"At least 30 years ago in Hong Kong, people would think it was strange to me - why would an Indian speak Chinese? But now it's much better." Kajal Aawani, an Indian lawyer born and raised in Hong Kong, told " "Hong Kong 01" dialogue, narrating quite inspirational personal experiences in fluent Cantonese - for nearly 18 years of practice, she has bravely overcame racial prejudice, doubts, language barriers and other difficulties in her career, gained a firm foothold in the legal field, and has the ability to handle disputes. He has extensive experience and is currently a partner in the family and divorce practice team of Gao Jiali Law Firm.
However, the vast majority of ethnic minorities are not as lucky as Zukarni, but are treated differently as "others". She lamented that despite the diversity of Hong Kong and foreign countries, there is still a long way to go from true racial integration. Room for improvement.
Zukarni, an Indian lawyer, recalled that when she was studying, the school did not pay any attention to the Chinese education of minority students.
(Photo by Huang Baoying)
ignore Chinese education
Hong Kong prides itself on being a "diverse, inclusive and inclusive" international metropolis, but people of different races are often discriminated against, and South Asian ethnic minorities are particularly discriminated against.
According to the 2016 Population By-census, 88.9% of the population speak Cantonese (Cantonese) as their habitual language - this has led to ethnic minorities who do not use Chinese as their "natural mother tongue" in terms of daily life experience, access to public services, and protection of work rights and interests. Hit walls everywhere.
I believe that many Hong Kong people do not take this seriously, and even think that since they have settled in Hong Kong, they should learn the Hong Kong language. The problem is that the SAR government has not provided enough Chinese education for ethnic minorities since the school stage. The Ethnic Minority Poverty Report shows that the proportion of South Asian adults who can read and write Chinese is relatively low, and only less than 10% of Indians can read and write Chinese.
Zukarni recalled that in the first to fourth grades of primary school, ethnic minority and Chinese students attended classes together, and the ratio of the two was about one to nine.
They can communicate in Chinese every day, but most of the teaching is in English, and the Chinese class may even become empty. Because the teacher said that ethnic minorities do not need to learn Chinese, they only teach Chinese students in the same class.
In the fifth and sixth grades of primary school, the school merged minority students from different classes into an independent class, and taught in French, and there was no Chinese education at all.
School education has always emphasized "obedience", students must follow the teaching policy, and parents will not question it, but looking back now, Zukarni said bluntly, "The school does not pay attention to (our) Chinese education at all."
In middle school, Zukani's classmates were all minority students and still taught in English, when she was among the top grades.
It was not until 1995, when Zukarni was promoted to Secondary 5, that the school suddenly stated that since all teaching in Chinese was required in Secondary 6, it would greatly increase the difficulty of learning for minority students, and it would even be difficult for them to graduate from secondary school. The 17-year-old Zukarni had to reluctantly give up her studies to find a job in the society and work as an accountant in a small trading company.
She recalled that at that time, most of the classmates followed a similar fate. Only one student with top grades was admitted to the preparatory course by the school under the efforts of her mother. Teaching and taking exams were too difficult, and the student had to give up after three months.
Regarding the issue of Chinese language education for ethnic minorities, the SAR government is not inactive, but it cannot stand scrutiny.
On the one hand, the Education Bureau has implemented the "dual-track system" since 2014 and launched the "Applied Learning Chinese (for non-Chinese speaking students)" course, which aims to help non-Chinese speaking students lay the foundation for the application of Chinese in the workplace. The qualifications are equivalent to the DSE Chinese language examination.
However, Leung Wai-min, an assistant professor of the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, once pointed out to "Hong Kong 01" that the "dual-track system" is only for students in Hong Kong's Secondary 4 to Secondary 6, and the current primary school sub-examination requires non-Chinese-speaking students to be assessed with Chinese-speaking students' papers. , it is inevitable to be unfair and frustrating to students.
She suggested that the Chinese curriculum in junior high schools and even elementary schools should also be adjusted appropriately.
On the other hand, the education authorities or the schools themselves seldom train teachers to teach non-Chinese speaking students. As a result, language teachers lack the skills and experience to teach ethnic minorities in accordance with their aptitude. They often have no way to deal with non-Chinese speaking students with weak Chinese foundation.
Although the "2016 Hong Kong Ethnic Minority Poverty Report" shows that more than 70% of Indian and Pakistani children can read and write Chinese, while nearly 50% of Nepalese children, that is, under the government's policy update, the new generation of ethnic minorities Children's Chinese literacy skills are significantly better than adults', but those students who were not covered by the policy in the early years are still caught in a vicious circle of difficulty in further education and job hunting due to their low Chinese proficiency, and cannot solve intergenerational poverty.
Furthermore, even if the new generation of minority children begins to break through the Chinese language barriers in the education system, they still face the problem of low enrollment rates.
According to data provided by the Legislative Council, only 10 per cent of South Asians aged 18 to 22 progress to degree programmes in Hong Kong, well below the 23 per cent rate associated with the overall population.
I wonder how many Zukani stories can there be?
Many teachers do not know how to teach non-Chinese speaking students in accordance with their aptitude.
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Job hunting hits a wall
When she first came out of the society, Zukarni was recommended by relatives and friends and worked as an accountant in two trading companies.
