MAY 8, 15 .. HONG KONG SMILES ARE NOTHING TO SMILE ABOUT ..
WITH GOD AS MY WITNESS .. I KID YOU NOT .. TODAY ..
FRIDAY 8 MAY 2015 .. IN THE HONG KONG STANDARD ..
THE DAILY ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER ..
FRONT PAGE .. TOP NEWS ..
HK SMILES ARE NOTHING TO SMILE ABOUT ..
WORLD’S ‘LEAST EXPRESSIVE’
No Gullible .. I did NOT get permission to quote them .. it IS a public newspaper ..
Hongkongers have the least expressive smiles in the world.
Research (SHADDY!) by psychologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States and Cardiff University in Wales has found that countries with higher levels of immigration tend to use facial expressions more as a communication tool to express their feelings.
Countries with greater immigration in the past 500 years – including Canada, the US and Australia – are more likely to interpret smiles as being happy or friendly.
The researchers came up with an index of most expressive smiles, with scores ranging between zero and one, with the latter being the most expressive.
Zimbabwe was ranked number one, followed by Canada, the US and Australia, which all scored above 0.5.
Hong Kong – which only scored 0.399 – was last and was the only place with a score lower that 0.4.
The mainland scored 0.471.
The psychologists first analyzed the expressions of 5,000 people from 32 places by subjecting them to different social situations. These included asking them to respond emotionally if they were happy with a friend in public or upset with a female professor in her office.
Then researchers concentrated on the smile by conducting a new study for 726 people in nine countries. Hong Kong, was followed by Indonesia, Bangladesh, Russia and Switzerland.
But Japan was the country with the least ‘genuine’ smiles – with smiling often associated with hiding displeasure.
Psychologist Paula Niedenthal of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that long-term migration might play a role in social behavior.
“We think an absence of shared language and shared culture would push people toward greater non-verbal expression of emotion.” she said.
“Otherwise you wouldn’t know what the other person was feeling or thinking, or liking or disliking.”
During the research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an index was set up describing a place’s migration history.
Canada scored 63, meaning its population has come from 63 countries in the past 500 years, while the US scored 83.
By contrast, Hong Kong scored three, while the mainland and Japan both scored one.
Last month, Hong Kong also ranked low in another smile-related survey, coming in third from last in a global study on workers in local service industries.
The survey by the Mystery Shopper Service Association ranked Hong Kong 39th out of 41 places after 2,000 shoppers gave the city’s service staff an average score of 48 for the smiles they received – a steep fall from 61 in 2013 and the lowest in five years.
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How many times have I written and noted here the inscrutible asian faces I encounter daily? Now I get it. IF I understand the above article .. the Hong Kong people do NOT look at a smiling person the way we do. We look at smiling people as friendly and evidently the locals do NOT. They must look at me thinking .. “What an odd look that man has on his face.”
When I encountered the below couple on Hillier Street I was so stunned by them that I stopped .. and I said to them .. “Do you mind IF I snap a photograph of you?” ..
![DSCN1146[1]](https://babakaps.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DSCN11461-600x450.jpg)
Well as you can see they just ‘beamed’ back at me!
![DSCN1147[1]](https://babakaps.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DSCN11471-600x450.jpg)
IT FITS CAPTAIN .. YOU ARE BOOKED TO FLY TO INDIA NEXT TUESDAY AND JUST LOOK AT YOU .. POST AFTER POST AFTER POST .. KEEP IT UP CAPTAIN AND ‘FRANTIC TIME’ WILL ARRIVE ABOUT TWO HOURS BEFORE YOU HAVE TO BE AT THE AIRPORT AND YOU WILL SAY .. “I WISH I HAD DONE MORE SOONER.”
AH-H-H SHUT UP MIND OF MINE! HOW MANY TRAINS AND PLANES HAVE I EVER MISSED ..
SMILING ATCHA! .. CAP
IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE THIS YET .. AND IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MY UPCOMING TRAVEL PLANS .. CLICK ON TRAVEL PLANS ABOVE ..
- MAY 7, 15 .. PATTI AND CAP .. ENJOYING HONG KONG .. PART 10 OF 10
- MAY 9, 2015 .. NOW THIS .. THIS IS SILLINESS ..
10 thoughts on “MAY 8, 15 .. HONG KONG SMILES ARE NOTHING TO SMILE ABOUT ..”
Leave a Reply to Cap Chastain Cancel reply
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It is hard for me to grasp this rating for Hong Kong on smiling … I found, almost without exception, that if I smiled at someone, they generally smiled back … some with a small smile, others beaming like your couple pictured here in the post. It’s kinda like “you get what you give” and I found the local people there to be very responsive. And, from experience I can definitely say … when it comes time for you to fly, you WILL be ready! Hugs and love. Patti
You HAVE seen some of my drama when flying. IF you just notice the people without looking directly at them and smiling at them I think you will notice they do not smile too much. Thanks for your assistance here. You will get an original of the article.
So you’re moving on to India very soon. Oh boy, more adventures to follow.
I love giving and getting smiles. For me, it’s done in respect for the other person. I may not be able to give much to others but I can definitely offer a smile. A wee one is better than none.
As Patti mentioned, you will be ready for your flight to India!!
Happy travels,
Shaddy
Smiles at YOU SHADDY ..
Knowing you, you’ll be at the airport two days before your flight…..
Maybe not quite two days .. but four hours or more fits for me. Why wait at home when you can wait at the gate?
Cap, you don’t need permission to quote but you do need permission to reproduce. If you were to reproduce whole chapters, articles, etc., that would be a copyright violation. Regardless of whether it’s in a “public” newspaper, anything in a newspaper or magazine is copyrighted.
It gets sticky when it’s stuff on the Internet. If I post a story on my blog, it’s considered as published and cannot be entered in a contest that prohibits previously-published articles. I once found a recipe at an Internet site that was copied word for word, introductory comments and all, from a cookbook I’d purchased. I notified the author and she in turn notified her publisher. Don’t know what happened. Most people don’t understand copyrights on the Internet. It applies to photos, articles, song lyrics, etc. Policing it all would be an impossible job.
It gets more complicated because many sites (TV and print media) allow “sharing” their articles on Facebook, etc. When shared, the article is complete with the name of the publisher.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/fair-use-rule-copyright-material-30100.html
Whew!.. no .. WHEW! .. what a maze of hurdles to jump IF one wants to be squeeky clean. I DID specifically identify the newspaper by name but I hand typed the article myself. Is this reproducing it? Again .. it is quite complicated as I see it .. THANKS FOR YOUR INTERST ..