I’ve made the realization that I’m not special in Hong Kong. Everything that helped me stand out in the US is only a basic requirement here. Every student in Hong Kong is required to learn Putonghua (Mandarin), English, and Cantonese by high school, everyone is very respectful to authority, and many students also do not drink or smoke. Not that I’m complaining- this is actually my favorite kind of society. We attended an orientation session for exchange students about the cultural clash westerners will witness in Hong Kong. The lecturer explained that Hong Kong is a Confucius Heritage Culture. The three main points he made about CHC is that the students here care about “face” (reputation, dignity), respecting authority, and have more of a collectivist outlook. Here, they care about Face in the sense you refrain from doing stupid things to maintain your own self respect, not just because people will judge you. The smallest of laws, like no drinking or eating, are strictly enforced and followed here. This probably comes from the last two points of CHC, respecting authority and collectivism. Here, no one believes themselves to be the one exception to the law- one example of exception being “there were no cars there; I shouldn’t have had to stop at that stop sign!” In the US, the individualist movement makes a fair statement about authority, pointing out that the people who make up authority are just people- people who are just as flawed as the ones they are ruling over. While this is true, the negative result of this belief is usually people not wanting to obey laws because they don’t like them (and therefore think they are unfair). But here, people follow every law, not because they blindly accept their authority, but because they give them more of a chance, as explained by CHC’s respect for authority. Speaking of laws, one very strict one in UST is no drinking or smoking on campus. I was surprised how many students obey this. On most US campuses, the common sentiment is that students will do it anyway, so it’s better to leave cigarette disposal stations or else there will be butts everywhere or let them drink on campus so that students can seek help if they’ve binged. But here, no one “does it anyway”! Even though the drinking age here is only 18, very few students actually drink, and when they do, they leave campus to do it. I can’t argue which policy is better, US or HK’s. How many people actually follow the laws is a result of the culture. In a place that calls for individualism and little authority, the laws will be much more lax than in a culture that respects authority and collectivism. These laws are tailored to be observed. At the orientation, the speaker concluded the lecture by asking that we exchange students not judge until we understand their culture. “Ask them what it’s like to be part of a territory constantly passed off to different countries,” he said, “ask them what it was like during the violent 1967 riots. Ask them what it’s like for their family of 5 to grow up in a 300 square feet apartment.” The crowd went quiet. I felt a twinge of guilt, and appreciation towards my parents, that 300 square feet is about the size of our living room.

Hope you enjoyed your rain, everyone! I was lucky to have gotten my plane ticket when I did and left on Friday. I landed safely at the Hong Kong airport on Saturday night, then barreled down the left side of the road on a double decker bus. I clung onto my seat the entire time.

I stayed with family before I move into my dorm. They are trying their best to make me feel welcomed, but I am still nervous. I’m in a new city where everyone speaks so quickly and everything is in Chinese, compressing the years I learned into nothing more than the content of a third grade curriculum. Luckily I have cousins that took me around and prevented this foreigner from being ripped off. During my stay, we visited the shopping district Mong Kok. For the first time ever, I saw a Chinese hobo. I was shocked. I suppose the common sentiment in the US, that I also subscribe to, is that Chinese immigrants are proud and hard working people- in the sense that they would rather work 16 hours a day than admit they are underprivileged, much less ask anyone for a cent of money. However, I did hear that some of these people are paid to be beggars, so it’s entirely possible that the sentiment applies to people in Hong Kong too.

Today, I went on a school organized tour of Lantau Island. We visited the Tian Tan Buddha, a fishing village, and the Tsing Ma Bridge to show off Hong Kong’s great civil engineering feat. The Buddha is featured in the picture. We climbed 268 steps to get close to him. The tour was opened to exchange students, so I met students from all over the world. My first friend was a Russian girl doing an exchange from England. She told me that on her taxi ride from the airport to the university, the cab driver charged her 400 HKD (about $50 USD) and she couldn’t argue back with him so she just paid it. The average taxi ride is about 20 HKD. We met students from Spain, Korea, and England and we all spoke English to each other and described prices in HKD. They act as a constant reminder of the disconnect between language slang in the US and other countries, as well as measurement systems. Now, rather than trying to constantly convert Celsius to Fahrenheit in my head (roughly twice + 30 to simplify it), I’m trying to understand how the scale feels. This way, I can say “40 degrees wow? That’s hot!” without having to think about it for a minute afterwards.

At the university, unlike the area my aunt and uncle live in, everything is translated into English. I am told all my classes are in English as well. For these modernized places, it’s probably because Britain had control of Hong Kong until 1997. This is less worrisome for me. But still, phases like MTR (mass transit rail), coach (bus), EPS card (electronic payment system), lift, flat, and uni I will have to get used to hearing. I also am trying to learn more Cantonese (Just so I don’t get ripped off. I did direct a taxi to drive me and my friends without a $400 bill today though!) and more Chinese characters. Not even 4 days in and there’s already so much to remember. Here’s to another 4 months.