Cultural Conversation - What's going on in Hong Kong?

[@donnydubai]

This is incorrect information. There is no trial in Hong Kong first. All that is needed is a prima facie showing to extradite, which is completely different. Taiwan also retracted its request for extradition and its President issued a formal statement supporting Hong Konger’s demand for withdrawing the extradition bill. The bill itself covers 37 crimes - after the modification - many of which can be used as pretense to nab dissenters. It is harmful to spread inaccuracies, whether intentional or not.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi Kasie, thanks so much for prompting me to do some more digging and thus learning. I've pinned your comment so others can do the same. Here's a video I found that was helpful regarding the Taiwanese position. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rafSe5dtmZx0Z9E Here's to HK leading the way in making a change! 香港加油 ! 🙏

[@jackliu2985]

I come from mainland China. I like Cantonese so I come Sue's channel, and I watch many hk movies, and I like Leslie Cheung... Really I don't understand why some people in Hk hate mainland China. I mean I don't feel we owe hk anything. Also I don't think it's only because mainland goverment don't give hk autonomy. But mainland people travel in hk, many product ship from ml China to western going through hk... I think hk can earn more money if it has good relationship with ml China. Cause there are some other ports in China, hk really is an amazing city but I don't think it is irreplaceable. If I were hk government, maybe I need to consider more. And I think relationship between hk and ml China is not like SIngapore, just geography. There are some history and cultural reasons. hk is part of China at least since Ming dynasty. Guangdong and Guangxi province has similiar life style with hk. Maybe the situation is like Israel? I don't know... Oh. by the way, there is no prohibition in ml China that prople can only speak mandarin. At last, for me do I support hk be an independent country? Sorry, my answer is no. For me because I am afraid if hk is not part of China, it will allow other country like America or UK put army in hk. Like South Korea or Japan. I'm afraid of that. My English is not good, and I know little about history and politics, and this is only my own opinion, I don't know what other people in ml china think about hk. Sorry I leave this message after almost a year. It's just I read comments below and found there is no opinion from ml china. I just want to share some.

[@donnydubai]

@@jackliu2985 I don't hate Mainland China (my roots are there) but I do think the government is wrong for not honoring an agreement. Basic Law, One Country, Two Systems - those are agreements into which the CCP entered and now wishes to ignore. Also, money is not an end-all for everyone. People value other things such as freedom of press, fair trials, etc., over money. They value being able to speak their mind without the risk of one day disappearing and put into jail with no due process.

[@jackliu2985]

@@donnydubai About that law, I think Hongkang people are too sensitive. China signed this law with many countries. France, Itay, Thai, Philippines. You gays thought we want to arrest people not because criminal but because political reason. I don't that will happen. Also you should be confident to your law system. There is term say the bill can't take effect on political reason. I don't understand why you don't believe your government. You think your government won't protect your people and follow the rules write on the paper. If Hongkang government don't judge an innocent man commit crime. How can China bring them to mainland...

[@annemison]

You are not an "outsider" in this situation. Extradition bill can actually be applied to you or your family members coming for a visit. Just think about it before not going to protest.

[@OAS15]

I have mixed feelings about the bill, on one hand it's reasonable to have criminal extradition agreements with your neighbours especially given the recent Taiwan murder case, on the other hand such legislation could be easily exploited by Mainland China which devalues Hong Kong's current autonomy. It seems to me that passing the bill would create even greater issues (decline in business confidence in the region, decline in public sentiment, self-censorship, implication of other countries) than the issue the bill is trying to resolve. So I stand with the people. Looking at the far far future, an increasingly idealistic outcome is that after 2047 Beijing elects to keep the status quo and leave HK as is. Ultimately, the single most important thing to me is the protection of Cantonese culture and language. Hong Kong is pretty much the only place left in the world where Cantonese is the lingua franca of society, gov, and public institutions. Should Mandarin be implemented, Cantonese won't have a home anymore 😔 If a language doesn't have a home, it will gradually erode.

