Periscope

Hong Kong brands itself as an international city, but there is little doubt that race draws lines between people in our city. Varsity talks to people of non-Chinese ethnicity in Hong Kong and learn about the racism and microagressions they encounter, why it happens and how they think it can be tackled.

Traditional life in Hong Kong's indigenous villages has changed over the years as indigenous villagers move out and outsiders move in. How do these groups get along with one another and how does that compare with the unspoken rules villagers have always used to maintain relations?

In this issue's Periscope, we look at Hong Kong "localisms" because we thing it's misleading to think about localism as a single, unified ideology or movement.

"Localists" is an all-embracing term used to describe non-establishment people from outside the traditional pan-democratic camp, but it hides significant ideological differences among those who have been grouped under the label. Varsity takes a deeper look at what divides them.

Today's common perception of localism looks very different to the post-handover movement that emerged to preserve Hong Kong's heritage and culture and sought to strengthen the idea of a local identity. Varsity talks to some of the core members of that movement and asks them how they think localism has changed.

Almost 70 per cent of young Hongkongers support the localists, our survey finds. We look at how Secondary School students view the localists, and why they think localism is the way out for Hong Kong.

In April 2010, Periscope looked at Hong Kong's "Green Awakening". Now, six years on we explore how far Hong Kong has travelled down the road of environmental awareness and protection.

Large scale development projects need Environmental Impact Assessment reports, which are supposed to measure how much the projects would the environment and the wildlife living there. But many people say the process is deeply flawed, including conflicts of interest where a developer can hire one of their own branches to do the assessment.

Why does Hong Kong not have a political green party that can fight and win elections? Politicians can push green policies and legislate change, but some say there’s not much politicians or even the government can do in a town dominated by property developers and landowners.

Hongkongers are reasonably aware of the need for environmental protection, but some people still throw away waste paper and recyclable takeaway containers, or leave the tap running for more than they need to. What does it take to move people from lip-service to actually protecting the environment?