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Beijing. A Peking University scholar angered Hong Kongers by comparing many of them to dogs. Now Hong Kongers are fighting back in a campaign against the mainlanders, whom they dub “locusts,” as a long simmering feud between the two sides threatens to boil over.

Some Hong Kongers are raising funds for a newspaper advertisement against Chinese from the mainland, who have descended on the crowded former British territory in recent years, incurring the resentment of many locals.

Members of the online Hong Kong Golden Forum have raised HK$40,000 (S$6,500) over five days and are collecting money until Sunday to fund a front-page advertisement in Apple Daily, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

An online music video called ‘Locust World’ circulating in Hong Kong describes the mainlanders as “in want of a beating” for a litany of offenses from shouting in restaurants to allowing their children to urinate in the streets.

This latest clash between Hong Kongers and mainlanders has unearthed the mixed feelings both sides have towards each other, almost 15 years after the former British territory of seven million residents was returned to China.

For the mainlanders, the latest brouhaha just goes to show the superiority complex of the Hong Kongers. For the Hong Kongers, the mainlanders may contribute to the city’s economy but they also fight with the locals for scarce resources and have little regard for local rules.

Indeed, the latest spat erupted after a Hong Kong man upbraided a mainland girl for violating rules by eating on a subway train in Hong Kong.

Peking University Chinese literature don Kong Qingdong added fuel to fire when he weighed in and accused many Hong Kongers of looking down on mainlanders and being running dogs under the British. “Many Hong Kongers are dogs,” he said on an online talk show last week.

On Sunday, about 200 people protested in front of the Liaison Office of the central Chinese government in Hong Kong to show their displeasure with him.

The protest follows similar anti-mainland demonstrations in the city. Earlier this month, pregnant women and mothers with strollers were among an estimated 1,500 people who took part in a march protesting against the growing number of mainland women giving birth in the city.

Besides tapping the city’s superior medical resources, many mainlanders give birth in Hong Kong so their newborn babies have right of abode.

The quarrel has also highlighted how desperate Hong Kongers are to draw a line between themselves and the mainlanders, whose growing presence has threatened their sense of identity.

The number who see themselves primarily as Hong Kongers is at its highest in a decade, according to a regular poll released last month by the University of Hong Kong.

“We might have been sharing some of the good old Chinese culture. But the most distinct values in us are those learnt from the British, our values, our sense of the globe and our English language,” wrote Hong Konger Lau Wingyee in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

She even advocates the city’s independence from China, arguing that both sides have little in common.

Meanwhile, Peking University is backing lecturer Kong, despite calls for his sacking. He is a colorful leftist and Lu Xun scholar who had been in trouble before for using vulgarities on a reporter.

Many Chinese are also lining up behind him. One said the strong reactions from some newspapers and Hong Kong artists were “laughable.”

“From (derogatory names like) Ah Chan, Dai Chuen Zhai, Northern Aunt, Uncle to Locusts, the discrimination against mainlanders has a long history and is more than 10 times worse,” the supporter of scholar Kong wrote on a microblog.

The pro-Beijing Takung Pao has also accused some of fanning anti-China feelings and separatism in an editorial. “Such intentions are for sure dark and wrong and can’t be allowed to succeed,” it said.

A few cooler heads are urging peace. As a Hong Kong man who called himself Kobe wrote on a microblog: “It’s the spring festival, everyone is Chinese, with the same blood, hope everyone has more tolerance and joy and less grievance.”

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.