Age Discrimination exists in Hong Kong

On the first day of school several years ago, I stepped into the classroom of my class. As usual, there was a slight stir in the class. My students finally knew who their class-teacher was. There were no more guesses. A girl sitting two seats further away looked up at me and commented, “噤老嘅”. Of course I was very unhappy about it! Should I scold her for impoliteness?

A second thought came to my mind that I should not do so! I swallowed her words and pretended that I did not hear them. The reason was: If I was angry with her, that meant I admitted I was old. I was calm and carried out my work. I totally ignored her words of discrimination. I said to myself: If I was ugly, she would certainly remarked, “噤醜嘅”! If I was bald, she would say, “光頭嘅”! She had the freedom of speech, but she had already hurt me.

I think an ugly person needs not be sorry because it is not his/her fault. The fault lies on his/her parents who bore him/her . Even if I were that old, I would not feel sorry. It is not my fault. It is ageing!

I noticed that this girl loved worshipping young singers and often sang their songs. I was sure that this girl always expected teenagers and young teachers around her.

She was so unlucky that I was still her Mathematics teacher in the following two years. No doubt she did not listen in my lessons and in one lesson, she took out a mirror to see if her hair was nicely combed. She definitely put much time on her appearance and did not work hard at all. I really believed she would be scared to death when one day she found white hairs growing out and wrinkles building up on her forehead.

It was two years ago. One day at school, I heard some students calling one of my colleagues in her absence as “黃老太”. At that time, the name was often heard in TV from an advertisement of a big supermarket in Hong Kong. This is another example of age discrimination!

What will you feel when one day someone calls you “老伯” “婆婆” although you think you are not that old?