By now, we all know how the internet reacts to those who use deception to exploit people’s goodwill — for every big legged German or fake monk, there are 1,000 angry netizens waiting to rip their false claims apart. How, then, do people react to those who openly admit to their desire for cold hard cash?
Much the same, apparently. Over the weekend, a woman was filmed standing by the luxury Hysan Place shopping center in Causeway Bay, holding a sign which said, “Seeking a good-hearted person to support me financially” in Simplified Chinese characters (which are used in mainland China, but not Hong Kong, where Traditional Chinese is the standard):
The video swiftly attracted sarcastic comments, with Facebook users wryly remarking that they too, wanted to live off other people’s money. “I want to hold a sign asking for an allowance right next to her too,” one person said. “Haha, I want a sugar mama,” another wrote.
“Turns out this is Hong Kong, I thought [the video] was taken in China,” one commenter said. Unsurprisingly, many of the reactions were misogynistic in their tone, with multiple people calling the woman a “hooker” and one saying, “Lady, even if you can’t afford a mirror, you can look at your reflection in a bowl of water.” Another suggested that the woman go to Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kok, where “square-dancing aunties” (middle-aged, mostly mainland Chinese women who have group dances in pedestrian areas) have been known to engage in soft prostitution.
Some more pragmatic Facebook users simply suggested reporting the woman to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department for “hawking herself without a license”, in reference to two highly publicized cases where the department had arrested two women for selling HKD1 cardboard and handing out vegetables to a friend.
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