Drama Review on Inbound Troubles (老表你好野)

Inbound Troubles had received deep reverberation when it first showed in January 2013. In the beginning I thought it was just a typical comedy because Wong Cho Lam is one of the main character. I did not watch it seriously until I heard many discussion over this drama after the first week of broadcast. The drama was so controversial because the story depicted the stereotyped personality and the differences of Hong Kong people and mainland people, and their culture.

Inbound Troubles describes the changing social status of mainlander in Hong Kong. In the past, in any drama or film, people from China was always made to be poor, non-civilized people. And now, image of Chinese people in drama tends to be more neutral to avoid arguments because Hong Kong has returned back to China, China is developing  rapidly and helps Hong Kong economy a lot by allowing more Chinese residents to come travel in Hong Kong without visa. However, Inbound Troubles portrays the reality of Chinese people and touches some social issues that Hong Kong people are facing when there are large inflow of mainlander to Hong Kong. In the first episode, a Chinese tourist took out a huge bunch of cash for buying things. It is not just showing the society that Chinese people in fact is getting richer which they can afford buying luxury goods, at the same time that scene is actually making fun of the mindset of Chinese people on their concept of being rich as a Chinese identity. One of the tourist said, '真的好, 愈貴愈好' As China is growing stronger, mainland people thinks that it is kind of pride to spend money in Hong Kong, a metropolitan and to show people outside China that they can afford to pay as much as the seller offers. In the view point of Hong Kong people, this behaviour is disliked by many Hong Kong people. Most people think that they are showing off their wealthiness but without a good personality. Cai Xin, played by Wong Cho Lam comes from a rich family but when he arrives Hong Kong, he encounters many cultural clash. He works illegally, running a red light and littering. These immoral behaviors can be seen everywhere in Hong Kong nowadays.

Some scenes of the drama is actually real incidents that happened in Hong Kong.They are the "D&G" incident that staff of the company allowed mainlander to take photo outside the shop when he noticed them they were from China. The second case is the "tour guide Zhen incident" that mainland tourists were forced to shop by Zhen and were cursed for not buying things in the selected shops. It is not easy to find a drama willing to describe the reality of what is happening in the society. Inbound Troubles is a comedy, it uses a funny way to present theses conflicts so that it would be more acceptable by audience. Although many people blamed that the stories is discriminating towards Chinese people, Roger Kwok, cousin of Wong Cho Lam in the drama, said in the beginning of the TV series that Cantonese should be spoken in Hong Kong even though you are from mainland when he was blamed by the mainlander for his bad mandairn. I think the drama neither in the Hong Kong people's side nor the mainlander's side.

In conclusion, although people complained that the drama is deepening the conflicts between Hong Kong and mainland people, I think it has opened a new picture, a new temptation of TV serials since many audiences argue that TV production in Hong Kong is lack of innovation and is not revealing the truth of everyday life of Hong Kong society. In fact in the story of Inbound Troubles, it does not only criticize mainland people, it also satirizes Hong Kong people for their impoliteness towards mainland people. At the end of the story, Wong Cho Lam and Roger Kwok has developed into good brother and many farcial distraction appears continually across the whole drama. It shows the coherence of two different culture. I think Inbound Troubles is a a worth watching drama. We should think of our behaviour and learn to put ourselves into others' shoes. Then, eventually people can enjoy a more harmonious social environment.

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Wong Ka Yin