I HAVE fond memories of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is known worldwide as a glamorous city and a top choice for luxury—and middle-class shopping.
In fact, I used to do my shopping there (as any Filipinos would). I like the Cantonese cuisine—except the snake soup served at the She Wong Lam restaurant in Sheung Wan.
Back in the 1990s, I make it a point to visit my brother Ramón and his family, all Filipino expats. As architects, they’re earning good from designing buildings in Shenzhen when China was transforming it from a sleepy agricultural town into a modern metropolis.
Thanks to a friend and colleague from Oxfam-Hong Kong, I was able to tour Shenzhen, with many high-rise buildings still under construction. I am proud that my brother contributed to its growth.
I like riding the metro, the subways. From my brother’s flat in laidback Heng Fa Chuen, a private housing estate in Chai Wan, I could go to Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, or Causeway Bay to window shop—and drop from all that walking.
I can understand the reason why Filipinos think of Hong Kong as home away from home. Tagalog compete with Cantonese and English as the lingua franca. There, one stops being a Negrense, Cebuano, Ilocano, Bicolano, but a Filipino, first and foremost.
In fact, I can remember hearing Filipinos from many parts of the country speaking the national language in Heng Fa Chuen.
Ah, those were the innocent days. Nowadays, Hong Kong has become a battleground for protest from downtown streets to university campuses.
It’s no longer a place I can consider a home away from home. Recently, I read on my news feed that the police have threatened to use live ammunition to end the resistance movement.
Yet the risk of serious injury or even death has not proven to be enough to silence prodemocracy groups.
Hong Kong has been virtually paralyzed by protests since the government introduced legislation that would allow the extradition of criminal suspects from the city to the Chinese mainland.
After more than a million people took to the streets to demand withdrawal of the bill, the local government capitulated and pulled the legislation.
The police assault student protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong spurred protesters to set up barricades at other universities.
I urged my brother and his family thru Messenger to relocate. That means at our age to start all over again in another country.
My personal sympathies go for the pro-democracy activists. But end of the day, they remain Filipinos, not Chinese. It is their fight, after all.