Like, up, up, up. This one's pretty, it comes with the golden top. I feel like you don't have to fit into one identity, like you can have two or three identities and still call yourself a Hong Konger. I have friends who are also Punjabis. I feel like I like hanging out with them because we speak the same language, so it's just easier.
But I also have local friends I met through university or high school. Looking for an outfit for the wedding, right? Yeah.
My name is Carol. My Chinese name is Jiawen. I'm 24 years old.
I'm a native of Hong Kong. This is one of the spots that we usually take our participants to during the tour. So this shop is pretty special because even though the shop is run by a Nepalese lady, she also provides outfits for Indian festivals and different kinds of fabrics as well. Growing up I kind of held that resentment like I felt I felt angered and annoyed like why why do people have to see us differently but then I realized like when you see something different from you like your first instinct is to judge it.
I feel like there were not a lot of platforms where people around me could learn and be like educated on issues about ethnic minorities and not just issues but also like the lifestyles and culture of different minority groups in Hong Kong. I think around 2017 I started doing these tours. with my friend and we actually just started off as very small tours but then we slowly expanded them.
We used to take them around Jordan and Yamate and we would take them around like shops like clothing shops or restaurants or grocery stores so that the Chinese locals could be like a bit more aware and they could learn more about like the different cultures that exist around them. Also like the best part is when we go from one point to another point because in which garbage we can talk to them right so they can ask questions. It wasn't until I got into high school that I started realizing that there's like a difference and there's a segregation between like the locals and the non-locals which is why I think like the tours were a really good way because the curiosity is there but maybe sometimes they just don't have the platform to have their questions answered.
Hi! Hello. Once my neighbor was like, oh, I'm from Pakistan. And I'm like, no, no, no, this is the one.
And then... He was like, huh? Where's the turban?
And I'm like, that's a religion thing. This is a cultural thing. I am ethnically from South India, but I was born and raised in Hong Kong. My granddad came here in the 1970s. Compared to our hometown, there's a lot of opportunities for jobs and climbing up the social ladder.
But I think as an ethnic minority, especially as a South Asian ethnic minority, there will always be some kind of stares. Regardless of whether it's bad or good, it's still... It makes you feel different.
I'm grateful that a lot of my experiences with racism or discrimination or prejudice hasn't been major, it's not been violent. I have a lot of friends who said they were attacked by the police or they were attacked by certain people in their neighbourhood. I had more subtle experiences, especially in the last two or three years, where a lot of the targeted ID checks have been on me. And I remember the police checked.
my bag, my body, you know, everything. I thought it was quite normal. I was like, oh, my dad told me, like, everyone gets checked. But it's very selective, right? And you don't realize this until you get older.
For example, if I'm with my Chinese friend, I only get checked instead of that other friend. And I think this plays into the stereotypes that ethnic minority people, or especially ethnic minority men, tend to, like, do drugs more, or that they do more illegal things. I like to tutor English.
But I realized that a lot of the parents, they prefer having very native, like very white, Caucasian speakers. You know, it doesn't make sense to me because why do these features determine how fluent you are in English? I don't know if it's racism, I don't know if it's that. And that's the tricky thing about discrimination is that you can never know. I think the food that we eat has always been very...
Indian based. Sometimes we'll eat like Chinese dishes but not like everything Chinese you know sometimes we'll have Mokki but we'll have Mokki with curry it's like a mix. So here we have the garlic naan, the chicken jalfrezi, dal makhani. Well yeah I literally grew up eating this. So this is like for the people who can't handle the spice.
dish just to it's literally to calm calm your taste buds. It's literally to calm your balance. Yeah I took my Chinese friend to India with us and she could not handle the spicy stuff Really? Yeah I feel like when people first hear Chongqing like there's a lot of like negative connotations Like before when I didn't really know anyone in Chongqing or like I didn't know about the restaurants here I used to get a little like panicky when I stood outside and I saw like a bunch of like men just standing around But I feel like now that I've eaten here a few times and I've been to the restaurants I don't feel as scared and I feel like people here are really welcoming It's like India right? It's like you know when you get out of Delhi airport and it's like come to the rickshaw, come to the rickshaw That's an Indian culture But I think if you look past that people will genuinely enjoy it I just wish people visit This is Delhi club, the best curry house Block C, third floor.
Block C, third floor, Delhi Club. Oh, that's so pretty. How do you say hello with them?
Vanakkam. Vanakkam? Vanakkam. We don't really have a word for it.
We just say see you later. Hong Kong is this very vibrant, very fast-paced way of life. I like the rush, the rush of energy.
Some people might not like that, but I love it. Indian is my heritage, it's my racial background. but at the same time it's also very Hong Kong. And I would say it's like an integration of both. Indian Hong Konger.
I think Hong Kong will always be a part of our home because this is where all my, or like the majority of my life memories have been formed. And I am still contributing to Hong Kong society. My dad has, my granddad has. My mom and dad have built their life here from scratch. They came to Hong Kong like 23 years ago from Punjab, which is the northwest region in India.
Like as a Punjabi person in Hong Kong, I still have my Punjabi identity. So like for example, like festivals or like going to the Gurdwara in Wan Chai, like I still attend those festivities and occasions. A lot of us are born and raised in Hong Kong and I feel like celebrating a few of these festivals helps us be closer to home and our own religion.
Today is Diwali. For Hindus and for Sikhs we celebrate Bandi Chor Diwas which is the celebration is quite similar but for us we're celebrating the release of our sixth guru from prison. Ready? Set, set. For Diwali in Hong Kong, it's celebrated in the Hindu temple as well as the Sikh temple.
And the main purpose, the main thing that we're celebrating is basically victory of good over evil and light over darkness. And we'll play with firecrackers in India. The main purpose of this is just to celebrate brightness and light.
A lot of my relatives and grandparents are still in India. We usually visit family once every two years. At the end of the day, Hong Kong is where I think I feel most comfortable because I have grown up here and my social circle is here and my studies and my work is also in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is my home. Hong Kong is still a place that's very close to my heart. Even in the future I do see myself maybe moving out of Hong Kong but I still feel like the comfort and like the unity of people that you find in Hong Kong it might be difficult to find in another place.