Ordinary Gweilo

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Him again

Pierce Lam is at his pompous best in the SCMP letter column (Linguistic prejudice), complaining that the English Schools Foundation is selecting children based upon their ability to communicate in, er, English:

Hong Kong is about the only city in the world that tolerates a partly publicly funded institution with an admission policy that discriminates against most of the population on linguistic grounds.

It is the English Schools Foundation’s declared policy to give preferential admission to native English speakers. One practical effect of such a discriminatory policy is that local Chinese children are excluded from the plush facilities bestowed on the foundation by the colonial government. ESF primary schools keep turning away local Chinese children who would have no problems of admission if sent to schools in England, Australia and North America, simply because their Chinese-speaking families have been long-standing Hong Kong residents.

Spoken language may incarnate prejudice. How many foreign-born Chinese children articulating in fluent English have been "seen" to speak Chinese in admission interviews because of their non-western looks?

The ESF was set up to provide education using English as the medium of instruction. So, logically enough, they only admit children who can communicate in English – the majority of whom are (unsurprisingly) local Chinese.  Yes, local Hong Kong Chinese, whatever Pompous Pierce may choose to believe.

I missed this marvellous letter when it was published by the SCMP last Thursday, so I am grateful to the author of the following letter (published yesterday) for drawing my attention to it.

Letter writer Pierce Lam ("Linguistic prejudice" June 1) has been lambasting the English Schools Foundation for what seems like eons. He obviously has some long-standing grudge. Mr Lam, why don’t you tell us what the big bad ESF has done to you?
JENNIFER EAGLETON, Tai Po

Well, yes indeed.

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17 responses to “Him again”

  1. Sma avatar
    Sma

    Does Mr Lam have kids? Hmm…

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  2. Ken avatar
    Ken

    If one day a Pakistani School Foundation is founded, and funded partly by public money, one should not be surprised that admission is based on competency in Urdu, for example. I bet Mr. Lam would not lambast the Foundation in like manner. Why? Pakistan did not rule Hong Kong. Language is just an excuse.

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  3. Xi Hu avatar
    Xi Hu

    The debate on language now in the US and has been simmering in Canada and other countries for decades is not really about language itself, it’s more to do with political and economic influences. It’s no exception here in HK. I know it’s hard for some of you “native speakers of English” to accept.
    Look at no further than who has its soldiers stationed at the former Prince of Wales Barrack, whose gunboats docked at Stonecutters Island(it was a real island at one time). And now and in the future, what’s the native tongue of the “movers and shakers” in this city speak.
    Look at the big picture, the wind is shifting. The good news is that it’s changing so slowly most of you still don’t feel it yet. 😎
    Xi Hu.

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  4. Argleblaster avatar
    Argleblaster

    “Look at the big picture, the wind is shifting. The good news is that it’s changing so slowly most of you still don’t feel it yet.”
    Perhaps not, but I can sure smell it.

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  5. Glazedmeat avatar
    Glazedmeat

    Pierce Lams’ letters are always the same. He has written about other things but it is usually the ESF. His main point seems to be peddling racist inaccurate cr*p about Brits and colonial power.
    Hang on,come to think of it, I wonder if Xi Hu and Mr Lam are per-chance the same person?

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  6. Xi Hu avatar
    Xi Hu

    Typical overbearing gweilo mentality, thinking the whole world revolves around you. In reality, the vast majority of local Chinese population in HK sees most issues quite different than you do.
    God was an Englishman in the good old days. But it’s always true, at least to a certain extent that whoever has the gold makes the rules. England just doesn’t have much of anything these days.
    Sad as it is, you live in this tiny, dwindling, and socially separated(from the native Chinese) community here like a whole bunch of frogs watching a round patch of sky from the bottom of a well — as a group, isolated from power, no longer have any meaningful economic or political influence, not to mention your ignorance and unwillingness to understand the hearts and minds of the majority Chinese natives. Now resort to call the local Chinese racists when things don’t go your way.
    The people who have the political power to affect your life here one way or another are not reading the Standard or the SCMP. For your information, they read the local Chinese papers in our native language.
    Xi Hu.

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  7. Chris avatar
    Chris

    I can’t speak for anyone else, but I am not “socially separated (from the native Chinese)”.
    Far from it, in fact.

