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.
--------------
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