Once upon a time, long ago, Hong Kong had such prestige – especially in the entertainment industry such as movies, television dramas, popular music, and serial comics for example – that the brand of Hong Kong itself could whip up quite the buzz in places beyond. As such, it went to Hong Kongers’ heads, pompously declaring that “nothing can take Hong Kongers down” and “Hong Kongers are full of creativity”

However, were Hong Kongers so formidable?

Not that I can tell!

At the very least, I have never had felt as such; on the contrary, it had always felt to me that Hong Kongers on certain levels are not so different from mainland Chinese. The mainland Chinese would put on the airs of a parvenu upon striking it rich, how are Hong Kongers any different? The mainland Chinese have a habit of spreading false rumours, Hong Kongers also love to gossip profusely until it’s blown out of proportion; the Chinese are “patriotic from birth” while many Hong Kongers are also quite “patriotic”, at least for those in Victoria Park, where you would hear local Hong Kongers using very passionate words such as “traitors to the Han race”, “traitorous sell-outs”; mainland Chinese are known for being greedy and Hong Kongers are much the same, where cheap show bags can bribe a lot of Hong Kongers to betray their conscience.

Yet, if Hong Kongers were nothing special, why then were the yesteryears so glamorous? This is a matter of history: for after the war industries prospered, and in Hong Kong where it was relatively open, there were opportunities for people to make a killing. Therefore, prodigies arose in various industries, elevating the industry with them! It is certain that I have oversimplified things, for there must be myriads of reasons as to the how and why, but on the whole it is close to the truth.

Ok, now that they have also somewhat opened up, the advantages that Hong Kongers had evaporated in an instant. As a result, the Hong Kong film industry is not longer what it once was; television dramas have become a joke, popular music now so bad that it’s scary, and its serial comics have decayed so bad that it’s lost for words…..

We keep comparing ourselves with them, but what’s strange is that Hong Kongers are still under the impression that they are still something else, full of the “Lion Rock Spirit”.

Perhaps by now someone would find me wanting in belittling ourselves with such rhetoric, what’s the point of this?

Nothing really, I just want to say that Hong Kongers aren’t anything special; we are not so much different from other peoples, in fact quite the ordinary. Now that we are losing to others left, right and center, we should be diligently trying to excel, rather than holding onto this weird thinking of being so full of ourselves.

The so-called Hong Konger Spirit is really nothing worth bragging about.