Easier to Learn
The fact that Cantonese is hard to speak is the first barrier for it to win out. There are 9 tones in Cantonese (in some systems, there are 6 tones) compared with 4 tones in Mandarin. Cantonese also has more consonants and vowels than Mandarin. All these factors make it hard for foreigners or even non-Cantonese-speaking Chinese to learn Cantonese.

Government’s Promotion
Also, the widespread promotion of Mandarin being the official language by the Chinese government around the time of the establishment of the People Republic of China made it common for everyone in China to learn it. The extensive promotion of Mandarin was a governmental movement to standardize the language as a measure to solidify the country where there were so many local dialects that poses barriers for people in different provinces to communicate. Since the language was commonly used and spoken by government officials, in TV programs, radio programs, Chinese citizens’ daily lives are filled with Mandarin. They also view Mandarin as the “commonly used language” (as the meaning of “Mandarin” in Chinese suggests). Thus it gives Mandarin an image of being authoritative, official, governmental and also practical.

Simpler even in the Written Forms
Another point to note is that the development of Mandarin was also associated with the emergence of Simplified Chinese, the written form of Mandarin. When the Chinese government introduced Mandarin, they also introduced simplified Chinese (a simpler written version of the Chinese language), and it just made the whole situation resemble a “simplified language movement”. On the contrary, Cantonese speakers (especially those living in Hong Kong and Macau) write in Traditional Chinese of which the characters and strokes are much harder for the speakers to write and to remember than Mandarin. As a result, not only was Mandarin easy to speak (4 tones only), but also, the written language (Simplified Chinese) was easy to write. Everything was simpler and easier for Chinese people to learn and practice. Now, as time goes by and China’s economy developing fast, everything in Mandarin is also simpler and easier for foreigners to learn, than Cantonese.

Cantonese is Undergoing Lots of Challenges
Also, most of the Cantonese-speaking cities like Hong Kong and Macau are undergoing lots of cultural crashes by other immigrants and expats who travel and live there, this poses a big challenge to the originality of the Cantonese language. There are too many different slangs, proverbs and idioms. Some of those slangs are a mixture of English and Chinese. When this adds with the difficult 9 tones and the numerous consonants and vowels, the pronunciation and grammar structure only become more complicated for people to master.

In the long run, Mandarin will win out Cantonese because of its simpler language structure and governmental promotion as the commonly used language. And remember, Chinese government’s influence is spreading around the world because of the booming Chinese economy. Who are going to speak Cantonese in the future? Only the people in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong (and some cities in Guangxi) will. And these minority would face challenges of their language being outpaced by Mandarin. Sad, but it’s the reality.

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You might be interested in knowing Why Hong Kong People Hate Speaking Mandarin to Non-Chinese Speakers even though lots of Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong people are learning Mandarin.

If you’re confused about the spoken and written forms of the Chinese language, read my another piece, Confusion about Cantonese, Mandarin, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, you might find it helpful.

The free-for-foreigners, HKD4,800-for-Hong-Kong-ladies dinner.

One day, I was sitting down in front of my computer and saw a few male friends posting up the poster above on Facebook and saying BS like “It’s every man’s dream” or “gotta bring my passport and enjoy a free meal” or of course the usual “I wish I was single”. A few days later, the news was spread across the town and everyone was talking this Dinner of the Year.

It’s a ladies-pay-HKD4,800 and men-for-free speed dating dinner to be held at one of leading luxury hotels in Hong Kong, the Mandarin Oriental (although the Hotel denied that it wasn’t their official event and refused to host the event a few hours before the dinner began, according to WSJ).

I was completely shocked.

Nonetheless, here are what I find interesting and ridiculous:

Ambiguous Requirements for Male and Female

The dinner requires ladies to be “single professionals” and men to be “35-48 professionals and foreigners only”. Men are not required to be single while ladies have to be single. So, ladies, just make sure you’re single and come pay the money to date a foreigner. Guys, they don’t care if you’re single or not as long as you can come and enjoy the free meal.

Another point to note is the definition of “foreigners”. Does it mean white men only? Do those non-white people who have a foreign country passport count? Would a black or brown guy be recognized as foreigner? We don’t know the answer. But as seen on the poster, it seems that “foreigners” mean white men. This indicates a common generalization that “foreigners” refer to “white men”. Instead, anyone who is from a cultural background or race that is different from the country is a “foreigner”, regardless of their skin color.

