Two Decades of Research by FHM Dean John Erni culminated in an Invitation to Speak at a UN Global Forum on Minority Issues
Posted on 12 December 2024
Palais des Nations, Geneva— Addressing a gathering of over 690 international representatives at the United Nations on the 29th of November 2024, EduHK Faculty of Humanities Dean and IRCCS Director John Nguyet Erni summed up the findings of academic studies on the representation of minorities in Hong Kong mainstream media:
“South Asians and other ethnic minorities in Hong Kong are consistently underrepresented and misrepresented in mainstream media. Often, they are cast in roles that reinforce negative stereotypes, portraying them mainly as criminals and gangsters or portraying comedic characters, and contributing to their characterization as the racialized Other. While such patterns are not unique to Hong Kong (indeed, they reflect broader trends in minority representation in many other places), they do continue to deepen social divisions and perpetuate the symbolic annihilation of ethnic minorities.”
Convened pursuant to UN Human Rights Council resolutions, the UN Forum on Minority Issues held its 17th session from November 28 to 29, 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. The discussions at the Forum’s 17th session delved into the representation of minorities in public space, education, media, art and culture.
Invited representatives from UN member-states, international organizations, national human rights institutions, non-government organizations, and academic institutions gathered and discussed the representation and self-representation of minorities in public spaces and discourses. Dean Erni was among 12 invited experts to make interventions at the global Forum.
During the Forum, Dean Erni contextualized the situation of minorities in Hong Kong, emphasizing both the persistence of media misrepresentations and some emerging positive developments with the rise of ethnic digital platforms in Hong Kong. He succinctly explained the economic and cultural roots of media distortions:
“Despite their long history of immigration and significant contributions since the colonial era, many ethnic minorities today are confined to manual labour jobs, including cleaners, cooks, guards, and construction workers. With such low socioeconomic status, the mainstream media in Hong Kong, driven by commercial interests, often ignore them. And when they do appear, film and television narratives often reinforce stereotypes, framing the minorities as subordinate, ignorant and sometimes idiotic.”
He highlighted in his report the persistence of backward and offensive practices in mainstream TV: “The use of blackface and brownface is still common on Hong Kong TV. Just two years ago in October 2022, TVB, the largest broadcaster, faced backlash for using blackface in a drama episode, only shortly after one of their actresses apologized for wearing brown makeup to portray a Filipino domestic worker.”
Applying the visions of international human rights law to social media, Dean Erni described self-representation of ethnic minorities in the new social media platforms as a countervailing force to the misrepresentations in mainstream media, thus underscoring the importance of self-representations of ethnic minorities in moving towards social recognition.
He noted the possibilities and the limits of this new trend among Hong Kong’s youth belonging to ethnic minorities:
“Growing up in Hong Kong, they have become skilled in digital media, using DIY strategies like transmedia storytelling and music-making to craft alternative narratives. Currently, about a dozen ethnic youth have achieved popularity on social media, but primarily only intra-ethnically, that is, they are well known mostly within their own communities.”
“Social media has indeed been a crucial facilitator for ethnic minority self-representation and community solidarity. Notable figures like Hong Kong-born Indian stand-up comedian Vivek Mahbubani and mixed Pakistani-Iranian YouTuber Zain Syed, exemplify how they use their creativity in social media to articulate hybrid identities, enhance their sense of belonging, and amplify minority voices and talents in Hong Kong.”
Consistent with international human rights law as codified in Hong Kong ordinances, Dean Erni submitted two recommendations to the Forum:
“First, the Hong Kong government should allocate the best of resources to launch comprehensive public awareness campaigns and school programs that educate citizens of all ages, about the impact of ethnic and racial bias in film, TV, and social media. Additionally, it should collaborate with the Equal Opportunities Commission, which is a statutory body responsible for implementing anti-discrimination laws in HK, to establish a system for monitoring online platforms for patterns of racial vilification, enabling timely reporting and legal intervention.
“Second, the Hong Kong government should partner with the media industry and organizations and ethnic minority groups to promote diversity in media representation through two key actions: providing media talent development training and mentorship programs, and funding collaborative media projects.”
The UN Forum on Minority Issues provides a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. It has been tasked to summarize the recommendations of the participants. Based on the summary, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues will issue a global report with recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council in January 2025.
