6 comments 5.2.12

All about locusts

Posted by Miss Fong - Filed under , ,
The war between Hong Kongers and mainlanders has been getting intense with the latest ammo fired being a full page newspaper ad that depicts our Northern neighbours as locusts.

Now, there's even a depressing Cantopop song and music video being circulated around that sums up all the reasons to hate mainlanders (ie. their spitting, squatting and shitting in public, not queuing up, coming to HK to have babies, buying up everything we can't afford, being loud, being ugly, the list goes on and on).

I didn't really get the locust reference at first, but the more I read about these creepy crawlers, the more I understand...

You see, locusts are actually large grasshoppers who behave as individuals when there aren't that many of them around. BUT, the moment that a crowd of locusts form, they suddenly lose all sense of identity and kick into herd mentality, banding together in gangs of up to 40 billion (!!) and swarming to destroy everything in sight.

Scary, isn't it? Then, there's the theory of how they managed to fly across the Atlantic Ocean to get to the States way back when. Since there's no way they could have flown the whole way, the theory is that locusts flying at the front of the swarm may have died in the ocean and formed floating rafts of corpses for other members of the swarm to land on. The survivors then cannibalized the corpses to get more energy to keep flying all the way to America. *shudder*

And, you know what, a single migratory locust eats its own body weight in food each day, which is about 60-100x as much as we would eat per day! Talk about over-consumption.


An LV locust -- how appropriate.

So anyway ... back to the mainlanders. Unlike locusts that can be sprayed with pesticides or crushed under our feet, there's really nothing anyone can do about the invasion of mainlanders. And the fact is, they're not only in Hong Kong, they're taking over the world.

This couldn't have been more clear last week when I thought I was going to one of the most remote island paradises in the world. Instead, we were greeted by a resort packed with Chinese tourists -- yep, the kind that travel in big groups, let their kids pee anywhere they like and hoard all the food from the dinner buffets. Sigh.

There was even a mainland couple on our diving trip to Sipadan, whom I wouldn't have minded had Mr. Big 6 been a better scuba buddy. However, he turned out to be a selfish, childish idiot who kept swimming around recklessly to chase and harass all the fish, turtles and sharks, cutting off the other divers and kicking us in the face with his fins. He even told me to take pictures of him doing so, which I obviously ignored while secretly hoping for a live viewing of shark attack (which sadly didn't happen).

Obviously, not all mainlanders are gross, selfish and disgusting, but when you group them together into one gigantic mass of locusts, it gets pretty hard to see any beauty in that.


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6 comments:

nulle said...

There are ways to control these 'locusts'

Either report them, or just shoot them (Others will thank you for population control.)

binzento said...

Sad, but true. And it will not change over night. What they are today is a history build up of their failed education system, gov't involvement and over population. Their philosophy, "everyone is for themselves before others". The country is sophisticatedly growing, but the citizens are not able to keep up to that standard.

That's all.

Lori Pop said...

I'm a mainlander who grew up overseas, so I'm not too familiar with the things you see and talk about. I'll be honest though, I've heard a lot of negative things about mainlander behaviour and I don't intend on challenging what you say is true. Still, I can't help but feel a little stung after stumbling across this blogpost. For the longest time I was never even aware of this HK-mainland animosity, and all of a sudden I find out that halfway across the world there are hateful intolerant people who would shoot me if they could? Now that's really put a damper on my day. I guess I'm just trying to say that we shouldn't generalise on these things, and if we do, then we should show a bit of class and "don't say anything if you have nothing to say". After all, if everybody looked at people this way, then judging by the spirit of this post and these comments, what type of "group" does this make people such as yourselves? The words "narrow-minded", "racist", and down-right mean come to mind :c

Miss Fong said...

Hi Lori Pop,

Silly girl, being born in the mainland doesn't make you a mainlander. I'm guessing you haven't yet figured out what exactly you are, because as an overseas Chinese, you can't call yourself a mainlander since you're a completely different species compared to them.

It's the same for a lot of Hong Kong-born people who were brought up overseas. Ask them if they are Hong Kongers and you'll get a variety of answers, depending on how fobby they are. Usually, once you've had that overseas upbringing, you usually transform into something of a crossbreed between the two cultures and take on the cultural manners of both.

What I was talking about is the phenomenon of true mainlanders who live in China and are just starting to go abroad. They usually have really horrible habits and give all mainlanders a bad name (which is really unfair, I agree), but until you've been personally spat on by them, pushed out of a queue, been deafened by their shouting matches or witnessed them shitting onto the sidewalk of a busy street, you probably won't understand what we (Hong Kongers) are talking about.

frank mapa said...

interestinng observation...
this is how the WORLD views the chinese and the chinese government - obnoxious, foul and greedy...the story is the same everywhere the chinese go..they are an affront to Hkers and all chinese living in the civilized parts of the world..if the chinese want to be respected they need to learn how to act around others and treat their neigbours right...class does not come with wealth...chinas wealth has just made it more unbearable.

Lori Pop said...

Hmm I suppose I really am quite clueless on this matter, and I'm in no position to argue... not that I'd have a great line of defense anyway, I do know how Chinese can get.

As for whether I am a true mainlander or not, well, we could philosophize all we want but there is no avoiding the plain simple fact that I am Chinese. So I have to ask; how "mainlander" do I have to be to be hated on in Hong Kong?
I ask because I'm actually going to Hong Kong in June, and I need some good honest people to tell me exactly what sort of treatment I should expect. I was excited about this trip at first but all that's been plaguing my mind lately is the fact that as soon as I open my mouth, people will think "mainland scum" and look at me with disdain. While there are educated and reasonable people out there, I tend to think that such people make up a small portion of the demographic in any city, and I can't help but worry that I'll be met with contempt simply for being Chinese.

PS: sorry for rambling on your blog, I'm just bummed that it seems as if I'll be flying 13 hours to a city where the locals will be nasty and the Chinese who go there will either yell at me or spit in my face =_=