Online Review: To Be or Not To Be (來生不做香港人)

To Be Or Not To Be (來生不做香港人) is a drama series that produced by HKTV in December 2014. Since the drama released, which arouse a lot of noise and good feedback of this drama as for the plot is so realistic and also it can create a resonance to the Hong Kongers.

The story line is about by Maggie Cheung Ho-yee  (張可頤) as Anson, Leung Mei-hang and  Prudence Liew (劉美君) as Leung Mei-tin, a story of a sister gather together. Anson Leung is a typical Kong girl who had studied oversea, replaced her older sister Leung Mei-tin come to Hong Kong from Dongguan Hakka village when she was 8 years old. And Leung Mei-tin was graduated from junior high school in Dongguan but she started from scratch to build up her own business.By portraying a sister that they grow in separate places and have different experiences to elaborate and depict the historical development between Hong Kong and China. After decades, they eventually meet up with each other but owing to different cultural values, which exist some misunderstanding among them. However, because of more frequent communication and exchange among China and Hong Kong, they are inevitably in contact with each other. Through the story line to whisper the contradiction of China and Hong Kong, even though the social issues that happened in recent, which reflect different core values of China and Hong Kong.

Through the drama, reflecting the existing issues among China and Hong Kong. In one episode, Anson went to a restaurant, she found that there were only English and Simplified in menu that is totally unrespect to Hong Kongers. Sometimes, some shop in order to fawn on Mainlanders, will destroy its own cultural values that just like the drama had covered. Actually, there are so many differences between two sides, Leung Mei-tin used to use money to build up business relationship, but this style cannot be used in Hong Kong. Hence, in the problem of cultural value, there are some differences between two places.

                                       

On the other hand, there is a main plot that shows the real social issue.  In one episode, Jacky always uses a nickname to chat in the online forum to discuss the issue of the parallel goods trader with the other netizens. He pointed out that ‘Sheung Shui is no longer the original Sheung Shui, also Hong Kong is no longer the original place.’ That is the real thoughts of Hong Kong citizens, reflecting the truth by using the method of drama telling. Besides, there is a social movement organization that aims to reveal the policy issues in Hong Kong. The drama mentioned about a fake consultation, real estate tried to use land development to earn money from rich men even though there are a protest for requesting real democracy which is a fresh topic in the history of television.

To conclude, this drama brings out different ideas of China and Hong Kong. Someone say that this drama is so political and controversial but it is no doubt that there are all the issues that Hong Kong people are so familiar with. It is seldom does a drama can expose so many real pictures of those problems between China and Hong Kong.

(552 words) 

Name: Cheung Ching Man Michelle
Student no. 10584610/21326029