Then & Now | Hong Kong has always had foreign residents who found the city incredibly boring

Dynamic, international, cosmopolitan – these adjectives were once breathlessly applied to Hong Kong in all its many-faceted dimensions.

But how many openly admit to the commonly felt opposite end of the spectrum – dull, repetitive and, at times, excruciatingly boring? And how much more pronounced and widespread this jaded latter sentiment becomes when pandemic-mitigation measures have eliminated the temporary solace once found in short-range regional travel?

Those who might otherwise have decamped elsewhere for a few days’ respite from the same old places and overfamiliar faces have been remorselessly thrown back upon whatever inner resources they might happen to have. In tandem, dawning awareness of contemporary Hong Kong’s – shall we say, less appealing – everyday realities have also come as a rude awakening.

Forced to take a long hard look at their lives in Hong Kong, many long-term residents gradually concluded that things are no longer all they had previously told themselves they were, and poured the Kool-Aid down the sink – once and for all. Permanent departure numbers over the past two years tell their own story.

Chronic boredom, combined with cabin fever, have always been commonly expressed sentiments among those who feel trapped for extended periods in physically and socially small places.

From Hong Kong’s mid-19th century urban beginnings, this aspect was well-documented in diaries, letters and – less frequently – in published memoirs; almost as soon as people returned to the colony, it seemed, a desire to leave again began to build. Hiking expeditions and boat trips could only provide so much open space – and the company always remained the same.