I confess...

... I enjoy watching others' amazed faces and hearing that gosh-you-look-like-a-freshman exclamation when I tell them my real age. Even though I'll show them a come-on-you're-kidding look, deep down I do feel flattered. Such an interaction will actually make my day if only it stops here. However, usually it doesn't.

Some people just get too excited that they act like having found a rare human species and go ask others around to guess my real age. I don't mind disclosing my age but slipping my age in a small talk is one thing; making it a public spotlight is another.

After two months of meeting new people in Melbourne, I can proudly conclude that such guessing-game reaction is not culturally confined and is stemmed from our primitive need to share discoveries.

Luckily, my thoughts and behaviors approximate my real age or I will be classified as having a Freudian regression .

Stuff Hong Kong People Like

I'm not being culturally stereotypical, but one has to admit that culture does play a role in conditioning our thoughts and behaviours even though individual difference does exist (the academia will become a boring place if people are only viewed as qualitatively unique in all aspects). As a hardcore Hong Kong girl studying in a white-dominated yet multiethnic society, I do notice some variance in Hong Kong culture that sets us apart from others (including Asians). As Stuff White People Like is now all the rage in the cyber-community, I've decided to write about a few stuff that Hong Kong people like.

1. Adpoting an English first name (I mean those British/American kind of English first names) or even a Japanese first name in addition to a given Chinese name and changing that constantly to fit in one's ideal identity

The more exotic the better. Imagine telling others you're called Ada or Peter; they will probably call you May or John when they see you again because all these names fall into the same category: 'just the other gal or guy' when they try to encode you into the long-term memory. If you tell others that you're called Blanchefleur (in case you wonder, it's a girl name) or Zacarias, doesn't matter that many Hongkongers have difficulties pronouncing /l/, /r/or /z/, they will have no problem remembering you even if they can't correctly pronounce your name as you're encoded as 'someone with a long, exotic name that I can't spell or pronounce'.

At first I thought it's a colonial thingy, but then I found out that the Chinese, in general, love this practice (the Indian were once under the British colonial rule as well but they don't give themselves British first names). But of course it is more deeply rooted in Hong Kong culture that even our Hong Kong-born Chief Executive has an English first name (I don't think Hu Jin Tao has an English name, nor does our former Shanghai-born Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa).

English teachers in Hong Kong should partly be blamed as they encourage, if not require, their students to adpot an English first name in class (hands up: I didn't do that though I did ask my students to tell me how they'd like me to address them in English lessons). I have an English name which my English teacher, instead of my parents, gave me but I never use it here. Nor have I added that English name to my identity card or passport when I was given a chance to do so a couple of years ago. I just don't feel right even though I'm widely known as Ada to most of my friends and colleagues in Hong Kong.

An Indian classmate of mine told me that a Hong Kong student once asked her what her English name was even after she told him her Indian name in English. And she was so puzzled at that time. Obviously, there's a distinction between modernisation and westernisation in her country.

Now that Japanese pop culture has captured the hearts of both teenagers and adults in Hong Kong, more people now identify themselves with Japanese first names like Miki, Suki, Yuki or Suzuki.

So why do we hate our names? Alright, we don't really hate our names but we just want to feel closer to another culture. So why do we hate our own culture? Alright, we don't really hate our own culture but we just want to appear to be more westernized or more Japanese-like by adopting a foreign name. By the way, adopting an English first name has become part of our culture now, hasn't it? And our culture is to make ourselves look more Caucasian and Japanese.

Hong Kong being a British colony for more than 150 years, we feel alienated from our Chinese identity. Some people in Hong Kong still hold overpriced, under-internationally recognized British Nationals (Overseas) (BN(O)) passports in the hope of clinging to the very last bit of the British identity, no matter how weak it is. Some years ago when I helped with the new student registration at a secondary school, some parents still claimed their sons or daughters as British since they hold BN(O). And it was almost 8 years after the handover.

What's worse, it's not just my subjective perception that we don't like our Chinese root. A couple of years ago I met some Belgian backpackers in Tokyo and we came to chat about our trips in Japan. I told them that many local people mistook me for a Japanese, then they said I must have been very happy about this comment. And when I denied that and said I was proud of being Chinese, they were amazed.

I don't entertain the idea of culture decolonization as we have to accept the past as part of ourselves. But as a Hongkonger, don't assume that all Asians have an extra English name in addition to their own ones.

2. Being obsessed with designer brands

The line of prospective Chinese spenders outside the Louis Vitton store in Tsim Sha Tsui has always bewilders me. What puzzles me more is not the familiar sight of a girl carrying a Louis Vitton, Gucci or Burberry (whatever) bag in Hong Kong but how people with low household income can afford a handbag that can cost as much as a month of their salary. Some students of mine used to carry Vivienne Westwood or Prada to school though I could never tell whether it's authentic or not (forgive me, I've never owned one myself).

Anyway, whenever you see somebody carrying a designer bag (be it Agnes b, Gucci, Louis Vitton, Burberry, Channel or Vivienne Westwoon) or wearing a Bathing Ape, Beams Boy or Comme des Garcons T-shirt, there's 90% of chance that they are from Hong Kong.

3. Judging people's intelligence based on their standard of English

During the colonial British governance, English proficiency was what it took to success. Local students would be denied admission to any local university if they fail the public English exam regardless of how brillient they are or how proficient their Chinese is (you don't need to be able to use a foreign language if you, as a local, want to study at a Japanese, Taiwanese or Korean university, right?). Many of my students have obtained good grades in Chinese and other subjects at the A-level exams but failed to secure a place at university because they failed English. Is that fair to deny one's admission to university just because they can't master a second language while mother tongue education is strictly enforced from primary schools to secondary schools? (why do we hate our language? alright, that's another story.)

Anyway, the thought that English standard equals cognitive abilities has long been instilled in our minds. Mrs Fanny Law, the former premanent secretary for the then Education and Manpower Bureau, has once doubted a visiting scholar's academic credibility because of her poor spoken English before she was informed that the scholar was Harvard educated.

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well, I do love Hong Kong :) It's cute to have an English name and interesting to see people carrying designer bags, isn't it?