Sukhdeep Singh empowers ethnic minority groups in the city.
The 23-year-old medical student stated he is used to getting stares as he jokingly says, “It’s because I’m so handsome.”
Some people who assume I don’t understand Cantonese would comment on my turban in front of me, and on the MTR, people would rather squeeze themselves into more crowded rows than take the empty seats next to me.”
Being born and raised in Hong Kong, Singh has grown up around Cantonese speakers, including his father. However, he only began to realise the importance of speaking the language when he enrolled in medical school.
Singh studies at Chinese University and is a final-year student, meaning he will become one of the few doctors that will wear a turban in the city. He has kept his hair since the age of nine as a sign of faith.
He continued in stating, “The sad reality is, when I’m wearing scrubs and a lab coat, I get treated differently. If I am wearing normal clothes, no one would believe I am a medical student.
Patients might develop a different perspective on people with turbans in Hong Kong when they see me, a turbaned doctor, and hopefully, start to view other ethnic minorities differently.”
Singh is now fluent in Chinese and is also able to write in the language. “Patients look at me strangely, and that’s normal. But whenever I speak to them in their own dialect, their faces light up.” He aims to “speak like a local.”
“If I really am a Hongkonger, I should embrace every part of the culture,” he also aims to expand on his Mandarin to serve more patients.
Although he has worked past the language barrier, Singh is still cautious about how his patients perceive him, therefore, keeps his beard tucked in with a low bun. “At home, it’s always free-flowing, but at the hospital, I keep it up because you don’t want to scare sick patients even more. As a community, we still need to address these sensitive issues through education.”
Shalini Mahtani, founder and CEO of The Zubin Foundation, says that ethnic minorities who wear religious clothing often experience discrimination. She has created The Zubin Foundation to improve the lives of ethnic minority communities in Hong Kong.
Mahtani says, “They’re often told they’re smelly, people don’t want to sit next to them on public transport. It’s particularly obvious when they’re on a packed MTR. At the workplace, other employees may complain about ethnic minorities bringing in food that ‘smells funny’ or ‘bad’.”
She expresses faith in professionals such as Singh to help raise the profile of ethnic minorities. “Having more visibility for ethnic minorities is very important.”
Singh and other young professionals founded Pargaas last year, which is a non-profit organisation created to empower ethnic minority youth by holding workshops on higher education and self-improvement.
“If we want to improve the number of ethnic minority kids getting into higher education, you need an organisation that can help them improve basic skills like CV writing. There weren’t many educated Sikhs who could run an organisation like Pargaas, but now there are,” Singh states.
“We want to achieve harmony and to help others understand our culture. I just hope people on the receiving end would listen with open hearts.”
Navkiran Bains
