The Western Bubble
I haven’t written in a while, because I’ve been focused to the point of
obsession on debate among other things, leaving little to no time for
anything else.
The Western Bubble
Before I came here, Julia told me that I would be shocked. Thinking I had already seen some of the most different parts of the world, I disagreed and asserted that nothing would be more than a mild surprise.
Wrong.
I am honestly shocked by the lack of diversity and difficulty to fit in Hong Kong. I had assumed that Hong Kong would share many of the meta-cultural melting pot aspects of Dubai, as many of the same terms are used to describe both: ‘east meets west’, ‘regional business hub’, ‘financial capital’, ‘gateway to the region’ etc. I have since learned Dubai is far above everyone else in terms of diversity. Whereas Dubai was a mix of large groups of Iranians, Indians, Arabs, and even ~10% westerners, Hong Kong is 95% Chinese and feels like 99%. I’ve spent a lot of time meeting people in coffee shops, yet the majority of people that I meet speaking English are the irrefutably small group of other study abroad students from universities around the city.
The infrastructure and non human environment is ultra-western, yet the people seem more unfamiliar to me than anywhere in Europe, the Middle East, or SE Asia. While English is the official language, I never hear it spoken. After professors, none of the locals seem comfortable using it. In Dubai, English was the lingua franca, it wasn’t an issue. In Damascus, I spoke some Arabic and was at least able to make an effort on my end. Here, I don’t speak any Cantonese and don’t intend to learn it, which excludes many of the everyday actions that I took for granted once I wander outside the megaplex malls or ivory towers.
Other foreign students may be even further entrenched in the bubble than I. About 90% of foreign students live together in the ‘international house’ and I haven’t seen a group of people going out that is a mixed group of locals/foreigners. activities then become the main venue for meaningful cross-cultural interactions- yet that is also limited. I cannot join the English Debate explicitly because I am an exchange student, and most of the local clubs are in Cantonese- which excludes pretty much all of the foreign students. Even in my Chinese business networks class, groups are either study abroad students or local students, and I believe mine is the only mixed group in the class. The end result is a campus far more stratified than what I experienced at AUD.
Perhaps the most powerful yet intangible factor in creating the bubble is the culture. I won’t claim that I understood all aspects of Arab culture or that I enjoyed all of it, but in many ways it was either compatible or I felt I could adapt. Many aspects of the culture here are diametrically opposed to my tendencies. Here the culture tends towards being quiet, following the rules, and fitting in. I’m terrible at all three. Curiously, while there are a plethora of rules, there are rarely any punishments, since it seems the mere fact that a rule has been created ensures obedience. (It certainly doesn’t for me) Things like sitting down in the subway, having guests past midnight, wearing the wrong type of shoes to play basketball, or currently: plugging my laptop into the mall outlet, are all bafflingly prohibited. But, I’ve yet to put any value on following them.
I don’t mean to say that I’m not making local friends (I am) or that I dislike Chinese culture or Hong Kong (I don’t). However, I find it has been harder to integrate into Hong Kong than to anywhere else I’ve lived, and I continuously find myself back in the western bubble.
