Having just spent two days in Hong Kong, popular travel video blogger Nuseir Yassin has already felt discontent among locals and wants to cheer the city up with videos showcasing its unique characteristics.
“The frustration with the government, the frustration with just life here is pretty high,” he said, giving examples of high rent, the “China situation” and also the humid weather.
The 26-year-old Arab-Israeli, who is famous for his one-minute travel videos on Facebook on a page called Nas Daily, is in town for six days after his visit to the mainland.
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On Tuesday, he travelled across the city to get footage of damaged buildings and fallen trees for a new video on Hong Kong’s recovery from Typhoon Mangkhut, the most powerful storm Hong Kong has seen since records began in 1946. He also met more than 200 fans.
“In Hong Kong, I think, one of the cool things is how it doesn’t feel there was a crazy typhoon a week ago, it just doesn’t feel like it,” he said.
Yassin will also produce another video on expensive rent in the city and has published a clip on the tradition of villain hitting, or da siu yan in Cantonese, in which old ladies curse people upon request.
But he said he would steer clear of politics and the relationship between the mainland and Hong Kong, adding that he would rather stay “humble” because he was just a tourist here.
“The politics of Hong Kong is not worth the headache,” he said.
“Every time you engage in a political debate, there is a guaranteed headache from the comment section, from the reaction from everything.”
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He said he would like to shed light on the unique good things in Hong Kong to make people feel more proud of their town.
“I want it to be less on the revolutionary side and more on the cool stuff happening in Hong Kong,” he said.
Yassin made a controversial video titled “the almost perfect country” during a recent trip to Singapore, featuring Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Some netizens accused him of creating a sponsored video, which was released on September 17.
But he fended off the criticism.
“Any time you make a big statement about something in the world, you are bound to ruffle some feathers,” he said.
His fans who met him on Tuesday afternoon at Hong Kong Park appreciated his efforts, saying Yassin always offered new perspectives on the world.
Local university student Gloria Liu has watched his videos for about two years. She said Yassin sometimes showed her things that she was not aware of.
“He just said that the way Hongkongers speak is very negative. He can tell us the special things which we did not know about in every city,” the 21-year-old said.
Ouassila Kerris, a 36-year-old teacher, said she had watched his videos for a year.
“You learn things that you probably never learned before,” she said.
Bibianna Chan Chi-ying, 25, who works in the hotel and tourism industry, added the messages delivered by Yassin were thoughtful.
She said that he made a video on dog eating culture in China, but he also stated people who were judgmental about this might have double standards as people consume other animals all over the world.
She added that another video on “some strange traditions” that belittled girls also struck her.
“It makes me reflect on whether there is gender discrimination in developed cities which [we are] unconscious about,” she said.
