Hong Kong Unveiled

When talking with Chinese friends or colleagues, many foreign visitors to Hong Kong will hear them say "We Chinese" do this, or "We Chinese" believe that. It is a constant source of surprise that Chinese people can speak of the habits and beliefs of all their millions of compatriots with such certain knowledge that they are right. But generally they are. To be "Chinese" is much more than belonging to an ethnic grouping. Thousands of years of cultural development have developed an enormous set of understandings and procedures that tend to be a total mystery to the majority of non-Chinese. And nowhere is this more true than in tradition-loving Hong Kong. To be a foreigner in any environment is a challenge. But in Hong Kong it seems even more so, given the feeling that the entire local population have already been fully briefed in the dub rules. Do many of us know that it causes more offence to refuse the auspicious roast pig that is often served at a celebration than not to turn up at all? And what does one do when given a gift by a Chinese -- open it or not open it? You can be sure that there is a right way and a wrong way to behave.