Hong Kong's money, Taiwan's culture

Bridgeport, CT, United States, May 15 — Someone asked me, as someone who has lived in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, what I felt the difference between the two places were. Immediately, what came to mind was the contrast between the wealthy city of Hong Kong and the welcoming atmosphere of Taiwan.

Although it can't be said that I haven't found a similar welcoming spirit among the people of Hong Kong, or that I didn't see or feel the same type of money orientation in Taiwan, still, I felt that the overall social current of the two places differed in this manner.

In Hong Kong, the port city of Asia for over a century, the flow of money in and out of the place has allowed it to develop a most beautiful combination of man and nature. Looking at sunsets from the Kowloon side across the harbor, one can see the water of the harbor meet the peak of human architecture at the foot of the beautiful mountains of the Island, with both mountains and buildings reaching to the heavens.

However, at the same time, growing up in this city, I couldn't help but notice what went on in the lower levels of the steep social hierarchy. With a nightlife aimed to entertain the wealthy comes a shadow of dirt, in the forms of prostitution and drugs, among other illegal activities.

To top it off, this shadow has its own muscle in the form of the largest establishment of organized crime, notoriously known as the Triads. This can be seen reflected in the number of movies dedicated to this group and its lifestyle. Though I never confirmed it, a story I was told as a youth was that Hong Kong's Triad group called 14K was so well-established that a journalist that had written an article on its activities and leadership in Hong Kong in a magazine all the way across the world in New York was murdered the day after its publication.

Taiwan, on the other hand, was a completely different experience for me altogether. Although some of my Taiwanese friends expressed that Taiwanese aren't as friendly to other Taiwanese as they are to foreigners, as foreigners there, my wife and I really got the most superb hospitality while we studied there for half a year.

I know that I am exaggerating when I say that the Taiwanese felt more cultured and civil, while the Hong Kongers felt ambitious and ruthless. However off this statement might be in magnitude, when asked to distinguish the two places from each other, this is what came to mind.

To study the degree these societies share in common as people with East Asian, Confucian background, and to look at their social and cultural differences in light of their geopolitical history and circumstances, would be a most interesting study. The findings might provide a little more insight into the often puzzling Chinese psyche, one that at times comes across as completely pragmatic and rational, while at other times seems irrational to an extreme.