“Hong Kong Women are Easy to Get?”
The essence of the free-for-foreigner dinner is to attract those Chinese women who are into dating a foreigner, but the way the event is promoted poses humiliation and insult to the Hong Kong female. It’s true that some Hong Kong women are crazy about foreigners because of the exoticism and the ego of carrying a tall, white guy around town and show off to their friends, “yo, I’m dating a white dude”. However, putting a monetary value (that is large enough to book a return trip from Hong Kong to Bangkok) for Hong Kong female’s desire to date a foreign is somewhere misleading and poses a huge social implication of people’s perception of “Chinese women are easy to get”.

Oh no… I’m Getting Left-over!
Yes, the market works well in itself where everything can be transacted so long as you can and are willing to pay. However, HKD4,800 is almost half of what an average Hong Kong-ese can earn per month (the medium monthly salary of the Hong Kong workforce is HKD11,000 as of 2011, according to the Government figures). Only those Hong Kong women who are probably above their 30s and who are still single and unmarried would be able to afford the price. Therefore, not only does the event implies Hong Kong women’s lust for dating a foreigner, but also their desperation to get married as they approach the “left-over” age. This highlights the Chinese culture of caring about reproduction and passing your genes to your next generations because it’s the root of forming a peaceful and complete society.

Hong Kong Men, Stay Strong
There are more females than males in Hong Kong (there are 881 males per 1000 females as of mid 2010), so Hong Kong men should be in scarcity and so being popular among Hong Kong women. Sadly, Hong Kong women (especially those high-educated and international ones)’s desperation to date a foreigner has implied the weakening competitive edges of Hong Kong men. Those Hong Kong females do not view the local men as precious as they should be. Now, Hong Kong women in this case even do not mind to pay for a big sum of cash for the chance to meet quality foreigners, then one could hardly see how Hong Kong men would remain confident and ambitious when the females keep pushing them away.

“I Don’t Need You to Pay for Me, Women”
Some people also raised the issue about “would a successful man bother to go for free meals paid by successful women?”. For a 35-year-old professional male, a free fancy dinner sounds like a very good deal. But if a man is successful and professional enough to be eligible to go to the dinner for free, they still might not be put up with the fact that their meals are paid by female because they themselves can also afford it. To some males, paying dinner for females is a way of being gentleman and showing that they can take care of the women they deserve. However, the free-for-foreigner is exactly the opposite and it might indicate males’ lack of ability to chase women at normal occasions rather than a speed dating event. To those ambitious males, this might be an insult to them as well.

Marketing Heat for the Speed Dating Company
One thing I have to feel amazed with is how smart the speed dating agent is to brainstorm this controversial event that sparks widespread public discussions. They know how to convey the marketing message well: using the smiley Chinese girl and white man on the poster to depict a picture of “white guys get hot Chinese girls”. Although the publicity the speed dating company gets is mainly a negative one, it remains a great marketing legend. In the future, foreigners will thank the company for reinforcing the important message of “Asia is our playground, yo”.

Afterthoughts
In a market economy, the speed dating event seems to be legitimate. Men and women both get what they want. However, on a social perspective, the way the poster is designed and the participants’ requirements are outlined pose a negative social implication of “Chinese women are easy to get”. When the news about this event is spread across the world, there may be more people believing in the misleading definition of “foreigners” (i.e. white men) and the desperation of Chinese women in dating a foreigner just for the sake of doing it. To me, the speed dating company did not take into enough consideration about the huge social impact and people’s future expectation on Chinese women, Chinese men and the Chinese society. The Chinese society is a complicated one with lots of recent culture influx from all over the world because of the booming economy. Different people might put different thoughts on how the Chinese people see things and do things. But the idea of this dinner and the event itself have promoted a cursory generalization on Chinese women without considering many other factors. One should be wise enough to not make any presumptions on Chinese women and foreigners based merely on the poster.

What do you think about this?

You be interested in knowing how I think about Why There are So Many “Left-over” Single Females in Hong Kong.

If you want to see the detailed social media discussions of the topic, you can visit this link.

