Bonjour to a Minority Language in Hong Kong: French
The University of Hong Kong
School of English
French Journal Editor Mrs Morin
An editor of one of the few French journals in Hong Kong, Mrs Florence Morin has lived here for a little less than four years. She remembers coming to Hong Kong bearing in mind that everything will be alright: everyone speaks English here and it will be easy to get by - yet that was not the case. Florence recalls getting lost in Wanchai on her first day here and the middle aged man whom she asked directions from had absolutely no clue how to respond. This led her to think whether Hong Kong was as international as it presents itself to be?
In spite of this, Florence says that Hong Kongers generally have a very positive image of the French because of its long history in food, fashion, culture and heritage. Hong Kongers are attracted to French culture, and this is the main reason why so many people are learning French here.
If people can speak French, it opens a door to culture and luxury, and makes it easier to access all these French things. Although Florence feels there’s a little bit of a stereotype of the French here, she is not the least bothered by it: “same cliches everywhere, people think we are foodies, romantic...but we can’t complain. Most of them are very positive”. Whenever she introduces herself, Hong Kongers will try to show some knowledge of French to her, greeting her with “Bonjour”, or “Je m'appelle...”, she commented.
However not all is well here. Florence highlights some of the struggles she has had when trying to fit into the local Hong Kong community. What struck her the most was trying to understand Hong Kong identity. When she first arrived, she expected something a lot more Chinese. To her surprise, she soon discovered that most Hong Kongers would say they are not “Chinese”, and mainlanders would say they are not a “Hong Konger”. A Hong Konger’s identity is made up of so many different factors including colonial rule, international influence and much of Chinese culture and heritage. Another big difference she spotted between Hong Kong and Paris was how much your career is part of your identity: “A big part of your identity in Hong Kong is your job and the money you make. When you are a foreigner and you don’t know about the local habits and you go to some networking event and you have no name card and business card and have nothing to say except that you follow your husband here, you feel really bad”, she explains. Florence soon found a job and both her and her husband wanted to immerse themselves in the local culture, so during the weekends they would watch local Hong Kong movies. But on the Monday morning back, her husband’s colleagues gave a disappointing reaction “colleagues will say the movie is not for you and ask why you are into this kind of thing? Because locals are surprised when you like eating local food, watching local movies...they are more than surprised”. Florence adds that maybe some locals have a bad image of expats and think that “They are not supposed to be interested in local culture. Just here to make money in a short time, going to Lan Kwai Fong and enjoying bars and restaurants dedicated to foreigners. But I can understand because that’s really how most foreigners behave”. She continues to explain why most of the French here do not have that many local friends because for one, it’s difficult to access the language, culture, on top of having different habits, and for two is that even locals themselves find it strange that a foreigner is trying to fit into the community.
Challenges aside, Florence strives to connect the French community to the local Hong Kong community through her work in her journal. By introducing more of local Hong Kong to foreign expats like herself, she hopes to integrate both communities and encourage both to know more about each other. The link to her journal can be found here: http://lepetitjournal.com/