This weekend’s Equal Opportunities Commission in Hong Kong was dominated by debates about the treatment of mainlanders, most notably whether or not it’s racist to refer to them as “locusts”. According to a report by the SCMP, the biggest concerns about proposed changes to anti-discrimination laws came from Hongkongers worried that they could be punished for employing the degrading but widely-used phrase to describe visitors from mainland China.
In a pretty hilariously-phrased question, a representative of internet media outlet Local Press asked the Commission: “If a Hongkonger shouted ‘locust’ in the face of a mainlander after seeing him poo, would he be subjected to punishment?”, adding, “It is a moral right to condemn something wrong.” The question is presumably a reference to an incident earlier this year in which a mainland couple let their child relieve itself in a Hong Kong street.
More than 1,000 submissions on similar issues were received by the commission, according to Chairman York Chow Yat-ngok, who commented that while it is against to law to relieve yourself in public in Hong Kong, it is “the behaviour, not the person’s background, which should be condemned”. Herman Poon Lik-hand, the commission’s chief legal counsel, however, added that shouting “locust” in the street is unlikely to be regarded as incitement to racial hatred.
Mainlanders are currently not protected against racial discrimination in Hong Kong, but the commission if looking into expanding the definition.
Photo: Wikipedia
