To use technology and improve social cohesion, first I had to breakdown Hong Kong folks’ behaviour a lil’.
As much as we’d like to consider ourselves international (the following means NO OFFENSE AT ALL OK!?), there is a whole lot of racial slang in Cantonese, the slangs are so common that we don’t even mean to offend anybody now a days, but these get blurted out in regular conversation and it’s apart of the Cantonese language…..are you ready? Here we go :
Black people = Huk Gwai meaning black ghost
White people = Gwai Lo meaning ghost people for the white tone of skin, a popular local craft beer is named Gwai Lo, and the word is actually in dictionaries now
Mainland Chinese = Ah Charn or Dai Look Jai, Ah Charn is a character’s name based on a new immigrated Mainland Chinese played by actor Liu Wai Hung in a 70s movie, most of us don’t even know which movie anymore but the name stuck. Dai Look means Mainland China and Jai = kid.
the worst of them all
Middle Easterns = Ah Cha, Cha meaning bad, as in old time HKers find the sturnness of Middle Eastern settlers rude….hence bad attitude = Cha
I am typing all these down just for documentation, personally I avoid using these in describing anyone, but when you’re a native Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong, I am certain no one means to offend ; it’s just the slang.
Now I have Middle Eastern friends here in Hong Kong, and as I explained earlier, I do think it’s the cool, sturn general personalities a lot of Middle Eastern men have that would leave HK the impression that they’re being rude, but seeing for myself, i’ve met one thats’ super hyper active, i’ve met a great father of 5 working 2 jobs, a student of mine was from Pakistan and aside from him not submitting homework….he was very nice to talk to hahaha. Hong Kong have had a long history of minority groups having settled here for many generations, but most Hong Kong people don’t interact for thinking there’s a language barrier, and that a lot of Hong Kong people shy away from other ethnicities for speaking poor English.
I’d like to see this change with an app that could bring you to a “day in the life of…” while the people hosting these “tours” could make a lil’ money on the side.
( demo of app in progress )
1 : People who are willing to take people on tours to : where theyd usually hang out, where they work, they could be walking there dog for an hour, go shopping with friends, joining a religion ceremony or festival…..The occasion will be displayed with a duration, and that the price for joining in could vary.
2 : It’s not one way either! Got some place you want to check out? Leave a request and see if anyone will respond to it.
3 : So, exactly like a regular tour, if you offer the tour in English (which is a pretty common, neutral language) or if you live in a place like…Egypt and you can offer your tour in Mandarian, you could set your price higher.
4 : A text messaging box is available with instant translation meant for simple communication, such as : can you turn your camera to the right ? Is this your home ? How many siblings do you have ? What does that mean ?
5 : Everything is recorded and uploaded to our server, and any disrespectful or sexually offensive act is encouraged to be reported within 2 weeks.
This, will open the world up and will be something awesome to be able to do with your phone. I named it OnLeash thinking bout the dog I raised (dang I miss having a dog..), the excitment when they hear the word “walk?”. Not only will this improve social cohesion in a diversed city like Hong Kong, I think that this would be a great tool to conduct design research, making interviewing subjects a lot easier with more people of different races and backgrounds to choose from.
I am very open minded when it comes to ethnicity and is extremely curious in knowing how different people live their daily lives…talk about how different some dude living on the next blocck could be ; then think about how different a guy in another country could be!
It’s a people plan for people who love’s people.
Here’s a lil’ demo of how OnLeash works!
ANDY WAS HERE
ANDY was here 🤓 