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  8. Xi Hu avatar
    Xi Hu

    Chris,
    There are always exceptions to the rule. I really don’t consider you an ordinary gweilo. I’m surprised you haven’t already showed me the door and kicked me out of here. 😎
    I do appreciate your graciousness, even though I’ve been rattling your place here a bit. I just want the gweilo to understand that it’s a privilege, not a right for them to be here in HK. And we have been more than hospitable to them.
    Xi Hu.

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  9. Argleblaster avatar
    Argleblaster

    “The people who have the political power to affect your life here one way or another are not reading the Standard or the SCMP. For your information, they read the local Chinese papers in our native language.”
    Funny, I was under the impression that they read (or should that be write?) the People’s Daily. Which, if I am not mistaken, is written in a foreign dialect.

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  10. glazedmeat avatar
    glazedmeat

    Typical myopic “chip on his shoulder” racist nonsense, hiding behind the excuse of nationalism.
    “I just want the gweilo to understand that it’s a privilege, not a right for them to be here in HK” No actually, you f*cking moron, its a right. Born here. Go and say the same thing to the chinese who live in America and Britain, and see how a second or third generation chinese reacts to that crass comment.
    “Now resort to call the local Chinese racists when things don’t go your way”
    No, just when they make unpleasant comments based soley on race. Normally about indians, blacks, philippinos but now increasingly, about gweilos.(itself a racist term) Usually by ill educated, ignorant/arrogant pig farmers who dont know better. Heard it all my life because I do speak the “native” language.You just never bothered to find out.
    “The people who have the political power to affect your life here one way or another are not reading the Standard or the SCMP”
    Finally: correct, but they are not reading the drivel that passes as local newspapers either. They dont live here, they make up the news and then hand it to idiots like the “native” above.
    chump, you are, as they say here, 目中無人

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  11. dave avatar
    dave

    I’m not socially separated from the ‘native Chinese’ either, what with wife, friends, in-laws, colleagues, etc.
    And as for this comment:

    I just want the gweilo to understand that
    it’s a privilege, not a right for them to be here in HK. And we
    have been more than hospitable to them.

    Unlike glazedmeat, I wasn’t born here, but it still says “Right of Abode” on my ID card. I guess that means I do have a right to be here after all.
    (Actually, glazedmeat, I have some relatives both on the mainland and back in Ireland who are pig farmers, and they’re not all that ignorant or arrogant.)
    The native language of Hong Kong is Hakka anyway, so I guess almost everyone should just bugger off back where they came from.

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  12. Argleblaster avatar
    Argleblaster

    Who’d have thought this ordinary corner of the blogosphere would attract a racial supremacist rant. Fame at last! Perhaps you’ll have to do a Flying Chair and abscond to (virtual) pastures new. Although I think Flagrant Harbour started before the flame war erupted on Flying Chair.

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  13. Xi Hu avatar
    Xi Hu

    We judge you not by the colour of your skin but the content of your character.
    Look at the words you used, your tone, and your name calling. Affection is earned, not to be given to you by command. We have none for you, not because you’re Gweilo, it’s because of your actions, your deeds and your attitude. You do not know what real racism is like in this place — we do. We’ve lived under British colonial rule. My grandfather spent his entire life under Gweilo rule and worked for them. “chip on his shoulder” and ” 目中無人 ” were the exact words he used to describe them. I wish he’s still alive to see all this.
    I’m appalled that you tried to compare yourself with the Chinese-Americans and the Chinese in UK. For one major difference, usually they spoke English, embraced the dominant culture and assimilated into their adopted country within a generation. The history of Chinese immigrants in the US and elsewhere is full of blood, sweats and tears. The racism they suffered is well documented. I’m impressed by your extensive social interactions with your Chinese wives’ families, and the Chinese you work with. Some of your best and closest friends are Chinese and male too, right? 😎
    No matter how you curse me, what ugly cuss words you used to scream at me, you can’t turn back the clock and hold back the tide. There are non-racist reasons why we dislike you, but apparently they still escape you. Chris is an exception, he is such a charming, sensitive chap. 😎
    Argleblaster,
    You wrote: ” …..is written in a foreign dialect”. I assume you weren’t writing in your second language like I’m doing now. Or, judging by the way you write in your posts, perhaps you’ve been living here for too long and started to “mangling” the English language like we do. 😎
    Do you know dialect is spoken, not written? While we do have many dialects, we only have one unified written Chinese language. However, in recent years, we’ve been “simplifying” some of our more complicated characters, namely to reduce some of the strokes. But the original characters still can be easily recognized from their respective simplified forms.
    By the way, the People’s Daily is not one of my favourite newspapers. Among some local Chinese papers, I used to read the South China Morning Post. But a few years ago, the English in many of its reportings and articles started to resemble something that was written by you and I. They needed some serious editing. 😎 Now I switched to read the HK Standard once in a blue moon just to check up on what the frogs(read gweilo) in their small deep well are complaining about….. and get a good laugh from it. Same old self-important stuff and they’re increasingly becoming more and more irrelevant…… 😎
    Chris,
    We need you to translate this Gweilo-ese for us none-Gweilo here:
    Argleblaster wrote:
    “Who’d have thought this ordinary corner of the blogosphere would attract a racial supremacist rant. Fame at last! Perhaps you’ll have to do a Flying Chair and abscond to (virtual) pastures new. Although I think Flagrant Harbour started before the flame war erupted on Flying Chair.”
    My goodness! I don’t really know what to make of it. “Mangling” seems to be such a weak word to describe the above piece of writing. Of course he maybe writing in codes only the gweilo can understand. 😎
    Argleblaster, you and I ought to take some English lessons from Chris. 😎
    Cheers!
    Xi Hu.