From her work, she fully felt that women can also use their fists in the workplace, so she gradually broke away from the traditional concepts of her hometown, such as "males take the lead outside, females take the lead inside", girls get married, have children, be good wives and good mothers, etc., and yearn for countless possibilities in life; , resolutely decided to enroll in the part-time law diploma course offered by the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Hong Kong in 1999, and at the same time engaged in administrative work in a large British law firm, and began to apply for studying in the UK.
After communication, the parents respected Zukarni's wish to further study and rewrite her destiny, and she no longer bound her with traditional expectations of women.
In September 2000, Zukarni used her work savings to go to the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. After three years, she returned to Hong Kong with a bachelor's degree in law. She continued her studies at City University of Hong Kong and completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL. for short). .
Such an inspirational resume was not common among Indian women at that time. However, Zukarni was repeatedly rejected when she was looking for a trainee lawyer opportunity, and she did not even have an interview opportunity.
A law firm's human resources management bluntly stated that the company hired top students who graduated from top universities such as Cambridge University. They can use biliterate and trilingual skills proficiently, but Zukarni's Chinese reading and writing skills are not good and have no advantage.
Afterwards, under the recommendation of the CityU teacher, Zukarni got an interview opportunity and persuaded the other party to throw an olive branch with her ability and sincerity.
Zukarni said that all documents used by the law firm need to be translated into English. Although her Chinese reading and writing skills are not good enough to translate documents, she has reached the level of her native English, and her oral Chinese skills are good, so she can participate in meetings with leaders. , Negotiate with customers, take meeting notes, or proofread English documents.
It can be said that Zukarni is quite lucky, because the laws of Hong Kong follow the common law system established during the British colonial period in Hong Kong, which has always been dominated by English, so even though her job search process was not smooth due to her lack of Chinese education since childhood, she was finally able to find a job in the workplace. An exhibition director.
However, in all walks of life, there are not many minority job seekers who are turned away because of their Chinese ability.
Zukarni once wrote an article in the newspaper, talking about many people's limited Chinese reading and writing skills, even if they can communicate in Cantonese, they often encounter obstacles in the workplace. For example, many of her classmates can only do manual labor because of this. work, unable to practice other career ideals.
Liang Xuming, associate professor of the Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, who has studied related issues, pointed out to "Hong Kong 01" earlier that language ability is indeed the fundamental problem of difficulty in finding a job, but this can easily become an excuse, which makes many employers have a seemingly "legitimate" job. Grounds for refusing some eligible ethnic minorities to apply for employment.
In fact, occupations such as medical, engineering, and sales do not have high demand for Chinese proficiency, but employers still question the literacy level of ethnic minorities in Chinese, and there is a deep-rooted racial discrimination behind them.
Zukarni relies on personal struggle to change her destiny, but she believes the government should do more to promote racial integration.
(Photo by Huang Baoying)
The road to racial integration is long and difficult
Today, Zukarni has formed a happy family. Unlike her traditional female peers who have given up her career, she insists on pursuing her dreams and finding her own way. However, there are still many fellow villagers and other ethnic minorities. Discrimination, traditional concepts, language ability and other issues make it difficult to get out of the cycle of fate.
It is undeniable that in recent years, through group initiatives and media reports, the plight of ethnic minorities has gradually come into the public's attention. The racial integration policy has indeed improved, but there is still much room for improvement.
Zukarni believes that the top elites from all walks of life especially need to face up to the problem of workplace discrimination faced by ethnic minorities. They should not be excluded simply based on language ability, but should be treated equally, and the professionalism of job seekers of different races should be measured by the same set of standards. Ability and Character Conduct.
Her youthful experience made Zukarni well aware that if the ethnic minorities who are regarded as "others" want to make a breakthrough in Hong Kong, they need to redouble their efforts in networking, ability and literacy.
In 2006, she established the Hong Kong Indian Bar Association (later renamed the Hong Kong South Asian Bar Association) with three South Asian colleagues. In addition to promoting members' exchanges and mutual support, she mainly assists South Asian youths in the industry to broaden their horizons and make contacts. , to solve the confusion, and will set up a mentor project to lead them into the workplace, breaking the imagination of the prospect with the power of example.
The association currently has more than 150 members.
Since December 2018, the EOC launched the "Employer's Charter on Ethnic Diversity and Inclusion", which has been signed by 200 organisations, including multinational corporations, local consortiums, SMEs, sports organisations, educational groups, NGOs, etc., pledging to support the promotion Ethnic Diverse Workplace.
However, in promoting racial integration, the SAR government must take the initiative to take responsibility and play its role.
Zukarni appealed, "The government should not treat us with different standards." - In terms of language education, no matter what ancestry, people born and raised in Hong Kong should enjoy the basic right to learn Chinese from an early age, so as not to affect their academic and professional development in the future. Road; in terms of cultural integration, the government should face up to the important festivals of ethnic minorities such as India, and start to change small behaviors, such as issuing congratulations in the New Year to arouse public awareness.
Zukarni once insisted on giving gifts and Indian food to colleagues during the Indian New Year to deepen mutual cultural understanding, but her personal power is not enough to change the whole society. The government should think about how to make Hong Kong a truly inclusive, diverse and inclusive international city.
