The long-awaited eruption of Anti-mainland tensions in Hong Kong

I seem to have a different understanding of the situation.

I thought it was a passenger that went all offensive, he even pressed the emergency stop button and told the mother to get off. The train personnel came to investigate and like any logical person, was trying to calm the man down. TBH I find it really childish behaviour that caused inconvenience to many bystanders.

xywdx said:

I seem to have a different understanding of the situation.

I thought it was a passenger that went all offensive, he even pressed the emergency stop button and told the mother to get off. The train personnel came to investigate and like any logical person, was trying to calm the man down. TBH I find it really childish behaviour that caused inconvenience to many bystanders.

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They did an interview with the primary source later on, who said the video missed the beginning where he tried telling them no eating in Mandarin, but the women screamed back at them. From then on things picked up heat and that's where the video started rolling(him pressing the stop button, then the staff came onboard to investigate. He complained, which then the staff talked to the woman, who said they didn't know, and they were only kids. Another quarrel started escalating, then the staff asked the family politely to exit the train at the next station.)

The following is an account by a Hong Kong resident who was embroiled in the incident.

On that day I was with my girlfriend at Hung Hom Station. All the seats in the cabin were taken. On one side was an adult and three children, on the other side were three adults with their luggage. Later, I saw the mother pouring some noodle snack into the hands of one kid, while the other two girls were holding some candies. The kid with the noodle snack spilt some on his clothes and on the floor. I used my limited Mandarin [standard Chinese of mainland China], pointed at the “No eating allowed” sign in the cabin, and told them: ‘Excuse me, you can't eat here’. What happened next was a round of defense. The mom said that only the kids were eating, that she was about to take it away, and that it was none of my business… I told her that I saw her eating as well… I knew I could not change their attitude and was about to shut up, but then her friends sitting opposite to her, sneered at me: “Their Mandarin is so lousy.” I got so angry and talked back in Cantonese: ‘My Mandarin is lousy! This is Hong Kong, you should speak in Cantonese!’ They kept on defending themselves in loud voices. A man in the cabin stood up by my side: “Shut up! It's so noisy here! Just keep on eating OK? How could you yell like this when you have done wrong? Should I call the railway staff?” As they continued to speak loudly, the man pushed the button to call staff when the train reached the next station. And I waved the railway staff over to take care of the situation. What happened next, you can see on the YouTube video.

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Seems like there was more to it than I first thought, the Hong Kong man's position is not something I am unfamiliar with. Still I don't think he should have made so much drama out of it, and TBH this kind of things happen all the time in mainland China too. It's hardly a hk versus China issue, more of a cultured citizens versus "farmers" kind of thing.

In fact, it happens here too, despite how vulgar many mainlanders are, I still find them far better than certain extremely privileged people whom the North American authorities wouldn't dare to reprimand.

當天與女友在紅磡站上車，上車後近我的兩排位都坐滿人，一邊一個**大人三個小孩，一邊即是三個大人以及他們的行李。當時都不以為*然*；後來看到那個媽咪張一包童星點心麵倒進她旁的小孩手中，而*另外*兩個女孩則有一個拿著糖包。及後雙手捧著一堆點心麵的小孩*不小心*將一些灑到身上及地上。看到這個程況，我便以我有限的普*通話，指*著不准飲食的牌向他們說：不好意思，這裡不能吃東西。*之後…..*換來一輪啾呼叫。那媽咪說只是小孩子吃，以及正在收*起，問我為何*要多事…..我向他說剛才我都有見你放進自己口中*，你也有吃….*.其實講左幾句我都知冇結果，誰知這時他們對面*的友伴邊笑邊出聲*：佢地說得真是很差！我很火用廣東話同佢地講*：我係講得差！呢度*係香港人的地方，你同我講返廣東話。這時他*們有一句沒一句繼續講*，這時有位見義勇為的男仕出聲：收聲啦！*好嘈呀！繼續食呀好唔好*？自己做錯野仲嘈，要唔要叫職員呀？當*那班人還在嘈時，男仕在旺*角東站按著車門，等職員過來。而我亦*第一時間下車向職員揮手叫他*們過來。之後你地都響YTUBE度*見到晒

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Reading the Chinese text, I get the impression that this guy is definitely not telling the whole story.

If he got angry because the mother's friend commented on his mandarin, why did he keep yelling at the mother?