[@Yopee]

Yeah that's exactly the issue. The chinese government has always tried to treat hk as its own chinese property rather than as a neighbour so it's super fishy that government just decides to compare this extradition agreement in its own property to extradition agreements with other countries. It's like saying "I agree with myself." XD I don't know what will happen to the culture but at least the cantonese language will survive even if hk succumbs to china. There are cantonese communities all over the world so it won't go extinct so easily. The bigger problem is mandarin has taken over the chinese name for itself. When a foreigner hears the word "chinese", 99% of them will think mandarin. Not cantonese, fuzhouwa, minnanwa, hakkawa, etc. That lack of awareness from the rest of the world that a chinese language other than mandarin exists is what would really kill off cantonese and the other chinese languages. If the chinese government wants to accept hk and claim hönğ gonğians are chinese, then they need to accept that there is more than one chinese language and stop forcefeeding mandarin to everyone. India has like 20 different languages spoken in different regions but they don't try to brainwash and forcefeed everyone into thinking that hindi is the one true indian language. They were also colonized by the brits (and suffered a lot compared to us in hk) but they still use english as a communication tool. Meanwhile, the chinese government has started to replace english with mandarin in hk. Same thing for all of the different dialects in the arab countries. Maghrebi and mashriq are different dialect groups and both groups are arabic. Classic arabic is understood by almost all arabs but it's in a really similar situation to chinese. Written classic arabic is like written chinese - it sounds super awkward when it is used as a spoken language to communicate with someone else face to face just like if a cantonese speaker would read from a written chinese script. As if that wasn't enough, the chinese government had to change even the written chinese from traditional to simplified so now, hk, taiwan, and various other oversea chinese communites are left out. If the indians and arabs can do it, I don't know why the chinese government is so unwilling to allow other chinese languages to be used. The government keeps telling hk that it is chinese yet hates how hk is so different from the rest of china XD

[@frontier_etc]

Every single thing that erodes HK's autonomy, no matter how small, must be fought. Today, it's this extradition thing. Tomorrow, who knows.

[@Obscurai]

Criminal extradition agreements are usually a good thing, but the issue is that charges can be made up and even fully prosecuted. That is, this is specifically about the mistrust of the Chinese government to just make up charges against its political enemies.

[@sumansanyalsue8765]

Hi Sue, I was looking for some quick and easy Cantonese lessons on KZbin ... and feeling blessed to find your beautiful videos. Thank you so much. I will definitely subscribe and like.

[@meocon3144]

Bottom line the HK people are still perseverance, working hard and getting on with life. Thank a lots, teacher.

[@CantoneseCorner]

I couldn't agree more! Thank you for leaving such a nice comment - I appreciate it! :)

[@Yopee]

mmm I'm one of those overseas 1990s hk-born youngsters and would never say I'm from china. It seems like a lot of people confuse identity for geography just like what you said. It's a completely correct and logical answer for me to say I was born in hk. Identity of a people depends more on language, religion, culture rather than geography so it makes sense that hk is not the same as china and vice versa. Your channel is a great example of this. China's official language is mandarin but you make videos in hönğ gonğ in english and cantonese. I don't know why the chinese government and a few enthusiastic chinese people have to always assert that hk is china. Singapore isn't melaysia, sri lanka/pakistan/nepal isn't india, monaco isn't france, alaska isn't canada. And don't even get me started on the whole east türkestan and tibet fiasco XD I just don't know why the chinese government can't just accept that there are different places that contain different people even if they are located near china. Just roll with it and move on already XD And also definitely agree with you about how hönğ gonğians just roll with the punches. A hönğ gonğian just tries to survive and get by a problem as long as it doesn't immediately affect him/her. Individually, they're really good at survival but they really lack unity as a group so they only stand their ground and confront a problem head-on when every single one of them has been affected by the problem but usually, by that time, shyt has hit the fan and it's too late XD But in any case, you're right, the chinese government obviously has no interest in and gains nothing from appeasing the hönğ gonğians so these protests on their own won't achieve anything. hk gotta use it as a stepping stone to come up with something else or it will just be a repeat of the yellow umbrella failure.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Well said! 👏👏 Thanks for commenting ... especially the part about lacking unity as a group -- it's so interesting to me because one thing I love about HKers is that they are so individualistic - no one gets in your business, everyone just gets on with it, families take care of each other (for the most part), there is (almost) no random crime ... it's live and let live. But the flip side of that is exactly what you said, lacking unity as a group and knowing how to even work together as a group. I remember when I was teaching a Primary 5 class once and wanted to rearrange the desks in groups of 6 students each so they could do group work and I was told I couldn't because it was just too much trouble and the students would not be able to concentrate on their work. And that takes us back to the practical side of things -- just so many hours in the day and "group work" was seen as not an efficient use of time. Which was/is true in a sense, but the consequences are that working together as a group doesn't come naturally and comes too late, as you said. I just really wish the education system here had evolved to be more communicative and not still so much rote/learning to the test, but that's hard when you have tutorial centres listed on the stock exchange! I made a video with a friend once to promote Hong Kong ... we called it "HK Makes It Work" and took it to the HK Tourism Board, but they weren't interested. :( Maybe we should try again! Maybe I'll post it on my channel ... see if anyone can help come up with a Chinese version since right now it's just in English! 🙌 Last but not least - thanks for recognising my channel for doing some small part to keep Cantonese alive ... I appreciate it, as always!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi again .... just saw and read this in the SCMP today: www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3015104/why-dont-hong-kong-canadians-just-say-they-are-chinese-because

