I was in mainland China for a 10-day vacation. When I returned to Singapore at the end of September, I found news reports on Hong Kong flashing everywhere. Of course, media censorship in mainland China is not notable anymore. I was surprised because my hosts were mainlanders who either lived in Hong Kong or went there frequently for work or leisure, yet they’d never mentioned the protests. To them, protests in Hong Kong are routine, “As normal as how the Hongkongers look down on mainlanders,” one replied after I questioned why she hadn’t told me about the protests.