So this National Security Bill, in Cantonese it’s called 國安法 (Dummy PY: Gwok On Fat)，it is short for 國家安全法 (Dummy PY: Gwok Ga On Chun Fat)，literally means country or nation 國家 (Dummy PY: Gwok Ga), Safety or security 安全 (Dummy PY: On Chun), 法 (Dummy PY: Fat) means law or bill. According to the state news agency XinHua News, the bill is “in response to last year's sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that plunged the city into its deepest turmoil.” (Aljazeera), the bill according to Xinhua is “on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms”. This all sounds like it’s good so perhaps Hong Kong will be back to a more peaceful time with no protests. But check this. “The South China Morning Post newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the laws would ban secession, foreign interference, "terrorism" and all seditious activities aimed at toppling the central government and any external interference in the former British colony.” (Aljazeera)
That’s where the issue and concerns lie. Many Hong Kongers are thinking about moving, meaning immigrating 移民 (Dummy PY: Yee Men), literally means moving people移民, or temporarily finding a place to reside and see how things go. According to HK01, Hong Kong based online news, after China announced that they were proposing the bill on the 21st of May, the next day, there were 10 times more inquiries of immigration compared to regular days. And on Google, for the search terms like immigration 移民 and Taiwan, the country, has a spike of 40%. So now let’s talk about the names of countries Hong Kongers like to visit or popular places for them to move to and why. Back in 1997, around the time Hong Kong was handed over from the UK to China, Hong Kong people also had similar fears, not quite sure what would happen to Hong Kong. Hence there was a Hong Kong Mass Migration Wave 移民潮 (Dummy PY: Yee Men Chew), and with this national security bill, we are likely to see a second mass migration wave. The Hong Kong Diaspora as I like to call it. Many of the countries’ names are onomatopoeia of the English name, so it should be easy to follow.
So just now I have mentioned, Taiwan, 台灣 (Dummy PY: Toi Wan), very close to the English pronunciation. 台灣 is a popular place to go to, because the Hong Kong culture and Taiwan culture are somewhat closer, compared to other non Chinese cultures or other Chinese cultures. 台灣 also uses traditional Chinese so for some Hong Kongers that can’t read simplified, say in Malaysia or Singapore, they use simplified, it will be more easier if they didn’t need to learn new sets of Chinese simplified characters.
But according to a Chinese University research on Asian Pacific studies, the first choice for Hong Kongers to migrate to isn’t Taiwan 台灣, it’s actually Canada 加拿大 (Dummy PY: Ga Na Die), 17.5% of the participants of the research responded Canada 加拿大 was their first choice. The name Canada in Cantonese 加拿大 is interesting, because it sounds close to the term armpit in Cantonese, which is 胳肋底 (Dummy PY: Gak Lak Die), meaning armpit. So this can be a mnemonic device to remember both Canada 加拿大 and armpit 胳肋底, using your associative imagination, you can try to remember that under your armpit, there was a canadian flag tattooed on it or something like that. So it helps you remember. Canada 加拿大 is many people’s first choice because I assume there is quite a big Hong Konger community here.
The next runner up is Australia 澳洲 (Dummy PY: Oh Jow), where 13.8% participants responded as their first choice. Australia in Cantonese is 澳洲, 澳 is taking the first sound of the word Australia, and 洲 means continent. 澳洲. I am assuming Australia is a great choice for Hong Kongers because Hong Kong has a warmer climate and Australia 澳洲 depending on where you go, not Tasmania, because it gets quite cold there, generally the climate is more suitable for southerner like Hong Kongers.
Taiwan 台灣 is the third runner up. I think the reason why Taiwan is placed the third is because the salary in Taiwan tends to be quite a bit lower than that of Hong Kong.
Then it would be the UK 英國 (Dummy PY: Ying Gwok) with 6.1%. Since Hong Kong people who were born before 1997, if they applied for it, we have such a passport called the BNO, British Nationals Overseas passport, of which on September 11th, the UK will be discussing whether or not Hong Kong BNO passport holders will be allowed to have residence in the UK, if not all Hong Kong passport holders. The UK 英國, 英 is taken from the first sound of the word England, and 國, like 國安法 the national security bill, 國 means country or nation. Some Hong Kongers prefer the UK, because the Hong Kong system was based on England’s colonial ruling system, so something not overly foreign.
