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<SMALL>February 1, 2012, 4:39 PM HKT</SMALL>
[h=1]‘Locust’ Ad Breaks in Apple Daily[/h]<FORM id=blgSearchFrm method=get action=http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/index.php><LABEL for=s>Search Scene Asia1</LABEL> <INPUT id=blog_search_query class="formtext unUsed" name=s value="Search Scene Asia" size=30> <INPUT class=searchsubmit value=SEARCH type=submit> </FORM>
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“Hong Kong people, we have endured enough in silence,” said the ad, which ran in the Apple Daily, a Chinese-language paper with an average daily circulation of about 288,000 in the first half of 2011, according to Hong Kong’s Audit Bureau of Circulations.
[h=3]Hong Kong Takes Swing at Mainland with 'Locust' Ad[/h]<SMALL>3:33</SMALL> The very public slinging of insults continues between a group of Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese. As the WSJ's Jason Chow tells Deborah Kan, this time the fight involves a newspaper and a locust.
The full-page ad, which shows a locust looking at the Hong Kong skyline, was paid for by an online fund-raising campaign on Facebook and local site Hong Kong Golden Forum, which received more than 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$12,900) from 800 donors in a week.
A man who identified himself over the phone as “Mr. Poon” and goes by “Yung Jhong” online said he organized the campaign. He said he was inspired to act after seeing news stories about mainland Chinese mothers who crossed the border to bear children in Hong Kong so that their offspring could obtain Hong Kong citizenship and the benefits that come along with it. Local authorities say that some 40,000 mainland Chinese mothers gave birth in Hong Kong hospitals last year, straining the local health-care system.
“People want to protect the city for their kids, protect the education and health-care system,” he said. “Hong Kongers are welcoming to everybody, even those from China, to come and visit and shop. But they have to follow our rules, which is why we feel like we have to say something.”
[h=3]More In Hong Kong[/h]
The ad comes at a time when tensions are on the rise between Hong Kong — a special administrative region of China with its own political and economic system — and its parent country. Insults have flown both ways.
The term “locusts,” however, is new to the verbal fray. On Friday, a handful of high-school students staged an “antilocust” rally, singing songs with incendiary lyrics as they marched up Canton Road, a pricey shopping district that is popular with wealthy, mainland Chinese tourists.
“Locusts, you really deserve a beating…don’t you have shame? Squatting on the street, lighting a cigarette, allowing your baby to defecate all over the place,” the students sang in front of an Hermès store.
They were outnumbered by local media covering the rally, and largely ignored by shoppers streaming into the store or waiting in line outside. “You have freedom of speech and the right to say [we’re locusts], but if you come to China, we won’t welcome you,” said one mainland Chinese shopper.
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<DL style="WIDTH: 553px" class="wp-caption alignleft caption-alignleft "><DT class=wp-caption-dt>
<DD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right" class="wp-caption-dd wp-cite-dd">Apple Daily <DD style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" class=wp-caption-dd>A Hong Kong newspaper ad decried Chinese visitors as ‘locusts.’ The text asks, ‘Are you willing for Hong Kong to spend one million Hong Kong dollars every 18 minutes to raise the children born to mainland parents?’ View photos </DD></DL>
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s latest fissure with China deepened Wednesday after a popular local newspaper published an advertisement slamming mainland Chinese as “locusts” who swarm the city and drain its resources. <DD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right" class="wp-caption-dd wp-cite-dd">Apple Daily <DD style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" class=wp-caption-dd>A Hong Kong newspaper ad decried Chinese visitors as ‘locusts.’ The text asks, ‘Are you willing for Hong Kong to spend one million Hong Kong dollars every 18 minutes to raise the children born to mainland parents?’ View photos </DD></DL>“Hong Kong people, we have endured enough in silence,” said the ad, which ran in the Apple Daily, a Chinese-language paper with an average daily circulation of about 288,000 in the first half of 2011, according to Hong Kong’s Audit Bureau of Circulations.
[h=3]Hong Kong Takes Swing at Mainland with 'Locust' Ad[/h]<SMALL>3:33</SMALL> The very public slinging of insults continues between a group of Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese. As the WSJ's Jason Chow tells Deborah Kan, this time the fight involves a newspaper and a locust.
The full-page ad, which shows a locust looking at the Hong Kong skyline, was paid for by an online fund-raising campaign on Facebook and local site Hong Kong Golden Forum, which received more than 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$12,900) from 800 donors in a week.
A man who identified himself over the phone as “Mr. Poon” and goes by “Yung Jhong” online said he organized the campaign. He said he was inspired to act after seeing news stories about mainland Chinese mothers who crossed the border to bear children in Hong Kong so that their offspring could obtain Hong Kong citizenship and the benefits that come along with it. Local authorities say that some 40,000 mainland Chinese mothers gave birth in Hong Kong hospitals last year, straining the local health-care system.
“People want to protect the city for their kids, protect the education and health-care system,” he said. “Hong Kongers are welcoming to everybody, even those from China, to come and visit and shop. But they have to follow our rules, which is why we feel like we have to say something.”
[h=3]More In Hong Kong[/h]
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The ad comes at a time when tensions are on the rise between Hong Kong — a special administrative region of China with its own political and economic system — and its parent country. Insults have flown both ways.
The term “locusts,” however, is new to the verbal fray. On Friday, a handful of high-school students staged an “antilocust” rally, singing songs with incendiary lyrics as they marched up Canton Road, a pricey shopping district that is popular with wealthy, mainland Chinese tourists.
“Locusts, you really deserve a beating…don’t you have shame? Squatting on the street, lighting a cigarette, allowing your baby to defecate all over the place,” the students sang in front of an Hermès store.
They were outnumbered by local media covering the rally, and largely ignored by shoppers streaming into the store or waiting in line outside. “You have freedom of speech and the right to say [we’re locusts], but if you come to China, we won’t welcome you,” said one mainland Chinese shopper.
