2014-04-20    From a Chinese friend in Australia:

(Comments welcome here)

The story of Betty Wong in Hong Kong

I'm not sure if this has been reported in the English media in HK, but it's been widely reported on the Chinese Internet media. When I googled it this morning, there was nothing in the English media yet.

There's a girl called Betty Wong who was born in China to a HK dad. As she was a second child in China, they didn't register her. As a result, she's legally non-existent. She managed to smuggle herself to HK and reunite with her family and managed to get into a Medical degree at HKU. She wrote up her experiences as an inspirational piece, but  HK netizens basically slaughtered her with their comments. It is believed that her piece was regarded as ungrateful and arrogant, but she also shared her experiences of how the HK Immigration department treated her like sh*t and how the education authorities refused to let her enrol in schools etc...now that she's finally received her HKID card, she can enrol in uni. Her academic results (having been accepted by a school out in NT) were so good that HKU had no choice but to accept her.

HK netizens in general seem to see her as a "thief" and want her to stop stealing HK ppl's "welfare", etc....and even though she explicitly stated she wants to contribute to HK society (and not that of the mainland), HK netizens are still bombarding abuse. In fact, last year, when HK society was up in arms about the govt's plan to introduce "civic education", she was on the streets with other HKers, protesting against civic education.

The biggest irony is that her father is actually HK born and bred.

I see so many similarities between this case and the asylum seekers who arrive in Australia.

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c.f.r.  this story about a mainland man who has contributed to HK's prosperity:
'Abalone king' Yeung Koon-yat sees Hong Kong society turning sour