local area; they are helpless and wandering, because there is no entanglement, they can just walk away.

When it comes to "Gang Piao", let alone the meaning-some people think of white-collar financial workers who speak Mandarin and brightly dressed in Central; some people think of international students who flood into the Luohu port every autumn and drive up rental prices around major colleges and universities. ...These impressions all reflect that Hong Kong society’s understanding of "Hong Kong drifters" is very narrow, confined to them "sharing" employment and education resources; in the discourse on Hong Kong's social development, "Hong Kong drifters" have therefore become "others". ".

The problem is that in today's fierce competition for talents in the world, "Hong Kong drift" is actually the target of Hong Kong's "talent introduction policy". These highly educated and high-skilled young people are shaping Hong Kong's development together with other people living on this land. future.

However, for them, Hong Kong is far from being "their place, their time."

For Cherry, coming to Hong Kong is to realize his mother's dream.

"My mother had a friend who married to Hong Kong when she was young. She has always been envious." Cherry explained.

Therefore, as soon as she graduated from high school, her mother immediately handled her application for admission to universities in Hong Kong.

The girl who came out of the college entrance examination province like Shandong still came to Hong Kong to study with her childish ignorance; and she became the pride of her mother because of this.

As soon as Cherry graduated from high school, her mother immediately handled her application for admission to universities in Hong Kong.

(Profile picture)

"It's not Hong Kong's problem, it's my own problem."

However, it wasn't until Cherry was in the third year of university that when her mother received a call from the college teacher, she suddenly realized that she didn't seem to understand her daughter's real life in Hong Kong.

She couldn't figure out how a child who never let her worry about both her studies and life in high school would become a problematic student of the teacher's "missing class, not handing in homework, not being able to contact, and delaying graduation".

"It's not Hong Kong's problem, it's my own problem." Cherry repeated this sentence many times, "I'm not suitable for this place."

Before coming to Hong Kong, Cherry studied in a militarized middle school in the Mainland.

The so-called "militarized management" is the name of the high schools in the Mainland competing for the title.

With this title, it is equivalent to a guarantee for students and their parents to "enter a good university."

"Life back then was very simple," Cherry recalled.

Get up at 5:30 every morning, recite English words or Chinese composition for half an hour, eat breakfast at 6 o'clock, and go to school for the first morning class at 6:30.

There is a one-hour lunch break at 12 o'clock at noon. After dinner, I return to school and continue to class until 11 o'clock in the evening.

Even during the break between classes, the students study quietly, and there is an uninterrupted sound of the pen tip falling on the paper in the classroom.

High school days are exactly the same repetition, but Cherry never feels that such a life is boring.

"I feel that I have a clear goal, so I can follow my goal step by step. My life is very fulfilling."

She still remembers the happiest time in high school. The late self-study teacher left work at around 10pm. After that, she would slip to the playground, lie on the artificial turf football field and watch the stars, wondering what kind of university she would go to and how she would live. School life—the fantasy at that time was too far away from her later experience.

In the third year of university, Cherry and her classmates share a rent near the school.

She wakes up at noon every day. The roommate has returned to school for class. The room is empty, echoing the noise of traffic outside the window.

After eating something casually, Cherry continued to play games under the covers, and she was sent to the screen of the mobile phone a few inches in the sun and the moon like a shuttle.

Only when she received a call from the teacher, would she throw her phone aside in a panic, anxiously waiting for the vibration to end-in just a few tens of seconds, it seemed to Cherry to be long and quiet, and she even heard her heart in her chest cavity. There was a bang.

Refusing to go out, refusing to go to class, refusing to communicate with others, Cherry hides in her small room to escape from real life. In her words, she has become a "total internet addiction girl."

Cherry hides in her small room to escape from real life. She has been sent to the screen of a few inches on her mobile phone. In her words, she has become a "total internet addiction girl."

Schematic diagram, not the respondent himself.

(Profile picture)

This change had already begun to take shape when she first came to Hong Kong.

Compared with the regular high school life, the colorful college campus life has brought her a lot of freedom and choices. Although Cherry in a foreign land feels a little uncomfortable, it is more fresh: she chooses courses and joins enthusiastically. Societies, speak bad Cantonese, and participate in the activities of local students.

However, after a long time, she gradually became incompetent.

She doesn't like accommodation, the endless all-night dormitory activities make her feel bored, and the system that requires a good relationship with local classmates in order to get lodging points also makes her heady.

So when she was in her sophomore year, Cherry moved out of the school dormitory.

