Will you come again next Saturday? (On Visiting Chong King Mansion)

Just before I left, Dhan(the guy I talked to in English class) asked me that question. Of course I want to voluteer in Christian Action and talk to as many people as I can. But the problem for me is that could I handle my emotion? and try not to ask those sensitive questions?

Everything has its good and bad side. Globalization in their cases has both sides. The good is globalization actually help them to get away from the country where they have problem surviving. The bad side is that they come to Hong Kong and the media in their home country did not spread the message that they cannot treated as refugee in Hong Kong. Those developed countries can treat them like human, they have their own human right. But in Hong Kong, they stuck in a place that they perceived as "modern and legalized". The most vital problem is that they do nothing wrong. But the Hong Kong government is treating them worse than those people who are really criminals. The funniest thing is that the law on discrimination has passed. You could be arrested if you call a westerner "gweilo", but the legal body itself is discriminating others like the refugee and the mainland immigrant.

Yes, some of the asylum seeker might lucky enough to go to western country. However, the underlying problem has not be solved. Like discussed over lunch, there is not many awareness on Somalia and some other countries that has political problem. Despite the fact that many people are dead because of the on going civil war or the unstable political status everyday . The "international"(mostly western) media has turn deaf on those issues. The fundamental problems of helping those countries encountering political difficulties, stopping the civil war, (these things should be dealt by UN, but it does very less.. of coz) are still unsolved.

This Chong King Mansion visit is really an eye-opener. In the past, Chong King Mansion is a place I went only for Indian dinning. I would never dare to walk around. Few years ago, the entrance was still loaded with tons of indian people they wrapped around you pulling your hand, telling you to go to their restaurant. You needed to struggle to get pass them and enter the building. But today,that "tradition" were gone. You can see the impact of tourism. The mall just next to the mansion is so hip and Hong Kong people and of course tourist friendly. To create a new face for Chong King Mansion, you can see that there is a Hong Kong, or at least Cantonese speaking, security guard. These all happen after the Mainland solo traveller programme has launched. This is another kind of globalization issue. Everyone in Hong Kong (or at least the Gov't or the businessmen )think and know that tourism can improve our economy. So that we bring as many people around as we can to Hong Kong. To reach that goal, we need to create a "tourist friendly"(at least the gov't think it is) environment which are clean, safe, comfortable place.

Wandering in the mansion, I find that there are surprisingly amount of Hongkongers work there. The restaurant is running by Hongkonger and selling Indian food, some are in the mobile phone shop, souvenir shop, clothing store and even grocery shop. Locals like me did not know that there are so many (I expected none) Hongkongers are working there. Their story must be fascinating. Do they speak other languages? Like Indian, Nepalese or other african language? If not, how do they do business? Why Chong King? How do they survive? I can't help thinking is there any locals running a guesthouse? How do they feel as a minority inside the mansion but they are actually majority outside the mansion? Does globalization bring them there? Chong King is the place that the they can benefit from doing business with travelers or they open a shop there because they encountered failure outside the mansion?

And I think, everyone either stay or work in the mansion, all has a very fascinating untold story. Those stories are mostly ignored by the majority Hong Kong locals. I want to go back some time, but can I handle the shock?

Vicky

To Jennifer: Many thanks for taking the photo. Could you send it to this address "ngwaiqi (dot) gmail (dot) com"