From: dht@cs.mu.OZ.AU (Joyous Dave baby)
Subject: Re: Leaving Hong Kong
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 12:16:35 GMT

The time was January 1986.

I actually found out Australia approved our application to immigrate
in April 1985 (or around that time).  At first, it was joy, it's a
sense of excitment.  However, as the time approaches, I started to
fear the unknown future, and fear the loss of friendships and
lifestyles of HongKong.

The first year was the worst year in my life.  Australia is empty
and boring (an *exact* opposite of HongKong).  Melbourne city is
man-less on most weekday-nights; the China Town is so small that
it might as well not exist.  TV programmes are extremely boring.
It was a complete cultural shock.

Two of the first Australian friends I made (i.e. not from HongKong)
in school didn't leave me with a good impression.  They pirated
the softwares I bought in HongKong, sold them for high prices
without paying me any share.  They borrowed some of my magazines
like Computing Age (not that they can read Chinese), pirated the
programmes in it, sold them, and didn't even inform me.  At that
point, I was very unimpressed with Australians.

Also, high school was *chaotic*.  People smoke, throw rubbish
everywhere, swear, don't wear uniforms properly... and there
was a time when a little riot happened, and lots of windows
were broken.  I was scared by the atitudes.  However, I became
top of the class in most subjects easily, including English.

The next year, 1987 was much better; mainly because I transfered
to another school, the students have better disciplines, the
teachers are more responsible, and the study atmosphere is much
more competitive.  I also managed to skip year 10 because in
Australian curriculum, students learn next to nothing academically
from year 7 to year 10... in year 9, we were learning Maths which
I learned in year 5 in HongKong.  Anyway, I was in year 11, and
I was top of class in all subjects except English.

Later that year, I met who is now my best friend.  I started to
get to know Australian culture and lifestyle, and started making
more Australian friends.  My fear which resulted from my ex-high
school's experience was still there, but started to fade away.
I also joined a Church youth group, which helped me to open up
as an individual to Australia.

After year 12, the majority of my friends are Australians (i.e.
non-HongKong).  I'd say I became assimilated.  And I developed
as a person, for the better, all through year 12 and first year
University, during when I learned to re-define myself as an
individual which absorbed the goods of both societies (HKG and AUS).

In second year, I started living by myself, because my family moved
somewhere that was too far away to travel.  That year, I'd say I've
become almost completely Australian.  Almost all my friends are not
affliated with HKG, and my lifestyle is Australian... there was one
stage where I had trouble talking in Cantonese because I hardly used
it.

It was a similar situation in third year, however, I changed.  I went
to USA for a 3 months holidays, and comparing USA and Australia, I
realized that Australians are racist... since in USA, I was actually
treated as an individual, without people's stereotyping of who I
ought to be.  That was a hard year for me, as I tried to confronted
my inner struggle of being an Australian.  Although my lifestyle and
friends didn't change, but I constantly re-think if I was really
accepted by my friends for who I am, or whether my friends didn't
really accept me for who I am, but rather, still thought of me as
Asian, and hence never a part of them.  In many situations, I
discovered that the latter was true, and I became extremely dis-heartened.

This year, I have learned much more about Australia, and realized
that the problem with Australian attitude towards Asians was due
to what they learned in school and from the Media.  Most Australians
learnt that Asia is backwards, and under-developed... despite the
fact that HongKong is the world's third biggest financial market,
lots of Asian countries are miles ahead of Australia in terms of
management skills... Taiwan, in all aspects, economy, development,
etc, is far ahead of Australia.... and Australians are much less
efficient in getting things done, and Australian products
have very poor quality control... and HKG/Taiwan have much more
developed computer technologies, especially in banking.  However,
some Australians refuse to believe the facts I presented to them,
and some friends of mine even go as far as labelling HKG as "backwards"
(of course, he almost lost my friendship! ;-) ).

I enjoy reading books printed in USA about Asia, because they actually
acknowledge the fact that HKG and Taiwan (along with Japan, Korea, and
Singapore) are very developed, and maybe over-developed in some areas.
However, I've yet to find an Australian book which doesn't talk about
HongKong like a central African country!

I don't know whether this is due to fear of Asians or ignorant
educations or racism... but it's hard to live under this situation...
especially when I'm about to get out into the real world.

My future is uncertain.  I look at most of my friendships with people,
except a few, as uncertain.  I look at Australia with uncertainty in
terms of its position in Asia... despite the fact that the government
is trying very hard to "promote" Asia to Australians.  Whereas I
look at HongKong with firm certainty.  HongKong has been through
sooooo much in the past, HongKong has been though many cases when it
was close to collapse... example, Japanese occupation, Korean War,
loss of Mainland to Commuists, Cultural Revolution, etc, etc... but
*everytime* HongKong turned out to be *better* than before.  I believe
in the people... I'm sure that after 1997, HongKong will turn out to
be *better*, just like every other time.

I do intend to stay in Australia, and I pray that when my time comes,
Australians will re-learn Asia (East Asia) for what it really is, and
the media can be less biased, and actually present Asia/Asians as it/they
really is/are - civilized, developed, advanced, efficient, rich, polite,
etc, etc... and hopefully, racism will disappear when my grandchildren
are born.

-- 
"Now we insist that the customers use condoms, and most do.
We hit them on their most sensitive point, saying we are protecting
their families."              -- Margarita, Mexico City prostitute
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) that really hurts! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong