My own ‘Bus Uncle’ incident suggests Hong Kong is as stressed as ever

Being scolded on a bus by a fellow passenger had not been on my agenda last weekend, but that is exactly what happened.

A woman behind me had taken umbrage with my apparent slowness at boarding – except I had been waiting for the family ahead of me, who seemed confused about whether they wanted that bus. This led to my own hesitation, as I was not about to board first if they were actually going to get on – the Brit in me recoiled at coming across as a queue-jumper.

Regardless, the woman berated me for looking at my phone and “having my head in the clouds” before storming off to the upper deck, leaving a miasma of angry disapproval in her wake.

Obviously, I proceeded to post about it on my Instagram stories, because I found it funny that this woman was flipping out over nothing – did we not, in the end, both still get on the bus? And, despite my clear and blatant disregard for her time, was her journey not still unimpeded?

The episode brought to my mind a far older, more well-known bus incident.

Nearly two decades ago, a rather put-out “uncle” was filmed sounding off against a fellow passenger on a public bus in Hong Kong. Much of what he said cannot be published in this newspaper, but a few of his choice sentences – such as “You have stress, I have stress!” and “It’s not settled!” – have since become catchphrases in the city.