Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong and Language Barriers

Noor Rizvi (IS)

Hong Kong loves to boast its reputation of being Asia’s world city, from in-your-face television ads to giant billboards plastered across the city - but what really goes on behind the facade of a flourishing economic capital? Let us pull back the curtain of pretense and find out what really goes on beneath the guise of flashing neon lights and soaring skyscrapers.

In the winding streets of Tsim Sha Tsui, one of Hong Kong’s popular shopping districts, stands an infamous building - ChungKing Mansions. The name might seem popular as the building was the namesake of the famous 1994 Wong Kar Wai flm ChungKing Express. Formerly a place for high end shoppers and clubbers in the 60’s during the British era, it is now known for its sleazy reputation after having faced many fires. As the hotspot for illicit drug deals and other nefarious activities, it is now mainly populated by ethnic minorities, often from Africa or South Asia, who came to HK looking for work and money and are thrusted into a world of crime from the get go. Although many activities inside the building are illegal, for many residing within, they are the only possible way to make money in a city as fast paced and expensive as Hong Kong. Many of the workers aren’t able to find jobs due to the immense language barriers in place, as well as the numerous stereotypes perpetuated and pitted against minorities of any kind. A government survey showed that 62% percent of ethnic minorities said they had faced discrimination when attempting to apply for jobs on the basis of not being able to speak Chinese, even in jobs where linguistic skill in Chinese wasn’t required.

In 2013, the government organised a “Chinese as a second language” programme in an effort to provide ethnic minorities with a second chance at learning the language and thus, integration into society and the job market. Chinese University assistant professor, Raees Baeg (SCMP, 2016) stated “Ultimately, it’s not just the lack of skills keeping them from being hired, it’s also about discrimination.” She believes that the government has the wrong attitude, further asserting that poverty and inability of these minorities to find work is not because of an issue with quality of labour. She stated, “You see the shift in government rhetoric, because of poverty, the government is pushing to expand into the labour force,” stating that they were put into the “working poor category”, and lastly noting that “there is no racial sensitivity in government policies”.

The basis of this language barrier runs deep into the flawed Hong Kong education system; minorities are being set up to fail and there’s nothing they can do about it. International schools that follow an English medium are often expensive and are, for many marginalised minorities, not an option. So now we approach the topic of English medium local schools, although there are a few, there are nowhere near enough schools for a city whose EM (Ethnic Minority) population has grown by 115% between 2006 and 2016 - many of the schools are notorious for also having heavy illegal substance usage among the student body and other such activities that may not be ideal conditions for a student to learn, grow up and flourish in. In addition to this, the majority of these schools are not readily equipped to take on a large influx of students and are already overwhelmed as places are limited. Sending EM children to local schools in the hopes that they manage to assimilate and manage to adapt with the government’s rather unsuccessful assisted learning programme isn’t exactly the safest bet as 38% of Hong Kong teachers said that they are unprepared and unequipped to cater to the needs of a non-Cantonese speaking child - apparently, neither is the government. The current system is forcing non-native speakers to take a Chinese exam that is already dreaded by native speakers and is infamously known as the ‘death paper’. This is simply unreasonable, but there’s no alternative. To add to this, a study conducted found that EM students are only being taught Cantonese to the fluency of a Form 3 student resulting in them being left behind their fellow peers.

So this leaves us with the question, what can be done? It’s easy to sit here and write a raging article about the lack of resources provided to ethnic minorities, however each and every one of us has a responsibility to help all Hong Kongers, regardless of skin colour or race - whether we like it or not. We must make improvements to the system itself. Although the government has made a significant push towards better education for EM students, they’ve also found an alternative to the Chinese DSE by letting EM students take GCSE English or GCSE Chinese instead. However, this still doesn’t allow EM students to learn Cantonese properly and therefore limits them from the job market. Firstly, the government should begin to subsidise schools with a significant EM population. They should also begin to establish more schools for EM students with teachers who are prepared to teach and have an overriding authority performing checks on these schools to moderate teachers, but to also ensure that issues like illicit activities are prevented and that the values of education are reinforced. There are many examples of nations that have achieved successful solutions - let us take Singapore as an example. Chinese, Malays and Indians living together in peace, they are able to learn both their native language and English. Although enforcing a single language in all schools isn’t a viable solution in HK due to the impending erasure of the Cantonese language, there are principles we can implement. Issues based around discrimination have been touched on lightly, solving that is a step forward - in Singapore, every year they commemorate vicious race riots that took place in the late 60’s. They do this by organising a ‘Racial Harmony Day’ where everyone wears their traditional clothing and learns about different cultures to promote understanding and acceptance of differences. Something similar in HK to inform the general population about the struggles and plight - to maybe encourage cultural sensitivity, and maybe to finally accept them as, despite the cultural difference. To really make a difference we must educate. Change starts from our children, as the children are the future of our city.