This Sunday will mark my two year anniversary in HK - can't believe it! Time here moves so quickly - you blink and months have gone by. In total, It's been 3 years and 2 months since I've been living away from the US. Everyday, my English gets a little worse. Everyday, I become a little bit fobbier.
I never thought I'd be gone for so long when I first left the States - I really thought a year or two at most. But I've been living the expat life just long enough now that I can't really remember how life felt any other way. Not that I don't remember living in the States - what I mean is that I can't remember how it felt. I don't know that I actually miss life in the US anymore. I miss my family and my friends, dearly and daily. But I don't think that I miss life in the US - the slower pace, the quietness, the Americanness. I always enjoy it during my visits, but to be honest, I always feel a tiny sense of relief and familiarity when I return to Asia. This is home for me now, at least for awhile. It is what feels the most normal - and I think that's one of the characteristics of home.
It is completely normal to me now that 85% of the time I don't understand what people around me are saying - and you know what, I think I prefer it that way. Because even though Hong Kong is crazy loud, because I don't understand Cantonese or Mandarin, most of the time it's just background noise to me - I can tune it all out. It's the languages that you understand that make you feel simultaneously like you are exposed and that you are intruding on others' conversations, like it or not. When I visit Korea, I can understand everything people are saying, and honestly, it's freaking annoying. Because sometimes people are really gossipy or catty or just plain stupid and you want to tell them to shut up. Same for anywhere English is spoken. But when you live in a place where you can't understand what most of the people are saying, it's really liberating and somewhat peaceful. They may be calling you a stupid fat hoe, but you know what? You will never know because you can't understand and so you will live in your own peaceful bliss not hearing all the noise around you.
I used to think freedom, in the way we define it in the US - mostly, freedom of speech and life choices - was the most important thing in a society. But after living in HK, I now think that America is way, way, way behind HK when it comes to freedom. HK is where I feel truly free, because in HK, you are granted economic freedom. It's the most liberating freedom in the world, but you have to work for it. Because the way it works is this: the more money you have, the more free you are. Yes, it sounds capitalistic, because it absolutely is. HK essentially has a flat tax system that maxes out at 15%. So the more money you make, the more money you get to keep. There is also no sales tax or duty on most goods. That leaves you with most of your hard-earned (or not so hard-earned) money to do as you wish - and getting to keep more of your own money is the most liberating feeling. You know what is NOT liberating? The US tax system, which punishes the middle and upper-middle class. The more you make, the more they take away! That completely disincentivizes your desire to work harder because even though you may work harder and make more in income, your tax bracket will probably go up so that you're only taking home a smaller percentage of the marginal increase you make by working harder. Which sucks. Which feels oppressive and repressive and not free. And here's the thing about the US - it comes after you with US taxes no matter where you live. It's one of the only countries in the world that does that - I don't know a single person of different citizenship in HK that has to pay their own country's tax rates while living abroad. Canadians, Brits, Australians, Kiwis, Koreans - they all get to pay the HK 15% tax rate on their entire income, and keep the rest. But Americans - we still have to pay US tax rates on any income over the first $90K. It is an extremely annoying and unfair ball & chain - I would gladly give up my citizenship in a heartbeat, BUT the US doesn't even make that easy - you have to PAY the IRS something between 5-7 years of forward-looking taxes in order to be allowed to give up your citizenship. Which is complete and utter bollocks.
Anyway, US double taxation notwithstanding, HK is the place I feel the most free. You can live how you want, do what you want, wear what you want, say what you want.
I'm rambling so will stop here and go to bed.
I never thought I'd be gone for so long when I first left the States - I really thought a year or two at most. But I've been living the expat life just long enough now that I can't really remember how life felt any other way. Not that I don't remember living in the States - what I mean is that I can't remember how it felt. I don't know that I actually miss life in the US anymore. I miss my family and my friends, dearly and daily. But I don't think that I miss life in the US - the slower pace, the quietness, the Americanness. I always enjoy it during my visits, but to be honest, I always feel a tiny sense of relief and familiarity when I return to Asia. This is home for me now, at least for awhile. It is what feels the most normal - and I think that's one of the characteristics of home.
It is completely normal to me now that 85% of the time I don't understand what people around me are saying - and you know what, I think I prefer it that way. Because even though Hong Kong is crazy loud, because I don't understand Cantonese or Mandarin, most of the time it's just background noise to me - I can tune it all out. It's the languages that you understand that make you feel simultaneously like you are exposed and that you are intruding on others' conversations, like it or not. When I visit Korea, I can understand everything people are saying, and honestly, it's freaking annoying. Because sometimes people are really gossipy or catty or just plain stupid and you want to tell them to shut up. Same for anywhere English is spoken. But when you live in a place where you can't understand what most of the people are saying, it's really liberating and somewhat peaceful. They may be calling you a stupid fat hoe, but you know what? You will never know because you can't understand and so you will live in your own peaceful bliss not hearing all the noise around you.
I used to think freedom, in the way we define it in the US - mostly, freedom of speech and life choices - was the most important thing in a society. But after living in HK, I now think that America is way, way, way behind HK when it comes to freedom. HK is where I feel truly free, because in HK, you are granted economic freedom. It's the most liberating freedom in the world, but you have to work for it. Because the way it works is this: the more money you have, the more free you are. Yes, it sounds capitalistic, because it absolutely is. HK essentially has a flat tax system that maxes out at 15%. So the more money you make, the more money you get to keep. There is also no sales tax or duty on most goods. That leaves you with most of your hard-earned (or not so hard-earned) money to do as you wish - and getting to keep more of your own money is the most liberating feeling. You know what is NOT liberating? The US tax system, which punishes the middle and upper-middle class. The more you make, the more they take away! That completely disincentivizes your desire to work harder because even though you may work harder and make more in income, your tax bracket will probably go up so that you're only taking home a smaller percentage of the marginal increase you make by working harder. Which sucks. Which feels oppressive and repressive and not free. And here's the thing about the US - it comes after you with US taxes no matter where you live. It's one of the only countries in the world that does that - I don't know a single person of different citizenship in HK that has to pay their own country's tax rates while living abroad. Canadians, Brits, Australians, Kiwis, Koreans - they all get to pay the HK 15% tax rate on their entire income, and keep the rest. But Americans - we still have to pay US tax rates on any income over the first $90K. It is an extremely annoying and unfair ball & chain - I would gladly give up my citizenship in a heartbeat, BUT the US doesn't even make that easy - you have to PAY the IRS something between 5-7 years of forward-looking taxes in order to be allowed to give up your citizenship. Which is complete and utter bollocks.
Anyway, US double taxation notwithstanding, HK is the place I feel the most free. You can live how you want, do what you want, wear what you want, say what you want.
I'm rambling so will stop here and go to bed.
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