First Week of Hong Kong Summer Internship

Life in Hong Kong has been quite an experience so far. I have truly fell in love with the city in almost every way. The fast pace atmosphere and distinct culture has made me realize that as an American, the Chinese truly know how to live properly. Working in the democratic party so far has been very interesting. At first I met with the person I had been emailing back and forth in an extremely small office quite close to the university that we are staying in. It was so hard to understand what they were saying at first because of the language barrier. Slowly but surely I have been able to figure out what the Hong Kong people jokingly call Chinglish. The first few days consisted of being briefed on the district election campaign that will be in November. Learning about the way that the people in Hong Kong view democracy is so different than what American's think of when we hear the word democracy. The idea of the "one country, two systems" for Hong Kong is from what I have seen, very difficult to enforce. The democratic party told me that they have 60% of the majority support of the people in HK but they are unable to elect their own mayor, it is still appointed by the PRC. The only elections they are able to have democratically is for the seats in LegCo which like their congress. The democratic party has 50 members running for 18 positions, the first few days of my work was all based upon learning how to promote the candidates and how to help better advertise their election campaign. Turns out that this task is much more complicated than both me and the organization had anticipated. Basically because of Hong Kong's inability to democratically advertise politically related propaganda other than in distinctly designated areas of the city or on youtube, brainstorming for new ways for them to promote these candidates was extremely difficult. They told me that they are not able to have commercials, hang campaign posters unless they are given a zoning permit and they can only get them for certain roads on fences and do not have any funding from the government and are run like a non-profit with grants and private donations, meaning they are unable to pay for advertising other than on a few taxis and fences. So, all of my ideas were turned down. The extreme differences in how they deal with politics was actually the biggest culture shock of my work so far. It is extremely controversial to even discuss politics and most chinese people will not openly admit or discuss their political views or affiliations, making it very difficult to get support or even acknowledgement unless they are pushing the limits hard. The pro-democracy movement is split into multiple democratic groups and "the democratic party" which I work with is considered the more conservative of the groups, which they cannot stand being called, they consider themselves the rational group because they still understand that they must work with the PRC in order to advocate for change. The other groups are much more radical and vocal about not wanting to "negotiate" with the mainland Chinese government, which is basically making the democratic movement stagnant in many ways. Because of the controversial aspects of the movement and the inability to advertise for the campaign in ways that I would be used to, the first few days were spent observing videos being shot of one of the only woman candidates running for legco which was really fun and interesting, and learning about the significant culturally and political differences between the US and China. Hong Kong is truly separate in mind set than the PRC but is still being controlled making the vibe of the democratic party very interesting. They are such hard working and dedicated people but they are forced to be limited in their practices and protests. So far I have helped them mostly with updating their english version of their website. Interestingly enough, I am one of the first english speaking interns they have had work for them but I do not read Chinese, making the job of translating articles limited. They compromised for me and were giving me rough translations of press releases and articles that they were posting on their official website in Chinese into English and I edited them so that they would sound official, scholarly, and grammatically sound. That was honestly quite funny and very interesting as well. The grammatical differences were hard to get used to at first, but I truly enjoyed being able to read what is going on and what their hot topics were first hand and being able to help them relay these messages to the english speaking foreign population of hong kong wanting to follow the campaign. So after only a few days, my office has decided that they would like to move me to the official headquarters in the city government building to do research on their town planning projects. Basically spatial inequalities or their lack of space and ability to own and afford their own land or houses is one of the biggest issues in hong kong and what they need the most help with. The legco members running for office through the democratic party are working hard to bridge these gaps between the upper and lower class and fight for the right to own their own land. I am anxious to see how I am going to be able to help them with this cause but they seem to think I will be more helpful on this project instead. Because they didn't have any work for me on Thursday and Friday they gave me the days off to explore hong kong, which was absolutely amazing. I was able to go to a beautiful garden attached to a buddhist temple and spend the day walking around and drinking tea in a traditional tea house in the middle of the garden. It was a truly refreshing and spiritual experience that was much needed after the long week of adjustments and acclamation to the culture and my surroundings. Honestly, this city is 10 times safer than any large city in the US and the public transportation systems are fantastic. I have been able to safely and easily get myself around either with people or by myself and its truly liberating. I can easily see myself living here in the future and truly hope that I can have the opportunity to do so after I graduate from GMU. I have been able to adjust extremely well to the culture, the food and city life overall. Its been interesting being here with other less experienced American travelers and will probably spend more time alone and with native people once I get settled at my new internship working place. So, in conclusion, I feel like I have been able to meet my learning objectives in the work place and learn much more about Chinese democracy and the process and struggles that they face in order to fight for what they believe in. I have been able to learn how the organization works and how the Chinese work ethic is truly extraordinary. I believe that if I allow them to lead by example I will be able to better myself and my ability to expand my skill set and productivity in the work place. I really am walking into this new project tomorrow with only a report on their places for building a secondary city center and the issues of the shrinking middle class otherwise I have no idea what exactly they will be asking of me. I am hoping for the best and am going to go into it with a positive attitude and an open mind!

Learning Objectives and Strategies

1. Analyze how the Democratic Party goes about preparing their policy reforms and lobbies to the government:

• Research international information for comparisons, and understand how HK is different from the US, Singapore, and UK in many aspects including, property management, mortgage, public housing, and transportation. 
• Learn the ins and outs of a Hong Kong politics, what is important, what are the major issues that they address for the public: spatial inequalities, economic inequalities, and sufficient and affordable public transportation

2. Learn the key differences about what democracy in China stands for

• Talk to superiors about what democracy means to the the Chinese considering the juxtaposition of communism in the mainland.
• Understand what the Democratic party is fighting for, participate in the fight and help them meet their goals and objectives for HK. 

3. Observe and Adapt to office etiquette in HK

• Learn the best way to interact with my superiors
• Maintain an open mind and subservient attitude.