They called my baby ugly!

They called my baby ugly!? I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and apart from a few years studying and working abroad (1992-1999), this city has been my home for 50 years. It’s the only home I have ever known, and I have Hong Kong to thank for everything my family and I have achieved and obtained in our immensely fortunate lives.

Hong Kong has always provided opportunities and rewarded hard work, perseverance and been a great place to do business and build a business, and not only has Hong Kong been incredibly good to us, more importantly, it continues to be!

'East meets west' is an often touted cliche when it comes to this city, but this is for good reason. It has certainly been my experience and it was the inspiration for our business, Banyan Workspace , and specifically the unique office interior we are so widely recognised for. Even the name ‘Banyan Workspace' came from the traders on the old Silk Road who rested under sheltering Banyan Trees and often concluded business deals while doing so.

It’s incredibly powerful when ‘east meets west’ and growing up around this has taught me so much about the cultural nuances between people, lifestyles and approaches to business and life. This city is a melting pot of different cultures and its years of success and unique ability to rise from adversity are largely a result of what happens when the best of both worlds collide.

It’s thus incredibly difficult and upsetting when, for the first time in my living memory, Hong Kong is relentlessly criticised and reduced to a punching bag and pawn between geopolitical heavyweights in the east and the west. It feels unfair and makes me angry when what I read is almost completely alien to my own present living experience. They are calling my baby ugly, and I know that most of what they are saying is NOT true!

It’s so hard when the media you have read all your life attacks what you love and perhaps it’s a natural reaction to try and argue, call out the inaccuracies and flaws in the reporting. To try and point to the missing nuance and the lack of context in click bait headlines and sweeping statements that are used to drive home what I see as a politicised agenda. It’s also culturally what people in Asia tend to do when faced with criticism. Shout back louder, give them the facts, provide the missing context, and show the listening masses that there are subtleties they need to understand. The concept of ‘saving face,’ perhaps most easily understood as pride, is strong among Hong Kongers and certainly this is true of our government officials.

Unfortunately, I believe that this approach has done more harm than good to the many negative perceptions of my home. Arguing, correcting, and shouting louder only seems to keep the negative headlines in the headlines. It does little but perpetuate the narrative and, sadly this approach is often viewed by its intended audience as being defensive and paradoxically at promoting a false narrative. But it’s so hard to keep quiet!?

If there is one thing that I believe our officials need to learn and adopt under the current barrage of negative media reporting, it is restraint. Not responding is the hardest thing to do but it is the right thing to do, and as with any playground bully, not reacting to the bullying is the key to stopping it. After all, the bully is only baiting you to respond.?

Hong Kong needs to focus all its efforts and channel all its energies on positive actions to boost its economy, its attractiveness to foreign visitors and show the world what we truly are, a wonderful place to visit, to live and to do business. We need to let the western media call our baby ugly and rather than respond directly, our officials must focus on changing the narrative by creating a new one while restraining themselves from diving in on the impossible task of correcting the false storyline. This is something I believe the Middle East has done remarkably over the last few years and Hong Kong can learn from this and must do better in how it deals with all that is being thrown at it.

We can change the narrative, but this will take time, effort and relentless restraint but if this approach is adopted, I truly believe the narrative can, slowly but surely, be changed and Hong Kong can once again rise from adversity!