I am currently a foreign exchange student at University of Southern
California at Los Angeles. Recently, I felt strongly that Hong Kong
people have lost their self-confidence. The situation is not as bad
as we may think. We are ourselves making the situation seemingly worse.
One day after a lecture, I walked out of the classroom with a Korean
friend. We saw a board with pictures of USC exchange students on it.
My Korean friend said, "I am really interested in going to Hong
Kong." I asked him why. He said, "Most of the Asian headquarters
of big firms are located in Hong Kong." I was astonished and
went blank for a while. After saying goodbye to him, I gathered myself
and thought why he, as a foreigner, is so proud of going to Hong Kong.
Why I was astonished to hear that. I found myself in a state of confusion.
Later, I realized that after five months of exchange life, I am still
feeling the same as other Hong Kong friends, that I have lost of confidence.
During the exchange programme, I have found that Hong Kong students
are not as dumb as we think ourselves to be. At classes in Hong Kong,
my classmates always ask smart questions. Students asking stupid questions
would be teased like the students in Princeton University in the book
A Beautiful Mind, to put it in an extreme way.
Here, I have come across tons of stupid questions asked by American
students. And they didn't care. So, it is not true that studying in
America means you are smart. There are some other factors at play.
And most importantly, there are smart people in Hong Kong.
The first month of the programme was a nightmare. I had to do tons
of paperwork such as verifying immigration documents and applying
for a Social Security number. American efficiency terrified me. A
long line leading up to only few out of tens of counters that were
working, staff in one of the few counters leaving the tens of customers
for no reason, unchanged speed of work in front of tens of hurried
eyes in the lines are some of the features of American bureaucracy.
Nobody would complain. I thought, perhaps because I am from Hong Kong,
I expect more. They may think that they are quick, but Hong Kong people
are definitely quicker.
Hong Kong is neither bad nor dead. Why are we so depressed? There
are more than enough examples I have experienced in this five months
that Hong Kong is not that powerless and hopeless. I am still thinking
why Hong Kong people lost the confidence they deserve. Probably the
media took a role. They have covered too much negative news and presented
them in a pessimistic way. This just cultivates an unencouraging atmosphere
which makes Hong Kong people feel bad.
Reading the Los Angeles Times and other big American newspaper, I've
never seen picture of dead body on the frontpage. And their news articles
are less sensational when compared to the few most popular Hong Kong
newspapers.
I think the media should help regaining confidence of Hong Kong people.
Dennis Chong
Los Angeles
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