Return of the Gweilo

I lived in Hong Kong in the years leading up to July 1, 1997 when the territory was returned to China from Great Britain.  During those days it was common to see gweilos (a vaguely pejorative term given to Caucasians meaning at worst "foreign devil" and at best "pale ghost") holding political office alongside Chinese counterparts.  During that time members of the Legislative Council (Hong Kong's version of parliament) were just as apt to have a last name like MacGreggor as they were to be a Lee or a Chan. 

With resumption of sovereignty by China in 1997, any smattering of diversity, at least in the politcal arena, disappeared almost overnight.  The International flavor of Hong Kong was still visable in other city sectors however.  Business, religious, and  entertainment sectors to name but a few, still mixed the majority Chinese population with many other ethnic minority Hong Kongers to create a vibrant cosmopolitan fabric.  But in the political sector, save a few civil service positions, the ethnicity became quite homogenous.  (I recently saw a "gweilo" police officer and was surprised to be told there were still a few around)

Recently though a couple items hit the news here in Hong Kong that raised a few eyebrows. The first was that in an election last September, Paul Zimmerman, became the first non-Chinese elected to political office as a District Councillor when he was voted in by 60% of the Pok Fu Lam residents.  Zimmerman, who admits his Cantonese is poor, still saw a large portion of the local Chinese population of that district tick a gweilo's name in the ballot box.

This is followed by a recent South China Morning Post article that details British born, but long time Hong Kong resident, Andrew Brown's trials since winning a village election by a single vote in 2003.  Seems Brown has had trouble with one of the long time ruling families to the point where he has not even been allowed into the village office he is supposed to work from.

But "foreigners" winning elections in post-Handover Hong Kong??  I can almost see the movie poster now:

                                           "Return of the Gweilo"

      starring Joaquin Phoenix as Paul Zimmerman and Hugh Grant as Andrew Brown. 

An Oscar contender for sure :)