Antagonistic relationship between mainland China and the port city of Hong Kong
Demo in HK against Communist Party of China
For those across the border in the mainland, the perception of Hong Kongers ranges from admiration to a feeling of contempt: Following the media storm that followed the MTR noodle-eating incident, a prominent Chinese academic, Peking University professor Kong Qingdong, called Hong Kongers "bastards" and imperialist "running dogs."
Hong Kong maintains its own currency (which is pegged to the U.S. dollar) and the city's "capitalist" system is also enshrined in the Basic Law. China's oft-touted economic miracle is, at least in part, traceable to Hong Kong's influence. Not only was the presence of the city's free market a huge influence on the economic reforms of the late 1970s and 80s, but investment in the mainland from Hong Kong tops that from everywhere else combined.
An ultra-leftist mainland academic branded Hong Kong people 'running dogs of the British government'
'If you [Hongkongers] keep [discriminating against mainlanders] in that way, then we won't provide you with water, vegetables, fruit and rice. Can you Hongkongers still survive? Go to seek help from your British daddy,' he said.
A sizeable portion of HK population has a long-standing hatred of the Chinese Communist Party
there has been a steady rise in anti-mainland sentiment, seen in some politicians' "de-mainlandisation" slogans dating back a number of years, and a growing emphasis on Hong Kong identity as something separate or different from Chinese identity.
Post-Occupy, a frustrated minority have begun to advocate separation or independence for Hong Kong.
On 5 February 2011, Lee Qiaozhen, a Hong Kong tour guide, had a quarrel with three mainland tourists.[15] Lee verbally insulted the tourists for not buying at a jewellery store, referring to them as "dogs".[16] The tourists were dissatisfied and this eventually turned into a fight.
In early 2012, Kong Qingdong, a Peking University professor, publicly called Hong Kongers "old dogs" in the aftermath of a controversy over mainland visitors urinating or defecating in public in Hong Kong.
(That's how class struggles looks like!)
The education that people received, the culture, and lifestyle were very different which lead to the cultural conflicts.
Some Hong Kong people perceive mainlanders as rude, impolite, poorly educated. This further leads to locals' nonacceptance of mainlanders, especially when they travel in Hong Kong. Travelers from the mainland are growing in a tremendous number that their existence can influence the direction of government's policies.[40] The premise of various protests within the 2010s were related to the issue of the individual visit scheme adversely affecting the daily lives of Hong Kongers. On the other hand, some Mainlanders view Hong Kong is acting like a spoiled, ungrateful child despite all the (economic) support it is getting from China. Hong Kong is increasingly viewed as a place of traitors, British lapdogs, nest of subversives within China, while pointing out Macau's relationship to China as a role model.
Almost 18 years after the territory’s return to Chinese sovereignty, many mainland netizens look at Hong Kong as a place of traitors, British lapdogs, nest of subversives against the Communist Party, a Fragrant Harbor that now stinks. In short, hopeless.
While mainlanders stress that Hong Kong is part of China, many of them speak of Hongkongers in the same breath as Japanese militarists or Taiwan secessionists, an attitude that seems to suggest they never genuinely regard the city as one of their own.
Protests against mainland China shoppers in HK
A poll last year found that ever fewer Hong Kongers identify themselves as “Chinese”. Many complain about what they see as the boorish behaviour of their mainland compatriots and brand them as “locusts” for stripping shelves. Some ensuing confrontations have been nasty. Scenes caught on camera in February showed a crowd yelling and heckling a mainland woman and her crying daughter. Mainlanders have been verbally abused and jostled by masked protesters.