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00:35:11
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Transcription: [00:35:11]
{SPEAKER name="Stacilee Ford"}
It was — it was the one time in my life in Hong Kong where it really didn't — it seemed to matter so much less who you were ethnically, what language you spoke.

[00:35:20]
It was about coming together. It was, you know, doctors and nurses who ended up dying to take care of patients. It was about people being forthcoming about what was going on.

[00:35:30]
And Hong Kong acted in a much different way than the mainland did. There's a lot of mainland bashing that goes on in Hong Kong so I — you know, I have to be careful there.

[00:35:39]
But the way that Hong Kong was committed to transparency about the worst possible news about SARS, while still trying to be hopeful was really extraordinary.

[00:35:49]
So I think there's something really quite special about Hong Kong. And for a little place, I — it doesn't get written about a lot.

[00:35:57]
There was a lot of media around 1997, but it really does punch above its weight globally in terms of what it does. I don't think people appreciate that.

[00:36:06]
So it's a long answer to your question but I think I didn't appreciate it for a long time and I was wound in, bit by bit.

[00:36:12]
Husband was grabbed much more immediately. And there are people, there are China people. You know there are the "China hands".

[00:36:21]
We talk about people who know, almost from the beginning that that's what they want. For me, I really was that troubling American woman. It took me a while, so.

[00:36:31]
{SPEAKER name="Unknown Audience Member"}
I wanted to know about the issue about being skillful at harmonizing. It's not so much of an issue if you're an academic. It is easier if you're not a harmonizer in the academic world or is it the same as in the business world?

[00:36:47]
{SPEAKER name="Stacilee Ford"}
I think it's harder in the business world. I think it's much harder. I think in academia you're allowed — you're supposed to be a little bit iconoclastic.

[00:36:56]
I think it's hardest — my students will say "You taught us all these things in American studies and we go to work in Hong Kong and people don't really appreciate the critical thinking or the direct approach"

[00:37:13]
So, I think what's harder are for folks who feel like they want to Americanize to a certain extent, but they also have to blend with the harmony ethos in Hong Kong.

[00:37:26]
And you have a situation right now where you have a lot of Hong Kong-born students who were educated all the way up in the U.S. or the U.K. and they are coming back and taking jobs with multi-nationals.

[00:37:38]
Not just Ameri- U.S. companies but multi-nationals. They are taking jobs away from Hong Kong U students and other students who have stayed in Hong Kong for their education.

[00:37:48]
So it's sort of the reverse — we have all this anxiety in the U.S. about "They're taking our jobs". Right?

[00:37:53]
Or "Our jobs are going offshore". I think there's an anxiety among localized students who are not so Americanized or not so westernized about how they will compete.