HONG KONG: Outraged readers round on writer for 'racist dogma'

Columnist Chip Tsao responds to reader allegations of promoting discrimination and unfair stereotypes

South Morning China Post
Sunday, October 16, 2005

By Niki Law
 
Prominent columnist Chip Tsao has hit back at allegations of racism, saying readers angered by his observations on western men losing cachet with local women did not understand his sarcasm.

The article "Have Hong Kong girls stopped looking for Mr White?" in last week's Sunday Morning Post, which cited Tsao's column, has inspired a flood of passionate responses from readers.

Tsao had commented that western men who stayed in Hong Kong after the handover lived in dorms on Lamma Island or stone houses in Sai Kung that people used to "keep pigs in".

He also said expatriate men "clad in T-shirts, thongs and flip-flops" bought beer from the 7-Eleven to get free gifts and were "muscular but did not last long" in bed.

A Sunday Morning Post reader from Vietnam, Karl John, said after reading Tsao's comments: "I cannot find one statement of truth, just racist dogma and general sweeping statements.

"It is nothing more than a racially motivated observation that has probably been brought about by Chip Tsao's inability to attract interest from Hong Kong ladies," he said, reflecting a typical response of letter writers.

For other readers, Tsao's comments reflected the frustrations they have had with local girls.

"When my expat, western-born Chinese or even mainland Chinese male friends get together, the topic of conversation is often about how uninteresting, charmless and graceless many local women are," said one.

Tsao hit back at the criticisms by saying: "I am deeply disappointed that western readers, especially those from the United States and the United Kingdom, could not read between the lines and find the sarcasm in my statements. I have always been provocative."

He said he was simply writing something "juicy" to reflect a common theme that already existed in the Chinese-language media.

"If these people saw what Apple Daily and the rest of the Chinese-language papers write, they would not have been so shocked by my column. Hong Kong papers nowadays are always talking about how these foreigners are old and penniless. I find their comments racist.

"If the readers are so worked up, they should channel their energy to fighting for racial discrimination laws instead."

Tsao said Hong Kong was and still is a colony. "Now it's a Chinese colony and no longer a western colony. When you go to Lan Kwai Fong, all the mainlanders act like they are the biggest thing.

"Before 1997, local girls were always holding on to a westerner. I am just stating what is in everyone's heart. I think most westerners agree with me, but right now they are just thinking in terms of human rights and equality."

Reader Brian Apthorp said he found it "refreshing" that Hong Kong was still allowed to address the question of race.

"In the United Kingdom, the newspeak virtually prohibits open discussion on race and gender. Luckily in Hong Kong we do not seem to have the same level of racial tension," he said.

Readers in cross-cultural relationships wrote in to support comments made by happy couple Zita Yu and John Peralta in an accompanying article.

Paul Mounsey wrote: "I have been happily in a mixed marriage since 1993. Most of our friends are like us, and what I have observed is that mixed-race relationships either work or don't work for the same reasons as any other, and success really depends on what you put in."

Another reader, Graham Warburton, wrote: "The personal reflections of Chip and his friends should not have been buried on Page 3, they should have been investigated in depth and given greater prominence."

Date Posted: 10/16/2005