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A Walk in Hong Kong

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Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#31

Post by vinay427 »

albertzeyer wrote: post #14

This is the first time I hear about the term "zeroth world". A quick Google search did bring up some results, but not much. Wikipedia does not seem to cover that. Of course it covers 1st/2nd/3rd world ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-world_model , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World ). The terms "developed", "developin…

American living in Switzerland, and while I'd definitely agree that it's more developed than the US (on the continuum of development in my mind from also spending a lot of time in places most would consider "developing"), I'm just not sure there's a clear difference between some of those countries named and the US. Many European countries seem around where the US is; some are more developed, while others are probably less developed. I have no idea where I would draw any distinction.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#32

Post by hrktb »

> The MTR is the one technology the Hong Kong protests could not do without, an autonomous fiefdom that the police mostly stay out of. It is neutral territory

This is a godsend. During Paris protest earlier this year the gov would just shut down public transports for about 5~10 km around and block main accesses so people couldn’t massively join the protests.

At least the mainland gov. didn’t get to touch that I guess.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#33

Post by mytailorisrich »

avip wrote: post #27

Interesting to contrast this with popular demonstrations in US or France. No windows broken? Burnt city infrastructure? No beaten up police? All so quiet.

They seem to have spared private property, but windows were broken, city infrastructure was damaged (e.g. LegCo, police stations), and police were beaten up.

It's like in all countries. Some protests/protesters are peaceful, some are not.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#34

Post by unityByFreedom »

HK has come quite far, but if they can't stage peaceful protests without fear of reprisal from Beijing, then the brightest will still flee to the US.

This blog post's point seems to be, he had culture shock when he moved to the US as a child, and experienced it again when visiting HK because he feels it is more advanced than the US.

> Not everyone lives in a luxury hotel, man! I get it. But my eyes are like saucers. I ask forgiveness of Hong Kongers if at times I am still that six year old kid, dazzled by what to you is ordinary. You live in a kind of city we Americans can only aspire to, and it’s no wonder you love your home so much you will take any risk to save it.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#35

Post by Joakal »

lawrenceyan wrote: post #30
spyckie2 wrote: post #19

This piece is quite accurate - it really makes you feel like you're in Hong Kong during the protests. References aside, as a US citizen in Hong Kong there are some things that I respect immensely and some things that really get on my nerves about HK. I greatly respect the people and the cause. It reminds me of that one poem - > Do not go gentle into that good night. > Rage, rage against the dying of the light. The pe…

Growing up in the suburbs of California, I never really understood just how central the concept of face was in Asian society until visiting China and seeing it for myself. Over time I’ve come to realize that many of these social concepts exists in some form or another across all cultures, likely implicit in some part to the human condition, but it still surprises me to this day just how entrenched it still is in cert…

Face is important because it came from a family oriented culture. If you were made to look bad, you'd feel even worse when the rest of your family finds out (Grandparents, relatives would talk negatively about this aka gossip). This morphed into businesses that build on relationships, the Chinese term for that is 'guanxi'.

For China, they would 'lose face' if Hong Kong became independent (or Xinjiang or Tibet for that matter).

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#36

Post by smcl »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #25
smcl wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is by a green-name account, isn't responding to anyone in particular and has that online-commenter-army feel to it. Genuine question for HN: what's the right term for this sort of comment, or commenter?

If political submissions are accepted then we should also accept comments expressing opposite and contradicting views on the issue instead of trying to suppress them by labeling them as "bots", "online-commenter-army", etc.

Yes we should be able to have a discussion, but I'd ask you to read the article and then read the comment. Does the comment look like it is responding to the article, or attempting to open a dialogue with the other side ... or does it look like a generic attempt at point scoring for the "pro-mainland" side?

If "abcdefghijklmn3" is really keen to engage with the HN community then I take back what I said. But we both know that the chances are pretty good that this person isn't into that.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#37

Post by germanier »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #9
mskvsk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telling those people how to improve their privacy before Beijing did this.

Slightly tangential since you're specifically discussing communication but I've noticed that the term "privacy" is often getting incorrectly used when discussing surveillance tech (e.g. face recognition). There is no expectation of privacy in a public place. But an important right in a free society is the right to anonymity. A street is not a private place and, as said, there is no expectation of privacy there: Anyon…

> A street is not a private place and, as said, there is no expectation of privacy there: Anyone and everyone can see you and what you are doing.

Only people physically there can see me and what I am doing. Modern technology enables them to record that and share it globally and across time. It's important to recognize that this ability is not inherent in it being a public place.

"Expectation of privacy" and that you can't have it in a public street is a US-centric concept. Other societies draw the line differently.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#38

Post by unityByFreedom »

spyckie2 wrote: post #19

This piece is quite accurate - it really makes you feel like you're in Hong Kong during the protests. References aside, as a US citizen in Hong Kong there are some things that I respect immensely and some things that really get on my nerves about HK. I greatly respect the people and the cause. It reminds me of that one poem - > Do not go gentle into that good night. > Rage, rage against the dying of the light. The pe…

> when two parties disagree in Asian culture, it rarely turns towards resolution.

This is not a fair or accurate representation of any group of Asians, especially not democratically governed areas. There have been plenty of win-win resolutions. China today is much more connected with the world than it was 50 years ago, and it's better off for it.

edit please explain your downvotes, thanks.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#39

Post by mytailorisrich »

smcl wrote: post #36
mytailorisrich wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If political submissions are accepted then we should also accept comments expressing opposite and contradicting views on the issue instead of trying to suppress them by labeling them as "bots", "online-commenter-army", etc.

Yes we should be able to have a discussion, but I'd ask you to read the article and then read the comment. Does the comment look like it is responding to the article, or attempting to open a dialogue with the other side ... or does it look like a generic attempt at point scoring for the "pro-mainland" side? If "abcdefghijklmn3" is really keen to engage with the HN community then I take back what I said. But we both k…

In my view it is responding to the article because that article is extremely pro-protesters and that comment expresses the opinion that this isn't so black and white.

Engage with the point made instead of discarding the comment as "invalid", or just ignore the comment if you don't want to engage.

Re: A Walk in Hong Kong

#40

Post by odiroot »

> “It’s okay,” I tell them. “This is normal. I’m not dying—I’m Polish.” They edge away.

Funnily enough, myself being Polish, I found HK climate much more preferable than the Central European. I dread every end of summer; every winter kills my energy and work performance a bit more.

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