Culture Shock

I knew when I moved to Hong Kong there would be a lot of adjustment in my life that would need to come with my geographic relocation. I knew that aspects of my new culture would be strange to me. They would not make sense. They would leave me confused.

I thought that I would find these areas in places such as the language. I anticipated needing a translator with me everywhere I went. I thought there would be a lot of people here who could not communicate with me. I was wrong. Most people here speak great English, and when I encounter someone whose English is not clear enough to converse, there is generally someone around who can act as a translator for the two of us.

I thought that learning a new place, adjusting to new foods, and learning a new currency would be tough. It is not.

But I have found it. In the last place I ever would have thought to look, I found a part of Chinese culture that is not only different than mine, but it is so different that I am having trouble wrapping my mind around it. And I found it in the last place I ever would have thought to look—a bus in Manila.

No, I was not on this bus. In fact, I probably never would have heard anything about this bus if things had gone as planned. A group of people from Hong Kong were in it for vacation. They were driving down the street when they were pulled over by a man in a police uniform carrying an M-16. The only problem was, this man was no longer a police officer. He lost his job as a police officer last year due to accusations that he was acting corruptly on the job. And he wanted his job back. He proceeded to take the bus hostage, letting a few people go free, and killing eight. The whole situation did not end until police shot the hostage taker, leaving nine dead in the incident. This happened Monday.

While events like this do not happen every day in the USA, hostage takings and murders are not uncommon to us. We hear about them, see them in the news, talk about them for a couple days, feel bad for the families involved in the incident, and move on with our lives.

This is where the trouble comes for me adjusting to Hong Kong’s culture. Instead of moving on, Hong Kong has made more and more of this story since it came out. This man was acting alone. He is dead now. And yet Hong Kong has warned its citizens to avoid travel to the Philippines because of this incident. The city of Hong Kong is having a severe backlash against the nation of the Philippines because of this one man’s actions. Many Hong Kong residents hire Philippino workers as “helpers” in their houses. They basically function as maids. I have heard stories of families firing their Philippino helpers in light of this incident and going out to hire a helper of a different nationality.

Yes, this event was and is a tragedy. Yes, what this man did was wrong. But the way the city of Hong Kong is reacting, it seems as if they blame the whole nation for this one man’s actions. Like I said, I cannot wrap my mind around this reaction. Maybe being raised in the States made me immune to this type of violence. Maybe Hong Kong is over-reacting. Maybe a middle ground is the right approach, where we see it as a tragedy, and yet manage to forgive those who had nothing to do with the attack and move on with our lives.

Whatever the case may be, one thing is sure: I am not yet as “Hong Kongese” as I thought I was.