Next one will be Malaysia 馬來西亞 (Dummy PY: Ma Loit Sai Ah), straight forward onomatopoeia, again Malaysia’s climate is warmer and they do have a large Chinese population. Singapore 星加玻 (Dummy PY: Sing Ga Bo) is the next in line, some people are suggesting that many businesses will be shifted to Singapore 星加玻 so we will see what happens.
After Singapore 星加玻 it would be the US 美國 (Dummy PY: Mei Gwok)，so America the mer is the 美，國 means country or nation. New Zealand 新西蘭
is after the US美國. New Zealand is 新西蘭 (Dummy PY: Sen Sai Lan) or 紐西蘭 (Lout Sai Lan), same thing. In 新西蘭, 新 literally means new, 西蘭 is the sound of Zealand. As for 紐西蘭 is the same sounds for New Zealand.
Finally it would be Japan 日本(Dummy PY: Yat Boon). Japan in Cantonese is 日本, 日means sun, and 本you can understand it as the core, or core values. So you can remember it with the flag of Japan, where in the middle the red represents the sun. I love Japan 日本 as do many Hong Kongers. The only issue is that migrating to Japan 日本 is actually quite difficult because of Japan’s immigration policy. The second thing is the language barrier. In the rest of the countries that were mentioned above, you can get away with just Cantonese or Mandarin or English, which most younger generation Hong Kongers can understand somewhat even if they can’t speak it fluently. But in Japan 日本, it would be quite hard to communicate if you don’t know any Japanese at all. The only advantage of us Hong Kongers or Chinese, at least what I noticed when I visited, is that since in Japan they use Kanji, so some Chinese characters can be found across the city. At least that would be somewhat an advantage.
Sorry for not mentioning some countries here.
Now let’s end the post here and go with some vocab and I will add some more countries or continents in the vocab list.
Japan 日本(Dummy PY: Yat Boon)
Korea 韓國 (Dummy PY: Hon Gwok)
Taiwan, 台灣 (Dummy PY: Toi Wan)
Vietnam 越南 (Dummy PY: Yuet Nam)
Thailand 泰國 (Dummy PY: Thai Gwok)
Singapore 星加玻 (Dummy PY: Sing Ga Bo)
Malaysia 馬來西亞 (Dummy PY: Ma Loit Sai Ah)
New Zealand 新西蘭 (Dummy PY: Sen Sai Lan) or 紐西蘭 (Lout Sai Lan)
Australia 澳洲 (Dummy PY: Oh Jow)
Canada 加拿大 (Dummy PY: Ga Na Die)
the US 美國 (Dummy PY: Mei Gwok)
South America 南美 (Dummy PY: Nam Mei)
Europe 歐洲 (Dummy PY: Au Jow)
Africa 非洲(Dummy PY: Fei Jow)
At the end, I would just like to say that the Hong Kong struggle has been long and hard. I even questioned what the point is in sharing Hong Kong’s language and culture because we don’t know what will become of Hong Kong. In a more positive light, I hope that in the future, when Hong Kongers do have children in other places outside of Hong Kong, I hope to continue to do this to help them or even my kids in the future to understand more about where we came from, the Hong Kong culture and spirit, our language and many more. This is a very difficult time for all of us. The international communities’ support is very much appreciated and I thank you for standing with Hong Kong. 香港人加油, Hong Kongers add oil.
https://www.hk01.com/%E6%94%BF%E6%83%85/476183/01%E7%8D%A8%E5%AE%B6-%E6%B8%AF%E7%89%88%E5%9C%8B%E5%AE%89%E6%B3%95-%E5%9B%9B%E8%A6%81%E9%BB%9E%E6%9B%9D%E5%85%89-%E5%9A%B4%E9%98%B2%E5%88%86%E8%A3%82%E5%9C%8B%E5%AE%B6-%E6%81%90%E6%80%96%E6%B4%BB%E5%8B%95%E7%AD%89
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/china-plans-national-security-laws-hong-kong-200521135932850.html
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3085412/two-sessions-2020-how-far-will-beijing-go-push-article-23
https://www.startribune.com/china-kicks-off-key-political-event-delayed-by-pandemic/570652092/
https://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20200525000399-260102?chdtv
