Notes » February 2009

Filthy Foreigner!

In Hong Kong I'm often the victim of subtle discrimination.

I've grown so used to it that half the time I barely notice it. Overt discrimination is much rarer, but when it happens it usually takes me by surprise, such as this morning.

I'd boarded a busy train and was making my way toward the rear of the carriage when I spotted a super cute baby girl standing on her mother's lap and staring at me with huge brown eyes. She had fine black hair and big round chubby cheeks and was adorable. Being fond of children I smiled and gave a little wave, and then extended my hand to smooth her hair for a moment before I moved on.

That's when her mother freaked out.

"EHH! EHHH! EHHHHHH!" she yelled, yanking the kid away and looking at me the way a cheetah does when a hungry hyena draws too close to her cubs.

"Jeez, lady, relax," I said as I continued down the aisle. At that moment I wasn't certain why the woman was so agitated; my first thought was that she was afraid I'd pass along some horrible disease. Funny, I don't remember being leprous when I left the house.

But then a few minutes later when the passenger seated next to her vacated his seat, she invited her friend who'd been standing nearby to sit. That friend was wearing a surgical mask, a habit some folks picked up after the SARS outbreak, either for fear of catching a bug, or more likely to prevent spreading their own bugs to others. If her friend was indeed ill then clearly she wasn't worried about infectious disease.

And I doubt she made a scene for fear that I was going to grab the girl and make a run for it. Where am I going to go on a moving rush-hour train packed with commuters, and exactly how does a white man disappear into a crowd while carrying a Chinese baby? I would certainly understand her response if I were some creepy dude chatting up her kid at a playground, but I was simply trying to appreciate an innocent child.

This left me with but one conclusion: she didn't want a foreigner touching her kid. I've never had a parent behave like that when I've stopped to say hello (most Hong Kongers are proud to show off their kids and are quite friendly), and frankly, her overreaction and the unwanted gawking it drew pissed me off.

Later another seat opened up right across from her, and for a moment I was sorely tempted to sit there. Just to make her squirm. Turning her intolerance against her would have been fun, but instead I kept reading my book; no sense bathing the baby in her mother's bad attitude.

And who knows? With luck the little girl will grow up to throw off the shackles of her mother's closed-mindedness. If there is such a thing as poetic justice, maybe she'll even decide to marry a foreigner.

I'd like to see her mother try to yank her away then.

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