Speaker by Various Artists

Thanks Nickkita
I tell people that the Chinese empire is more diverse than eastern and western Europe put together, linguistically, culturally, historically. The attempt to unite the empire is via imposing a written script on Thai speaking areas in the south (much of Guangxi Province for example), Yue speaking areas (Guangzhou), Islamic areas (Xinjiang), Vietnamese areas, Korean, Russian etc etc. There are at least 55 non-Han nationalities in China). I've even seen Tibetan written in Chinese characters designed to be pronounced in the northern language (Madarin).

BTW for those who don't know, parallel goods smuggling or parallel trading happens on any porous border where there's a price differential (eg Singaporeans going on shopping trips to Malaysia). In HK, mainlanders make multiple trips to HK and buy up household goods such as milk, creating shortages in HK and crowding out the locals in the markets. Localist groups in HK have taken direct action, including burning down warehouses involved in the trade.

Yes the signs at the border about limits on carrying baby powder across are hard to miss.

I was talking to a friend in Shenzhen on Friday about the changes to his access to Hong Kong ... He was born in Shenzhen but has no birth certificate (Shenzhen residents are grandfathered in, something he can't prove) ... the changes created by the reactions to the smuggling have limited the access to HK he has been used to (and needs for his work). Meanwhile I can get across the border faster with eChannel on my NZ passport.

On the other hand it seems easier to get a seat on the Luohu train .....

The HK government is now blaming the loss of tourists on anti-parallel trade campaigns and the UM while in fact it's more due to the strong HK dollar and the weakened Chinese economy than anything. Either way average HKers still think there are way too many Chinese "tourists" unless they work in retail, of course.

Another very strange phenomenon is how much young HKers enjoy seeing signs of a Chinese recession. They think a weak Chinese economy would give them an opportunity to finally get on the property ladder. I don't have any information on this, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if the anti-Chinese sentiment was found to be the highest in HK than anywhere else in the world including Taiwan.

dupe

* It may be worth clarifying that Paul's comment concerns a duplicate post (now removed); it is not intended as a description of any previous poster.

oh yes, sorry

http://www.chinafile.com/conversation/future-autonomy-hong-kong

Good for thought on Hong Kong's future