My Expert Opinion

I love it when the odd guy with a massive chip on his shoulder accuses me of trying to be an expert on Hong Kong.

This because I had the audacity to marry a Chinese woman. Smells like thinly veiled discrimination to me. But he can't come right out and say that he believes the "white man is poaching in his territory", thereby confirming he's racist, so he claims that I magnanimously assumed the mantle of cultural ambassador, which demonstrates his utter failure to grasp the intent behind my site's description.

"Adventures of a BigWhiteGuy living in Hong Kong" simply means I made a decision to call Hong Kong home; not being born here does not negate my right to share with my readers the things in which I take delight. Writing about what I've learned hardly makes me an expert; I'm just telling stories. And the last thing I want is to be the go-to guy with all the answers; there are plenty of other sites that handle that sort of thing.

Imagine for a moment if I were living in Canada and wrote a diatribe against a Chinese man who married a white Canadian woman, left his home country to live in Canada, and started a web site that grew and became popular as he described his experiences in a new land. Imagine if I were to accuse him of trying to be an expert for other Chinese immigrants or Chinese expatriates, all because I was white and born in Canada, and he was not.

I'll tell you what would happen: my fellow Canadians would brand me a bigot, and rightly so.

If you're a Hong Konger (note: race is irrelevant) and you read BWG, whether you live here or abroad, I'd like to hear from you. Why do you visit, and what do you enjoy the most?

It's time to put another tool in his place.

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