Well...

[wicked_g]

I've never actually posted here before, but I have been a member for eons and ages. So I figure I may as well introduce myself now, as there is no time like the present (especially when the at the present there is nothing to do

Comments

[moireach]

I thought there was no such language as "Chinese," only Cantonese or Mandarin. Am I mistaken?

[wicked_g]

Urm...Ok, maybe I'm mistaken actually. Never really paid much attention to it while I lived there, because really, they all kinda soaunded the same, but I'm thinking you're right.

Although, I could tell people here pretty much anything and they'd believe it. Once I had someone thinking that I rode to school on a cow and wore Kimonos and white makeup. I mean, I had told it as a joke, but they totally took me seriously, and told just about everyone they knew.

Which kinda sucked.

No need to get that technical

[iyara]

They are all considered Chinese. After all, we call Castillian "Spanish"--when it was technically just the language of Castille (there are also several languages in Spain). Over time it became the official language because Spain became united 500 years ago & the language of the conquering group spread. Same with China--it is both the official language and a northern language. And by the way, the difference between a language and dialect is NOT based on the "distance" between the two--the live Romance languages are far more mutually intellligible than the Chinese "dialects" are, which is why I call them languages. But it is a debatable point.

And for Pete's sake, they do *not* sound the same. Just try listening to the two--you consider HK your home, so put a little effort here! :-)

Re: No need to get that technical

[wicked_g]

Ok, first of all, I wasn't brought up anywhere near the dialects. I mean, of course I was around them, but that doesn't mean I paid attention to them, and yes, I do feel bad about that. At one point my mother took Cantonese classes, and I tried to learn from that, but that didn't help so much. Then I gave up because I found I could get around without having to know the language, because we've been so Englishised, so there's practically at least one person who can speak coherent English.

Either that, or we start miming to each other. Well, I mime, and generally make a fool out of myself, while they look on amused.

[moderntime]

Wow, I had no idea you had to be Asian to get a passport in HK. I was born in HK too, of Chinese Hong Kongers, so our situations aren't similar, but I don't have the new HK passport, only the old British National Overseas passport.

[wicked_g]

There's a British National Overseas passport? How freakin' cool.

Yay! Another Hong Konger! And btw, I love your icon and the movie!

[pyota]

it's not cool at all actually - this is a racist mechanism from the uk to prevent immigration of the chinese after 1997.

[lifeisforliving]

Tell me about it!! Thank you Thatcher! I'm in the UK, but I have to explain to people that yes I have a British passport, but it's some second class British passport that I have jump through the same hoops as other non-British people in dealing with visa and such.

I think normally you have to be Chinese to have the new passport. Some of the non-Chinese HKers otherwise became stateless in 1997 could actually apply for REAL British citizenship.

[franklymydear]

It's my firm belief that home isn't where you're born, it's just where you make it. So wherever you consider home is home, and you're an expat if you live anywhere else. For the most part, anyway. :)

[outrageous7]

Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien are all chines languages. It is standard practise to use Mandarin and thus it is the more commonly used or say the official language. Different parts of Asia - with the population being largely of chinese race have diff. popular languages. HongKong has more cantonese, Teo chew is more common in Thailand among the people of chinese race, hokkien in malaysia & so on.

The reason i have heard of all this is coz I lived in Singapore for long & like u am now from everywhere - Indian by birth & passport, Canadian & Singaporean by residency and currently in the US. If you go by friends from different countries I belong practically everywhere - lol,lol....

I call myself a citizen of the world :-)

[pyota]

i'm a hong konger too. 10 years older and living in switzerland currently. i left hk at 15 and migrated to the states for 12 years, where gradually i became american; but there's still a cultural disconnect there. being a nowherian ain't that bad, especially since i consider national sentiment a negative thing.