Comedian Vivek Mahbubani On Being "That Indian" in Hong Kong
Comedy was just an item on Vivek Mahbubani's to-do list until he won the Chinese division of the HK International Comedy Festival in 2007. Hong Kong born and bred, he now splits his time between running a web design business and making people laugh.
I grew up in the best of times in Hong Kong: The 80s. When I was little, I wanted to be a bus driver. Bus drivers were to me the closest thing to a race car driver. They would decide if you got to your destination fast, or slow. I liked the idea of being in control.
Being a kid is cool because it’s simple: You get up, go to school, meet your friends, watch cartoons, play games outside. Without the internet, it was obviously even better. Today, kids have to deal with a lot more peer pressure because of the internet. To those living overseas, happiness is a walk in the park, a coffee with a friend. But happiness today in Hong Kong is when you’re alone in the lift with your finger on the “door close” button as you see someone running towards it. As the doors are closing you’re like, “Oh my god, I’m getting better at this!”
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Comedians joke about these things, but then you realize it’s actually pretty tragic. Hongkongers are too competitive, but instead of being competitive with the rest of the world, we’re competitive with ourselves. If you asked me if I’d leave Hong Kong, five years ago, I would’ve said no. Now, I cannot say I’ll never leave Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has evolved. The mentality has shifted, everyone is thinking a certain way. They’re thinking about China issues. But life is much more than politics. The more I travel, the more I realize that Hong Kong has got a lot of good stuff as well. Why are we all complaining? Rather than whine about not being able to buy a flat, let’s enjoy what we do have. You’re never going to have everything perfect, anyway.
I was in Sydney and had a couple of hours before a gig, so I wanted to go explore. I looked at the sign and it said, “Next train: 28 minutes.” Then I came back to Hong Kong, where we complain about the next train taking three minutes. Things here are declining in noticeable ways. Do I want to raise kids in an environment where English usage is getting worse? I’d want them to grow up in a more international, multilingual environment, but nowadays everything is subtitled, translated, and there aren’t many English TV programs anymore.