[Foreword: I guess it's the first time that I wrote my blogpost in English, so if there are any grammatical mistakes, please kindly point them out :) ]
As a former British colony, Hong Kong inherited many treasures (as well as bads) from the United Kingdom, including certain institutions, which differentiate Hong Kong between other Chinese-speaking cities, for instance, ICAC and SPCA. Yet, racial discrimination is one topic that I concern a lot.
Ethnic minorities exist in many big cities in the world, for example, London, New York, Vancouver, just to name a few. In Hong Kong, the main ethnic groups are Indians, Sri Lankans, Thais and Pakistanis (and so on). Offspring of these groups speak their own languages, and thus Cantonese is rarely used except at school. Unlike ethnic Chinese students, most of them are not familiar with the complicated characters and grammar rules, that greatly differ from their own languages. The Education Bureau does not really help them, and extra supports are not provided for them.
Another strange thing - Hongkongers discriminate Mainlanders, regardless of places of origin. I feel that Cantonese-users make me feel better, although I am an eloquent speaker in Mandarin, aka Putonghua. Certainly, there are some of them are black sheep, but Hongkongers seem to magnify them, and think that all Mainlanders are the same. Well, it is undeniable that their behaviour - squatting, talking loudly (on the phone / face-to-face), spitting, littering - is unacceptable and intolerable. Yet, for those 'good sheep', we should treat them fairly, especially those Cantonese, who live in the north of the Shenzhen River. At least, I do not discriminate Cantonese, that almost can be described as 'our ethnic root'.
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