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  14. Glazedmeat avatar
    Glazedmeat

    Not content with being called a moron, you set out to prove it beyond any doubt.

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  15. Argleblaster avatar
    Argleblaster

    Okaay … everyone just walk away slowly … don’t make any sudden moves. And for goodness’ sake, avoid eye contact!

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  16. Mercedes avatar
    Mercedes

    Or what the local Chinese or HK has done to you for you arrogant expats to make degrading statement and acted racist toward the locals or “colonials”. I hear them talking trash about locals ALL THE TIME. Why is this okay? Not a single post on this or other “expat” forums addressing this issue. It’s always the locals this, the locals that. You’re not under some type of compulsion to stay in HK, are you?
    My question to you is: WHAT DID THE LOCALS EVER DO TO YOU? What is even more upsetting is the fact that many of you here are taking advantage of what HK has to offer: you live a privileged and sheltered life compared to what you would have back home, but continue to demonstrate this hostile/hateful attitude toward the locals.
    Talk about racism. Alomst no HK born ethnic Chinese held high position in the HK government (and HK is their home, not yours) before 1997. How is this NOT racist? You didn’t hear too many Chinese whine about it because that was the reality and they accepted it (not that you care anyway because you aren’t the one being discriminated against). Get a grip. You guys don’t seem to have anything good to say about the locals. It’s really getting too much to hear you guys rant about the most nonsensical things. What is more unacceptable is bigotry and double-standardness and you guys seem to have plenty. I’m sick of being called a gook and spic (I’m half Hispanic) in the states, only to find that you expats have the same kind of superiority attitude toward my people back home…it’s sickening…bottom line is that you expat can’t stand being critized by the locals – everything becomes “racism” for you although you don’t have the faintest idea what it actually is. Try to walk in the shoes of a minority a day in the US,I guarantee you whiners won’t survive…
    If you feel that HK is such a bad place to be, please go home…

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  17. Chris avatar
    Chris

    I have got rather confused by this debate. It started out being about Pierce Lam’s regular letters to the SCMP on the ESF, but seems to have turned into something about racism in general.
    The facts are that English is an official language of Hong Kong and the ESF was set up to provide education using English as the medium of instruction. Parents want their children to go to ESF schools because they get a good education and become proficient in English. Unfortunately there are not enough places available and some parents (such as, presumably, Pierce Lam) are disappointed.
    I can understand the resentment that is felt by many locals towards the British colonial administration, and of course the ESF is a product of that. However, I hope people can be objective and recognize that the ESF is one of the good things that has survived after 1997.
    I can’t speak for anyone else, but I must repeat that I do NOT lead a “privileged and sheltered life compared to what [I] would have back home” though I can’t deny that this is true of some expats – but not just in Hong Kong.
    It seems to me that it was Pierce Lam who was accusing the ESF of being “racist” for rejecting Hong Kong Chinese children in favour of gweilo kids. Yet ESF schools are full of local children, most of whom of are ethnically Chinese.

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