The more serious problem is academic pressure.

For Cherry's freshman year, although she faced the challenge of being taught in English, it was not difficult. In addition, she got rid of the rigorous and high-pressure learning environment of high school, and she quickly "released".

"I didn't spend a lot of energy on studying." She said frankly that the course can be delayed, and the end of the semester is always thrilling to pass, which also made her feel lucky.

But by the next semester of the sophomore year, the difficulty of the course suddenly increased, and she was shocked to realize that she could not keep up with the progress.

"The more I delay my studies, the less I can keep up, and the less I can keep up, the less I don't want to learn. The more I fall, the more I feel anxious and want to escape, like being caught in a vicious circle." She recalled.

With this mentality, her grades plummeted. "Failed subjects (unqualified) cannot make up exams, and the scores are included in the GPA; I am very afraid that I will not be able to graduate, and I am afraid that I will be wasted all these years in Hong Kong. Some courses have to be retaken, and I don’t know. How can I explain to my parents that I need to go to school for an extra year? I even want to sell my bags.” When this was said, she smiled embarrassedly, “But after all, the money is not enough for a year’s tuition and living expenses."

Entering her junior year, Cherry shut herself in a rental room and skipped three courses at the same time—one is an elective computer course. She loves games and chose this course out of interest, but the course is getting harder and harder. Discouraged; one is a compulsory public lecture in English, which is a five-minute English speech every week in front of the whole class, which is a nightmare for her mentally handicapped; the other is a graduate design laboratory, each student has his own She did a graduation project for her post, and it was the teacher of this course who discovered that she had never appeared in her position.

Cherry said, "The afternoon I was talking on the phone with my mom, I broke down."

Schematic diagram, not the respondent himself.

(Profile picture)

"He is the dean of the college and he is very concerned about my condition. I found that I was often absent and my grades were not good, so he contacted me to ask about the situation." But this kind of concern is pressure from Cherry's point of view, "Whenever I see I’m very scared of school phone calls. Can you understand that feeling? I feel like they are all coming to force you.” When Cherry couldn’t be reached, the department head had to contact her emergency contact person, and the phone number reached Cherry’s mother.

"The afternoon I was talking on the phone with my mother, I broke down," Cherry said.

On the phone, she cried to her mother about her pressure to study in Hong Kong, and received her mother's tolerant comfort.

After that, Cherry started psychological counseling and was treated by a psychiatrist—she was diagnosed with depression at one time.

My mental state gradually improved. During the re-study period, I made up the most resisted English public speaking course, but the computer class was still abandoned.

In 2019, Cherry finally graduated successfully.

After graduation, Cherry found an event planning job in Hong Kong while embarking on an insurance practice exam.

But as the social movement is in full swing, Cherry feels an unprecedented alienation from Hong Kong society.

"I have no political stance," she said frankly.

However, living in Mong Kok several times witnessed fierce conflict scenes, Huang Si’s friend was attacked by netizens on Facebook because of his identity as a mainlander, and the local students and classmates whom he had made in the past suddenly cut off contact... Cherry is deeply aware that no matter how much effort she makes, she has never really integrated into this society.

The following year, she chose the game design major she loves to continue her studies.

This year is Cherry's seventh year in Hong Kong, and she will be able to obtain a Hong Kong permanent resident identity card in September.

Recently, the content of her chats with friends mainly revolved around "If you go back to the mainland, is it necessary to change your ID card."

At the end of May, she had obtained an employment letter from a major game factory in the Mainland, and she had to retreat to a house that had been rented for three years and started to move.

"The reason for leaving was because I felt that I was never suitable here, and the other was because there was no job I wanted to do." During the job search, Cherry entered the word "game" on a recruitment website in Hong Kong and found that the search results were " Positions such as "Children’s Game Instructor" and "Game Player Accessories Personnel".

"Hong Kong does not have a very good Internet industry. The corresponding game production industry is very narrow and the development space is limited." She smiled helplessly. "Among my friends, it seems that only the financial industry can gain a foothold in Hong Kong."

"My mother wants me to change my ID card. She plans to buy a house in Hong Kong as a store of asset value," Cherry said, "but I don't think it is necessary."

"My mother wants me to change my ID card. She plans to buy a house in Hong Kong as a store of value for assets." Cherry said, "but I don't think it is necessary." (Photo/Photo by Zhang Haowei)

"I support Hong Kong, but I will not vote"

Will works in the financial industry, works in Central, and rents a two-bedroom apartment-style hotel suite in Hung Hom alone.