Secondly, I very much doubt that his initial comment was as benign as he claimed. Why would the mother say that only the kids were eating, if the guy didn't specifically accuse her? It's very unlikely that anyone would react to a polite, benign comment with a flurry of protests.

Ok, now I know the guy isn't a train official. Well the fact that he acted like a personnel having authority in the train and that he accused "all mainlanders are like that" tells a lot of his motive for making such a fuss.

I don't think stick to "what's exactly happening at the train?" would explain anything profound enough.

Purely for example, if one tries to convince some ordinary people in the west (or more specific, the States) that it is not Chinese people stole your job, and boycott Made in China won't change it - it would not gives any decent results or change of aspects to the crowd. That's just it, nobody "right", nobody "wrong", people have some opinons, like or not, those opinons stays.

For people being "Hong Kongers", which is pretty much a parallel (which means "no common point") identity of being "Ordinary Chinese citizens", the IDENTITY TAG stands out. Identity tag didn't means anything outright wrong or right, but it always STANDS OUT the more
we try to mix other things with it. (Like, mix the general feeling of "developed area", "open air", "corrupt-free", "proper mannered"...)

China, being the most long living civilization that 包容 ("contains", cann't find a proper word) all walks of lifes, from all kinds of cultural backgrounds, HAMMERS the identity tags. The identity tags have nothing outright wrong, Chinese vox pops just hammer it outright, we have to!

Airsuperiority, knowing you not being naive and being open minded to touch some stinking solid facts of our lives, you and I both know this is not a MTR issue, not a "right or wrong" issue, and it is an issue way before "commies" have anything to do with it. Let's say, in another topic "movie topics" in SDF, you once pointed out that mainlanders' image used to be poor peasants, prostitutes, 苦力 or something alike, nowadays they became more and more positive, more and more "normal" - Let's say, that is how identity tags fades away - normal, when people are "normal" to each other, we have a far more better position to talk about the proper and polite way of public transportation. - And by the way our society works these days, the future is bright, dare I say.

What's happening here is the people who want to distinguish themselves from being Chinese are doing their part in perpetuating racism. It reminds of how some racists make a distinction by name of one ethnicity to make themselves feel like they're not racist. They have two groups that exist in one ethnicity. One is the derogatory racist name (the bad) and the other is a usually not offensive or neutral label (the good). So just because they will accept some of these people declaring them as good, they can't be called racist. Yeah and guess what makes them good. So they're trying to turn being called Chinese into a derogatory slur.

solarz said:

If I was in the Hong Kong subway train, and my kid or wife was eating because they were hungry, and some complete stranger started yelling at them, I'd tell them to f--- off in no uncertain terms.

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Being someone from Canada, I gathered that it's pretty common to hear criticism from others on public transit. I live in Toronto and it happens everyday that someone would complain about this and that on the subway. In this case, that Mainland mother was making a mess on the subway...if you saw the entire clip, you'd know that she was making a mess. Yes, it affects others and they are entitled to make criticism. Why is that uncivilized?
Why would you call the authority for every little thing when you can resolve it yourself. I feel sorry for you if you're like that.

---------- Post added at 11:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 PM ----------

Quickie said:

I tend to agree. We don't know why the mother of the kid got so defensive in the first place. Could it be the train personnel didn't do his job professionally and told off the mother and child in a demeaning manner in front of the other train passengers? No doubt the kid broke the rule by eating in the train but that doesn't mean the train personnel can take the matter personnally and start talking offensively out of line of his job duty.

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Because it's CHINA, hun....live in the Mainland away from the major cities like beijing and shanghai and you'll see how the rest of the population behaves...In China, it's all about being tough, all about defending yourself even if you're wrong...it's a dog eat dog world there....

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laiwingnang said:

Being someone from Canada, I gathered that it's pretty common to hear criticism from others on public transit. I live in Toronto and it happens everyday that someone would complain about this and that on the subway. In this case, that Mainland mother was making a mess on the subway...if you saw the entire clip, you'd know that she was making a mess. Yes, it affects others and they are entitled to make criticism. Why is that uncivilized?
Why would you call the authority for every little thing when you can resolve it yourself. I feel sorry for you if you're like that.

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You must live in a different Toronto than I, because I have *never* seen anything like what's in the video happen on the TTC, and I take both the subway and the bus to work every day.

Sorry, do you have some video clip that we've not seen? Where do you see that they were "making a mess"?