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Hong Kong & he Boat People

1. During the 1980s, Hong Kong became the destination for a large number of Vietnamese "boat people." The opinions I had of them as a girl were probably not much different from those of most residents of Hong Kong; indeed, they were essentially opinions I had picked up from my parents and their friends. We felt sorry for the boat people, and wished that "something" could happen change in Vietnam so that they would not be forced to flee in unseaworthy boats, under very hazardous conditions. But no one in Hong Kong can fail to be sharply aware of how crowded it is, and the universal opinion was that there was no place for them here.

We had no direct contact with them, since the Government followed a strict policy of placing them in internment compounds before their repatriation. For us, they were simply a news item, even if it was "local" news. However, on one occasion, mainly out of sheer curiosity, I went down as close as I could get to the compounds, where I could see the refugees. I watched them for an hour or so, until I was chased away by the police.

I was mostly struck at the time by what seemed to be their passivity and aimlessness. I do not recall getting the impression that any of them looked back at me, or were aware of my presence nearby. Only later, upon some reflection, did two things strike me. One was that they could hardly be anything else than aimless, since they had absolutely nothing to do but wait to be forcibly returned to Vietnam. The other was how utterly demoralizing it must have been for them to be so close to Hong Kong--to be in Hong Kong, with all its evidence of very visible prosperity--but to still find it utterly unattainable.

For a time after that, I went around saying that it was wrong to intern them, and that they should be allowed to stay. Practically everyone disagreed with me, and I got in a number of arguments about it with my family and friends. Eventually I realized that...

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Hong Kong & he Boat People. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:37, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701198.html