Tarred and Feathered

No matter what you do, you can't please everyone.

That's never been more true than here at BWG. I ran across the following "review" and had a good laugh at a someone with a colossal chip on his shoulder:

It is often the case that a white man married to a Hong Kong woman would automatically fancy himself as some sort of expert on Hong Kong. Big White Guy is no exception. He's a self-styled Hong Kong culture expert --- a self-appointed "culture interpreter" for the newly arrived expats and people outside of Hong Kong.

Oh great, here we go again with the "pioneer" argument; I thought I'd put that to bed four years ago, but it seems that appreciating and sharing customs and traditions is a heinous sin. I still fail to see how writing about what I've learned makes me some sort of expert.

But in reality, he and his wife's Hong Kong is a world apart from the place where people like [me] were born and live.

So because we live in a rural New Territories village instead of an area rife with urban decay we don't know what it's really like to live in Hong Kong? News flash: we did the 'old Chinese building' thing for three years in Causeway Bay and it proved to be a nightmare.

This HK blog has been in existence since 1998. At one time it was reputed to be the most popular Hong Kong blog around.

At one time it was one of the only personal web sites that dealt with life in Hong Kong, but if it's so crappy, why is it still being read after more than nine years (and despite the proliferation of blogs)?

However, nowadays, the natives would consider this adventures-in-an-exotic-land type of blog rather irrelevant, partial, inane and colonial.

Funny how his opinion speaks for all the "natives". In my experience people throwing around such words fancy themselves intellectual superiors.

And the long-time expats would think his "interpretation" is shallow and dated at best.

And he knows this how? Did he poll all of them?

... reading this blog ... is like seeing Hong Kong from a rear-view mirror in the eyes of a white guy --- he may be big but his vision is definitely peripheral, and in no way matches his physical size.

It's easy to be a critic when you're not putting yourself on the line. He claims authority from growing up in a Kowloon slum, but hasn't written a word about his experiences that shed light on life there in a meaningful way.

So here's my review of his review: it was written by just another guy with issues who took exception to something he read and then decided to tar and feather the entire site.

But thanks for the link.

P.S. - I hereby invite all visitors to e-mail me about why they enjoy reading BWG.

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