Singapore musician's walk to blend in as Hongkonger goes viral with netizens as head coach

Blank-faced, headphones on, walk fast — that's the crash course Singapore musician Caleb Tay took to pass as a Hongkonger, with his four-day trip videos drawing 4.3 million views. 

The unexpected tutorial came during his first trip back to Hong Kong since 2018, when he posted a video of himself walking down the street and asked the online community, "Do I look like a Hongkonger?" The first video quickly captured online attention, with netizens pointing out that Tay has been smiling too much. Another joked that he looked like "a Filipino husband who's wearing clothes," a comment that drew more than 7,500 likes.

The heated response led Tay to try a "Hongkonger walking challenge" without the smile, only for more netizens to remind him that he walked too slowly. 

By his third attempt, he wrote that he had stopped smiling and was walking "super, super fast," earning more than 10,000 likes. He joked in the comments that it would be his last attempt, saying he was "too tired,” which instead drew replies insisting a tired look is the key to passing as a local. 

His enthusiastic online tutors then prompted him to post a fourth video the same day, putting the tips into practice — no smile, no slicked-back hair and less speed. 

He also noted that he was heading to a Jason Mraz concert — and, to his amusement, that someone there had recognized him from the videos. 

With the series picking up steam, a Hong Kong netizen offered a "perfect demonstration" — headphones on, poker face, brisk stride — with the caption "Watch closely, I'm only teaching this once." 

Tay reshared the clip and summed up the tips he had picked up. Before leaving Hong Kong, he posted a video of himself walking down the street with headphones and a backpack, a serious expression on his face, and asked again, "Have I graduated?" 

He thanked netizens for the tutorials, and the post drew more than 27,000 likes, with comments applauding his growth. While his trip may have ended, the "street experiment" kept rolling, taking his page past 4.38 million views in total. 

He marked the end of his challenge with a smiling V-sign selfie — a reminder to smile — and joked that he had given up the slicked-back hairstyle. 

Speaking to Sing Tao Daily, the sister publication of The Standard, Tay explained that the original post was purely out of curiosity as he had long wondered how people could tell where someone was from.

Mistaken for a Hongkonger, a Taiwanese or an American-born Chinese, he said he posted simply to ask whether strangers would take him for a local — noting that his grandfather appeared to be from Hong Kong. 

Tay admitted he never expected the first video to draw so many likes and comments, including jokes that he "couldn't possibly be a Hongkonger" and looked Filipino. 

From the comments, he distilled three reasons he didn't pass as a local–too much smiling, walking too slowly, and slicked-back hair, adding to the series of challenges that snowballed from the Hongkonger traits he had newly learned.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