Two Eras, Two Worlds
BeWaterAt a media briefing, Carrie Lam said: "With the coordination efforts and strong support of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in the past month, the mainland managed to export to Hong Kong 17 million face masks which had been ordered earlier.”
This message sparked hatred for Hong Kong among mainland netizens. Their comments include: “nowhere can people in China buy face masks, instead they have been sent to the thankless” and “those throwing a tantrum will get the candies”. Hu Xijin, Editor-in-Chief of Global Times, also criticised "I must get it off my chest. Our country at this time really does not need to use face masks to win over those Hong Kong people. It is proven that many of them can't be changed. Some of them might even think that the country will help in this difficult time because they dare to make trouble.”
At present Hongkongers are complaining about face masks. We are grumpy because of the inaction of the Hong Kong government and Carrie Lam. We are grumpy because we wonder where the huge amount of face masks produced by inmates at Hong Kong Correctional Services have gone? Of all these grumbles, I have not seen a word on the internet asking China to supply face masks to Hong Kong. On the contrary, some questioned the quality and safety standards of masks manufactured in China. In other words, even if the Chinese masks are shipped to Hong Kong, Hong Kong citizens will take them without the peace of mind.
Apart from this, judging from the words of Carrie Lam, these masks were "ordered earlier" and only after the coordination efforts by the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office “in the past month” could these masks be "successfully exported.” This means, the masks were ordered before the outbreak. Due to the huge and competing demands on the mainland, shipment was delayed. Only after the coordination by the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office was the order then fulfilled.
Despite the hate speech of mainland Chinese netizens and official news media, there is almost no response or debate in Hong Kong. There is also no response to Carrie Lam’s announcement of shipping face masks from China. Facing the irritable old comrades and the ‘little pinks” (young nationalists), Hong Kong people may subconsciously be thinking: we won’t even bother reacting to them.
A few days ago, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "the US government has not provided any help of substance to China so far.” When the United States sent a plane to Wuhan to evacuate her citizens, a 747 cargo plane was deployed which was ridiculed by Chinese internet media and posts saying the United States was stingy and so poor that she had to use a cargo plane for passengers and there were not even warm meals on board. They even went further to say if it was their great motherland evacuating her citizens, for sure the best airplane would be used with first class hot food. A level-headed Chinese netizen could not help but point out that "the United States chose a cargo plane for delivery of the much needed supplies to doctors in Wuhan to combat the epidemic. If it was a passenger plane, it would not be possible to load a large amount of supplies and they would only send an empty plane." It was also pointed out that from 6 January, the United States has repeatedly offered to send relevant medical experts to China to help fight the epidemic, but China has been slow in responding and is yet to accept the offer.
On some Chinese websites, rumours that "the United States manufactured this virus as a bio weapon to wipe out Chinese people” are widely circulating, read by hundreds of thousands, bringing the writer of the post a daily windfall of over $10,000 as appreciation bonus from readers. Liu Yadong, Editor-in-Chief of China's Science and Technology Daily, said: "One may write this for soliciting followers and making money. Financial gain as a motive is understandable. Yet whoever believes this is an idiot, dumber than turkeys.” Nevertheless, there is a fair number of the dumber-than-turkeys.
Americans have ignored all these slanders by Chinese as they will not be as silly. With a little bit of common sense, we all know virus does not differentiate between races. It can spread in China. It can also spread to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan – allies of the United States. Therefore, "whoever believes this is an idiot.”
Hong Kong people have also ignored the sentiment of hate arising from the shortage of face masks among the old comrades and little pinks. After all, we are not on par in terms of civility. For example, with regard to supplies donated by Japan to Hubei Province for combating the epidemic, this was printed in Chinese characters on the packages: "Geographically apart, we share the same stars and sky. Hath thou no robe? Share mine with thee.” Who in China would quote this classical Chinese literature? He Qinhua, former President of East China University of Political Science and Law said, "in our own mother tongue, we could only come up with: do not cry Wuhan, or Wuhan go, go, go. The path to civilization is a systematic project of a nation. So is the path to ignorance. Modernization cannot transform people of an ancient nation to modern human beings.” By ancient, he means pre-modern characteristics, that is, servility and ignorance. That is also blind patriotism and blind xenophobia, which have been built up systematically. What about using Chinese medicine to lead the fight against epidemics? Fighting for double brown lotus (an oral Chinese herbal medicine) includes fighting for moon cakes with two egg yolks in lotus paste (which is also called double brown lotus moon cake in Chinese). Fighting for Ricqles Peppermint Cure Drops (because of its high alcohol content)…
Hong Kong people and mainland people are indeed living in two separate eras and worlds. We detest Carrie Lam because she belongs to the era and the world of the mainland. It is unfortunate that she is the Chief Executive of Hong Kong.
Source: Apple Daily HK, February 2020
By by writer and political commentator, Lee Yee • February 19, 2020