This is his third residence in Hong Kong—the first is a unit rented in Sheung Shui with his classmates when he was a graduate student, and the second is to move to the Olympic station after graduation.

Like many international students, Will stayed in Hong Kong because it is more free than the mainland, and because it is a Chinese community, there will not be too many barriers.

With a background in finance, he has broad career development prospects in Hong Kong.

After coming to Hong Kong for nine years, Will still doesn't speak Cantonese very well, so he can only speak everyday language.

When he entered his first job, two Hong Kong colleagues enthusiastically taught him how to speak Cantonese. Will was half-serious and half-perfunctory, and learned very slowly. Instead, the two Hong Kong colleagues spoke Mandarin better.

"You don't have to speak Cantonese to get into any circle. I don't have this need," he said bluntly.

The work is mainly in English and Mandarin. A few simple sentences of "Don't you should" and "Thank you" are enough to cope with daily life, in Will's opinion, it is enough.

"Language is just a tool, not a sign of identity." He said.

The attitude towards Cantonese reflects Will's attitude towards Hong Kong to a certain extent: Make life convenient and only do useful things.

In 2019, when Will exchanged for his Hong Kong permanent resident identity card, the district election was over.

But he admits that even if he has the right to vote, he will not vote—not out of indifference to politics, but because in his opinion, voting is one of the "useless things."

"I deliberately went to the polling station to observe it. It was very interesting." He remembered talking to his friends with conviction at the time, thinking that the democratic camp must have won a big victory, and he even expected the central government to respond by means of thunderbolt.

"I come from the Mainland and I understand what the country is like." Will explained vaguely, "The success of the regional elections of the democrats will definitely make the central government unhappy, and there will be the next wave of backlash." He believes that Hong Kong and the central power are far apart. The result of the game between the two parties is obvious.

"It's like playing a game, we are just players. Who is making the rules of the game? Who are the top decision makers? Obviously not Hong Kong."

When Will exchanged for his Hong Kong permanent resident identity card, the district election was over.

But he admits that even if he has the right to vote, he will not vote—not out of indifference to politics, but because in his opinion, voting is one of the "useless things."

(Profile picture)

Will believes that the election itself is a show, showing the "Hong Kong Model" to Taiwan.

Therefore, when the "Hong Kong Model" not only fails to impress Taiwan, but instead helps Tsai Ing-wen to be elected, the Central Government will definitely modify the rules of the game.

Based on this understanding, Will analyzes that whether it is elections, demonstrations, or even violent demonstrations, in the eyes of the central government, they are all "small troubles" and "just click the switch to restart." No amount of effort will be able to reverse the future of Hong Kong. It should be reduced to the development trend of "ordinary inland cities".

On the other hand, the various election platforms put forward by different district councillors are hard to talk about in Will’s view, so he doesn’t want to spend his energy to care about them.

"The increase in the ferry frequency from Hung Hom to Central, the reduction of bus fares for the elderly, etc., most of the measures seem to have nothing to do with me. Then, what is the difference between voting for A or B?" he said.

Despite this, Will does not shy away from his political stance of "supporting Hong Kong."

"It is precisely because of this judgment about the future of Hong Kong that I am shocked by the Hong Kong people's "knowing it cannot be done"." He explained.

However, his support is limited to thoughts and verbal expressions, "I live in Hong Kong from the perspective of a "bystander"."

The reason for becoming a "bystander" is related to what Will sees and hears in Hong Kong.

In 2014, the Occupy Central Movement broke out. At that time, Will had just worked and was still a "young passion." He was unfamiliar and curious about social movements. He often observed the students in Occupy Central.

"I have a senior, who is still the top pick in our place. He is very aggressive. He participated in the Occupy Central movement. He was photographed and reported, and then he could never go back to the mainland." Will frankly said that the senior's experience reminded him not to walk into the crowd. Among them, "I can't tell if I get caught."

Another reason is that Will feels that there is no interest entanglement that has motivated him to take root in Hong Kong.

"If I have a house or a company here to do business, I may feel that this place is related to me more personally." And there is no entanglement, which means that I can just leave, "If Hong Kong really becomes ordinary In mainland cities, I should choose to go abroad."

Wandering has never troubled Will. "Live wherever you go, just do your own thing."

(Cherry and Will in the text are both pseudonyms.)

Continue reading:

Drifting in Hong Kong.

2. Lack of long-term planning, Hong Kong has become a transit point for "talents"

The above was published in the 269th issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly (June 15, 2021) "Floating in Hong Kong".

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