[@msqunhua]

The girl went to Emerson College, not BC. All of 🇨🇳 needs to change and maybe Hong Kong can help make that happen!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Oh sorry! I must have read that wrong. Thanks for the correction. Here is the link to the article: www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3011838/boston-students-avowal-her-hongkonger-identity-ignites And another interesting article about identity: www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3015104/why-dont-hong-kong-canadians-just-say-they-are-chinese-because It's so true what you wrote about HK being able to make change happen, and after all that's happened in the last few weeks, I feel renewed hope. HK is such a special place that it really can make it happen ... I just hope we can all take the reins and not wait for someone else to help solve a problem that only Hong Kong can solve -- it's like we have the ruby slippers, we just have to tap them together three times! (Wizard of Oz :)

[@bekindbelotus]

just coincidentally found your KZbin channel, and really appreciate for all your great videos teaching Cantonese and the culture. and for this video, feeling is so mixed when watching the comments on the extradition bill, which seems like happened far long time ago, quite ironic when reading some of the comments as well. Things change unexpectedly fast, not sure how you feel one year after now, but I could imagine people in Hong Kong could be mlre reluctant to share opinions now.

[@spongebobby188]

Very topical and nice to see your informed view from the 'inside'. Appreciated.

[@tszwahyeung1410]

通常啲政權創造出強大經濟體就會諗打仗，21世紀可能唔會再和平幾耐。全球政治格局重新洗牌，呢個係現今世界霸主美國唔想見到嘅。而中國一直輸出「中國模式」，科技上追趕美國、收買美國盟友同公司、參透西方社會、不斷測試民主體制弱點……等等小動作。而家最主要問題係美國會唔會容許西太平洋出現另一個恢復帝制嘅超級大國。所以美國戰略已經改變，中國都一樣。香港夾喺呢啲大國博弈之間，畀個特別身份係因爲之前作爲窗口有利用價值。中共係食權力嘅怪獣，一旦冇利用價值自然會收返。所以香港條路自然難行，我希望香港能夠度過難關。

[@actionjumper42]

I feel like this is the most fair and neutral stance I’ve seen so far. Thank you for being objective.

[@CustardDonut]

You said it's the 13th of July.....

[@CantoneseCorner]

Oh did I? 😅 I can only claim sleep deprivation ... I'll be more careful next time! :)

[@elfomomo2004]

Sovereignty is not over human right, i like your channel and your passion, but I disagree your analogy comparing governments are like parents and people are just like kids. Because we are all as an individual, we need laws and orders but don't need the government to tell us what to do. Law and Government are pretty much different things

[@babooniii717]

great voice

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you so so much! :)

[@wingfufung4330]

Taiwan case, China extradition? Doesnt make sense.

[@wongfeihung1847]

at some point, you low-key look like Celine Dion.. Like the facial structure and eyes

[@CantoneseCorner]

I’ll take that as a compliment since I love her ... thank you!!