The official Hong Kong response to the case of the urinating child, delivered by a flummoxed secretary of commerce, was to "help educate mainlanders of good manners".
Wang Quancheng, the chairman of the Hua Yuan Association, the largest organization representing mainlanders, said the government was not doing enough to help integrate new arrivals, but he also blamed Singaporeans for their intolerance and said many were simply jealous that so many Chinese immigrate here with money in their pockets.
Despite the influx of large numbers of mainlanders after 1950 particularly in the 1970s, when young Chinese from southern Guangdong were assigned to state farms to help develop Hainan, and since the 1980s, when thousands more have arrived to take advantage of the economic opportunities offered a frontier atmosphere has prevailed on the island.
So many mainlanders have migrated to the island that some investors formed a nonprofit named after the tax laws and meant to help émigrés adjust to island life.
Last June the two sides began allowing Chinese tourists to visit on their own rather than as part of tour groups, a move that helped some curious mainlanders to fly in to watch the elections.
Mr. Grant and Mr. Tlumak are not the only mainlanders to be gloating about their good luck.
China is opening the door to mainlanders to buy shares in Hong Kong through limited arrangements for institutional and individual investors.
When demand really spikes, the stores have to limit mainlanders to a few cans each, to prevent a run on baby formula.
At the time, overseas Chinese were urging mainlanders to rise up in protest — not in violent revolt, but simply by walking slowly in city squares.
Hong Kong's weekend "election" comes against a backdrop of growing cultural antagonism with mainlanders to the north who increasingly hold political, and financial, sway over the territory.
