Semester at Sea Fall
2006 Voyage 
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
- Home Page
- My bio
- "Crossing the Globe" Comparative Migration Project
- Brazilian Influence in Japan
- The
Hong Kong Melting Pot
- Outside Influence in Burma
- Cambodia's Recent Migration
History
- Hospitality in Egypt
- Turkey-Sex
Work in Istanbul
- Open Letter to All Future SAS Participants
The
Hong Kong Melting Pot
By Preston Price
Hong Kong appeared to me to be a melting pot for tourists as well as diverse inhabitants. The presence of Filipinos were a great example of this product of migration. I only spent a couple short days in Hong Kong because I went to Beijing for a few days. However, this did help me understand the lack of homogeneity in Hong Kong by comparing it to my observations in Beijing. In Hong Kong I saw all sorts of people. After all, Hong Kong is by far the largest metropolitan area that I have ever seen. There were quite a few British people that I encountered as tourists as well as shop owners. This makes sense because Hong Kong was until recently, a British colony. There were more tourists in Hong Kong than any other place I have been so far. Japanese tourists were pretty much everywhere in the city. I also saw more black people in Hong Kong than I have seen in total for the trip thus far, adding to my interpretation of Hong Kong as being a melting pot of various peoples.
Nevertheless, the presence of Filipinos was what really caught my eye. I did take notice of some young Asian couples (possibly Chinese) walking along with their kids and one other person whom I speculate was their Filipino domestic worker. The Filipina maid or nanny is the one that was actually pushing the strollers holding the infants. Right off the bat it reminded me of Marrie Constable’s book, Maid to Order in Hong Kong, which clearly points out a commonality of Filipina workers going to Hong Kong in search of finding jobs to earn money for supporting their families back home. There, they frequently are hired as family maids and/or house servants. Constable’s article also mentioned that they congregate in parks on their days off, and I took notice of these masses of Filipina workers gathering in the park every Sunday. The site of so many foreigners portrays how extraordinary the level of ethnic diversity is in Hong Kong.