Members of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Staff Front (HA) hold a sign to hold a strike (photo) outside the Hospital Authority building.
The protest campaign in hong kong, which lasted more than six months in 2019, has tapered off amid an outbreak of pneumonia, but the conflict between china`s mainland and hong kong over cultural, linguistic and political differences has continued to spread and new manifestations have emerged.
The mainland resident of Hong Kong, Mr Wong Ning, recently passed a restaurant in Ap Lei Chau, Southern District, Hong Kong Island." The outbreak is serious and will not be entertained: Mainland visitors, colds and close contacts. "
In particular, Mr Wong noted that the name of "Mainland visitors" was nearly half the size of the other two designated persons. She photographed the notice in social app timeline. Most of the friends at the bottom expressed indignation.
Mr. wang told The British Broadcasting Corporation that the mainland`s outbreak was fierce and hong kong stores were understandably reserved for guests. But the problem is that different fonts make her feel different.
"I don`t think it`s a problem if you don`t receive visitors from the Mainland for 24 days, including the Mainland and Hong Kong. Because if there is a probability of infection, whether it is the mainland, or Hong Kong people to the mainland a round of re-entry, the incidence of disease should be equal. But it highlighted the chinese in particular as a form of discrimination. "
January 23, Wuhan began to seal the city, to prevent and control the epidemic. Wuhan has few street pedestrians.
"Hong Kong Only" Restaurant
Since january, a number of hong kong restaurants have given notice to refuse entry to mainland people. One of the "Ramen King" wrote in his Facebook page," Government is incompetent and we can only save ourselves. The source of the disease comes from the fact that mainland is ironclad. The Hong Kong government has opened its doors wide open, ignoring the safety of Hong Kong people and insisting on not closing the door. "Another restaurant requires a Hong Kong ID card for identification.
The tea restaurant "Glorious Ice Room" in Kowloon, Hong Kong, is the focus. The restaurant posted a notice at the end of January saying "Hong Kong only; Cantonese and English only ".
The Equal Opportunities Commission, a Hong Kong statutory body dedicated to the elimination of discrimination, argued that the restaurant`s notices related to discrimination had been called to the restaurant for withdrawal in mid-February.
However, the restaurant did not withdraw its notice and posted in its Facebook post that the person in charge had not been educated in Mandarin and had not been able to teach himself in his spare time, so "he did not understand a word of Mandarin ". He also said he had always wanted to do business in Hong Kong and would not "grovel" to Hong Kong government, entertaining free-going guests for what he called a "vital source of economics."
In addition, officials were not satisfied that hong kong government did not accept full closures and inadequate supply of masks in the event of pneumonia, and therefore did not entertain mainland people "to ensure the safety of their guests ".
The post attracted nearly 10,000 likes and more than a thousand share. Hundreds of messagers mostly supported the owner`s actions, saying they wanted to "defend Cantonese and traditional characters."
Race discrimination
In its press release dated 16 February, the Council cited the Race Discrimination Ordinance in Hong Kong as saying that "it is an offence to discriminate against, harm or harm a person on the basis of his/her`ethnicity`. `Race` means the race, colour, descent, race or race of an individual. "
In fact, both hong kong and mainland are ethnic chinese, not ethnic, but the languages used by chinese in different regions are different.
Under the Racial Discrimination Ordinance, there are no safeguards as to whether an individual is a permanent resident of Hong Kong, whether he or she has the right of abode or entry in Hong Kong and how long he or she has resided in Hong Kong. Nationality, citizen status, resident status and so on also do not belong to the safeguard category. In 2014, government advised the public on whether to include these factors, but did not follow up.
In response to the restaurant`s demand for customers to order in Cantonese or English, the board said that while "language" was not a race as defined in the regulations, certain language-related conditions could be detrimental to the individual of a certain ethnic group and lead to "indirect discrimination ".
"Because the vast majority of Chinese speak Mandarin, most Chinese don`t get entertained when the restaurant says it doesn`t host Mandarin speakers," he explained to The British Broadcasting Corporation. In contrast to other ethnic groups, they receive indirect discrimination. "
He added that the indirect discrimination was not related to the ethnicity or nationality of the person in charge of the restaurant, and that it was primarily about whether the service would be treated adversely relative to an ethnic group.
In addition to the possible violation of the Racial Discrimination Ordinance, the Board also indicated that the conduct of restaurants may also violate the Disability Discrimination Ordinance. Under the Ordinance, the definition of "disability" includes the presence in the body of organisms such as viruses that may cause disease.
During last year`s half - year campaign, many restaurants in hong kong had "lennon walls" outside their restaurants.
Civil self-preservation or political expression
Speaking to The British Broadcasting Corporation in chinese, the former secretary for the civil service in hong kong, mr wang yong-ping, said he didn`t think some restaurants discriminated against particular ethnic groups by treating customers differently." Instead," he asked," is it discriminatory that people in other cities on the mainland do not welcome hubei people?" Is it discrimination to restrict Chinese entry abroad? I think these actions are a sign of fear of the virus that comes from China, and of the people who may spread the disease. "
Dawn, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the Hong Kong University of Education, believes that the restaurant`s behavior is a political statement that is harmful to its own protection and public health. In her Facebook post, she wrote," The virus does not distinguish between contagion by language, geographical status or political stance, and in an outbreak that affects the world, anyone can become a carrier of the virus. By associating a virus with a particular group, let us mistake it for making ourselves safer by expelling and isolating that particular group, and instead turning a blind eye to the real risks. "
With the development of protest campaign in hong kong last year, some people were forced to take sides, publicly expressing their political positions in support of government or protestors, tearing apart society. The protest campaign has also spawned a "yellow economic circle," in which some restaurants or businesses have publicly voiced their support for protestors against police abuse of violence, to appeal to consumers with similar political views and ideas.
Mr wang denied that the restaurant`s behavior of not welcoming the mainland people in the wake of the outbreak of pneumonia was politically colored "because it was not common and did not create a serious ethnic split." "The" self-preservation "of some restaurants stems from the refusal of Hong Kong government to close them as soon as possible, he said.
Members of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority`s Staff Front (HHA) teamed up under the Hospital Authority building to demand that government fully close the border crossing with China`s mainland to avoid a possible exacerbation of the local outbreak.
In early February, nearly 18,000 Hong Kong health workers and their support workers formed a civil society, the HA Staff Front, to demand that governmentment fully close the border crossing with China`s mainland in order to avoid the possible exacerbation of the local outbreak caused by the movement of personnel and the inability of the health care system to respond. About 14,000 people were diagnosed in China`s mainland at the time, and more than 300 confirmed 15 people in Hong Kong, more than half of whom were residents of mainland.
Health workers marched for days, but hong kong`s chief executive, zheng yue, refused to "close the gates completely ", claiming to be discriminatory against mainland residents in violation of the world health organisation`s appeal. According to the Immigration Department, in the last week of January, the number of visitors from mainland to Hong Kong per day accounted for only about 10% of the total number of visitors to Hong Kong, compared with 6 to 80% of Hong Kong residents.
At the same time, some countries equate hong kong residents with mainland residents, or restrict entry, or cancel direct flights, including the philippines and italy. Critics have also argued that hong kong`s government`s decision not to close the door` has exacerbated tensions between the people of dry ports.
(Wang Ning is alias at the request of the respondents)