The purpose of this blog post is for me to BS. Sorry, my dearest readers. But I really want to tell you what I feel.

People ask, why are you blogging, Jin? Don’t you have a full-time job already? Is blogging your interest?

Yes. It’s my interest. I have another fashion blog named Remedy Rouge as well. Having a different full-time job while maintaining two blogs (and going to events and taking photographs) is a tough work. I apologize for my lack of updates during these few months.

I first started blogging (for my another blog) because I was so into fashion and I could die for getting hired by a fashion house.

I started my second blog (HK Girl Talk, this one) because I felt like I had a lot to talk about the Hong Kong society, the culture, the people, the food, the insanity and the craziness. (I mean, where on earth would you find 130,000 people in 1 km square except for Mong Kok? Where on earth would you find so many girls with fake eyelashes and walking like a goose after dancing for 6 hours in LKF?)

Blogging is not just “getting your stuff published on internet”. It’s about how you interact with the readers around the world at large and how you improve your writing and yourself after hearing feedback from your readers. It’s an enduring process of learning and improving.

There are readers sending me emails to ask me things about Hong Kong. There are marketers sending their brand information to get them published on my blogs. There are random readers adding me on Facebook (no I didn’t accept their requests). There are also random strangers I saw at bars who asked me “are you Jin Wong? I saw your blog and I’m following you on Twitter and your Facebook Page!”. There are also my personal friends who told me “I spent my whole day reading a blog about HK girls and found that it was yours”. These are really amazing and crazy experience.

After a year, I’m still the same old HK girl who likes BS-ing. I’m glad that you’re still here with me, my readers. I’m also happy that you have been tolerating my BS-ing and insanity all along.

I hope that as long as I’m alive, I can still learn and become a better person.

OK, time for a happy hour drink soon.

Best,

Jin

(This blog post is inspired by a fellow blogger friend, Paul. He blogs on Living in Hong Kong)

I constantly get emails from readers asking me about Hong Kong (girls). Some also ask me tips of eating / traveling in Hong Kong (I guess my blog sounds like a travel blog at some points?).

I would like to share with you the interesting questions and my answers at this new section, Ask the Girl. However, this is not a regular section that I will post (I don’t want to promise anything where I would end up not achieving it). I will post some questions when I’m happy (:D).

My answers are totally random. I write whatever I think about at that moment. It is not necessarily related to my own experience.

***

Question by David:

I’m an American in my 30s living in Soho and working in Central. I’ve been here for a year now and have been to Lan Kwai Fong and don’t find clubbing my cup of tea. Where does one meet all these local girls that can’t find boyfriends? Is one supposed to “cold call” them at lunch in Central on the street? I’ve dated a few local girls but only ones I’ve met in bars that have slept with half the expat population. How does one meet the nice girls here you talk about?

Answer by Jin:

It’s not that most of the girls can’t find boyfriend, it’s just that girls in Hong Kong are too realistic, they care about the guy’s career than his personality. Those girls you meet in Lan Kwai Fong just like hunting rich dudes or they just want to play around. Nice girls are plenty out there, but some of them are very local locals (who never go out on the Island at night), these group of girls hang out with local guys and have their own circle so you normally cannot meet them in Central / LKF.

There are another type of nice girls who are very international (study abroad, living on the Hong Kong Island) where you can meet them (maybe through friends). They also hang around in LKF, drinking with friends and having a good time.

So in a word, nice girls are plenty, but many girls you see in LKF are just going for men hunting – they want to date rich dudes. I think that generally, people don’t meet nice girls in a bar / club, even though you actually meet them, you might not consider them nice because you met them in a bar. It’s the social layers that make things very different.

So my advice is, just go hang around with more friends, nice girls might be a friend of your friends. Of course you can meet nice girls in a bar too, but don’t assume all girls in bars are all bad, some of them just want to have a good time and dance. Try to be more open-minded and don’t presume any facts before you actually get to know them. If they’re not that interesting, you would find out later (many girls are only interesting after a few shots of vodka).

Time will tell if a girl is genuinely nice or not.

Long time no see. How have you been doing?

I have taken a long break and it’s time to wake up.

I will post some new articles up soon!

