Getting Ahead

I once heard a story that went something like this.

Two men are at work on a road in Africa when a lion begins to chase them. One man immediately turns and starts to run while the other kneels down, tying his shoes. The first turns around and yells back to other, why aren’t you running? Aren’t you afraid the lion will catch you?” The other man, now running as well says, “I’m not worried. I only need to outrun you.”

This story, while rife with stereotype, expresses a very common theme here in Hong Kong. In a variety of settings in Hong Kong life, you get the feeling the people around you are constantly trying to be one step ahead of you and each other. It may not be a lion chasing you but waiting at the platform for a train is a prime venue for seeing this attitude. Riding the train home yesterday, a teenager and I were standing at a doorway when my stop came. As the train rolls the last few feet, a man walks up behind both of us and begins to edge closer to what he perceives as a gap between us. I got the distinct impression the man hoped one of us would become uncomfortable, move to the side and he could step out of the train between us, thus, getting ahead. Other days, you will see people literally run to be the first one onto the escalator off of the platform, even though they return to walking once they are upstairs.

You can see the desire to get ahead also in everyday business dealings. Hong Kong’s corruption laws have increased significantly in the last decade as a reaction to a perception that all too often the average citizen was being cheated by their neighbors. The ICAC, Hong Kong’s anti-corruption organization, regularly runs public service ads, has posters printed across town and occupies some imposing real estate in the city center, all to send a message. But in Hong Kong, lots of signs prohibiting an action mean that, in reality, the action is widespread. (The best example being the no spitting signs.)

Wanting to get ahead isn’t bad necessarily, but it becomes counterproductive when people are paranoid that someone is always trying to pull a fast one on them. I saw this all the time when we were choosing an apartment and furnishing it. Each time we would purchase something, we were advised to bring a local or we would be “cheated.” When we told friends how much we paid for our sofa, bed, microwave, etc. we heard the refrain again: “You’ve been cheated.”

The result is that I have started to feel a little of this contagious paranoia. I have to confess, in the above story about the train, I and the teenager did not budge because we both wanted to be the first ones out. Not only that, all three of us were standing at that one particular door because that door is the closest door to the escalator nearest the exit. At least I haven’t started running yet.