This book is written by two Japanese women who have got married with Hong Kong males and moved to live in Hong Kong. The title and the introduction of this book give people the impression that the book will generally be about the horrible mothers-in-law of the writers and how they cope with them. Yet, as the readers go on reading, they will find that it is in fact a book which depicts some uncivilized horrible behaviours of the elderly in Hong Kong. e.g. There is a description of a situation in a Macdonald restaurant in Hong Kong where some elderly pick up the cups used and left behind by other patrons of the restaurant and help themselves to numerous refill in the restaurant. I was appalled on reading that, though I am not sure if the case quoted is really representative of the situation in Hong Kong. I, myself, have never come across such a situation before. The elderly involved must be in poverty then.
In my experience, Japanese like to observe people of other places. Maybe that is one of the reasons why they often suffer from cultural shocks. I have to admit that some elderly people are not behaving in a very pleasant way in this big city. But somhow, I feel puzzled about the relationships between the in-laws in Japan. Will there be problems as well? I think some of the problems are in fact, caused by cultural differences and some of them have to do with the people they come across.
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