Best,

Jin

P.S. 3 more days then it marks the ___________ of HK Girl Talk.

One day, he found a box on the street and picked it up. It was an iPhone 3. He brought it back to school and his desk got swarmed by the entire class. All of a sudden, Peter could feel the smell of girls’ hairs, the pain of his hand being tugged (because everyone wanted to touch the iPhone), the screaming and yelling of the whole Peter-you-are-so-cool-you-got-an-iPhone. At that time, not a lot of people could afford an iPhone. With Peter’s luck to pick up one on the street, he got all the fame every adolescent boy wants and became the star in the school.

A year later, iPhone 3G released. Peter felt stressed because everyone expected him to get one to stay on with the trend. He skipped lunch, starved himself to death in order to save up for the new iPhone. And yes, he got the new iPhone. He remained cool to everyone, although his already-scrawny body had gotten even scrawnier and his pants were too loose to fit in. He looked feeble and unhealthy, but with the coolness of having an iPhone 3G, all was worth for him. Girls liked him, boys liked him. But according to one of the girls in the class, Peter was just too skinny to date.

Another year passed and iPhone 3GS came up. Peter again starved himself to death to save up for the new iPhone. Again, he got the phone. He won the applause and fame. It’s just that he got quite depressed and felt life wasn’t too interesting when he didn’t know what he was doing all these for.

He basically looked like a male version of the skinny anorexic models on runways. The only difference is that he didn’t know how to pose nor having any fashion sense. That doesn’t matter, he thought.

But then later, iPhone gradually became mass-market and everyone could got it with a purchase of a mobile planned with mobile phone service provider. The fame that Peter got was fading away without a trace. He no longer felt loved.

One day, he got so pissed off by what he did (starving himself to save up for the phones) and he decided to sell all of his iPhones off. He used the money he earned to apply for a gym, got a haircut, ate, ate and ate. He became more built and good-looking. He got into college and became a banker (he calls) after graduation. Magically, he found it easier to get girls. Girls like him now even though he hasn’t got any iPhones.

Now, instead of staying at home, browsing the internet and learning about the latest Apple products, Peter goes to Pure to gym up and D-I to get a few drinks with friends. Sometimes, he finds himself ending up at Tsui Wah wolfing butter bun at 9 in a Sunday morning and thinking about “sh1t! I just missed my hiking trip at the Dragon Back Trail!” Peter feels more cool hanging out with his investment-banker friends while making jokes about his 6 packs (so that people know about his having 6 packs).

On a random Saturday morning, just after he got off a taxi returning home from the crazy parties in Soho, Peter found a box on the street. Inside the box it’s an iPad 3. This time, he slams the iPad 3 on the floor until he saw those broken parts and ignores the glare of the 9-year-old boy standing next to him.

If you are reading this, you are probably:

1)      A returning reader who embraces/tolerates my (occasional) self-worship swagger
2)      A returning reader who is going to skip reading this post because of my self-worship swagger
3)      A new reader who is going to see my following self-worship words

I’m writing this self-reflection blog post because today is the Women’s Day. As a woman living in a women-abundant region (Hong Kong) in a people-abundant country (China), I guess this is the best day to think about the best and the worst of mine.

So back to the main topic: what the heck are the blog posts?

They’re coming out soon.

The reasons why I haven’t posted anything for the last 21 days are that:

1)      I’m a terrible writer.(Imagine a scrawny guy who works at an office in Causeway Bay signed up for a gym right across from the office building, but every time he gets out of work, leaves the office and see the fitness center right in front of him, he just skips the gym and goes straight to the MTR)

2)      I was too busy. (Imagine a guy who looks at the computer screen for 10 hours for work while continuing looking at the computer screen for another 4 hours after work, browsing Youtube videos and checking Facebook feeds. The other 12 hours he uses it for looking for restaurants on Openrice, eating at the restaurant he finds on Openrice, and sleeping)

I would rather you think that I’m (1) a terrible writer. I prefer being a terrible writer because it implies that I can improve and become better. If there is no chance for me to improve and become better, I would probably be sick of this world and I would never check for those 50%-off-main-courses deals in restaurants or events where I can get free champagne.

Where are the lemons for my hot lemon tea?

Yes I’m trying to stop drinking coffee. (Terrible writer)