This past weekend I participated in a pillow fight in a park with more than 200 strangers. It was, without a doubt, the weirdest thing I’ve ever done.

April 2 marked International Pillow Fight Day. In cities around the world, people come together to let off some steam and beat each other with soft objects. In Hong Kong, most people just wore pajamas, but a few people went all out and dressed up as characters — I saw Batman, Spiderman, Uncle Sam, Sully from “Monsters Inc.” and Waldo from “Where’s Waldo?” There was also a banana and a few guys dressed in grass skirts and coconut bras.

The event was way more fun than I ever imagined it would be, and I laughed harder than I had in a long time. There’s something special about being in the midst of a giant mob of people of all ages pounding on each other with pillows.

By far the coolest moment of the day was a conversation I overheard while weaving through the battles. One guy asked another, “How do you say ‘sorry’ in your language?” Connection across cultures is a powerful and important thing, even if it happens during a pillow fight.

While studying here, I’ve noticed a very clear divide in Hong Kong. There’s the native and local community, and there’s the expat and foreigner community. The two groups don’t speak the same language. They don’t hang out in the same spots. They don’t eat the same foods. It’s almost like they live in two different cities.

The divide between the two groups is very clear when exploring different parts of Hong Kong. In some areas, all of the signs are in English. The restaurants offer a variety of different types of Western fare. When walking on the street, one can hear a number of different Western languages. Prices are high. In other areas of the city, most of the restaurants serve Chinese cuisine. Few people speak English. Things are cheap.

It’s astonishing how little the communities from these different areas of the city interact. As with any generalization, there are exceptions. However, the majority of locals that I have met mostly interact with locals, and the majority of expats mostly interact with expats.

This is one of the few things I don’t like about Hong Kong. When people ask me if I would live and work here, it’s one of the main reasons that I pause before responding. I would fall into the expat/ foreigner community if I lived here.

As much as I enjoy the parts of the city where the expats live, I would feel very strange living in a city and not speaking the language that the locals prefer. I’m doing that for five months while I study here, and I don’t think I could do it again.

It’s not that I can’t get by here without speaking Cantonese. Many people speak English. I’ve only had a few experiences where I truly couldn’t communicate with someone, and there was no one close by who could translate.

Rather, I wouldn’t want to live here and not speak Cantonese because I would never feel truly at home.

The pillow fight was one of the few places I’ve been to during my time in Hong Kong where I saw the expats and the locals mingling. This seemingly frivolous occasion allowed people to interact in ways that they wouldn’t normally. Pillow fighting translates across all languages, which makes it one of the best things that I’ve done while abroad.

Claire Moran is a junior broadcast and digital journalism and international relations dual major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. She can be reached at clmoran@syr.edu.

Published on April 6, 2016 at 7:49 pm