Losing the Hong Kong That I Love
Many mainlanders living here sympathize with the demand for greater freedoms, but rising anti-Chinese sentiment is driving us away.
Protests have taken on an anti-mainlander tone.
Photographer: Phiip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
I am one of more than two million mainland Chinese living in Hong Kong. And, like many of them, I have grown alarmed and disillusioned by the anti-Chinese rhetoric some locals have taken up as they battle for greater democratic freedoms. Many of us moved here precisely so we could enjoy similar liberties. The hate that’s infecting the city threatens to alienate even those of us who should be the protesters’ strongest allies.
In 1996, I left my hometown Shanghai for the U.S., to gain a proper liberal arts education and to see the world. In 2010, I swapped the spreadsheets of my banking job for WordPress and returned -- to Hong Kong -- hoping for a different kind of adventure. I wanted to understand the new China, and write about its meteoric rise and inevitable stumbles. Hong Kong, where freedom of speech had long been treasured, seemed like the perfect perch for an aspiring journalist.