Hong Kong woman hired by Citybus is city’s first female bus driver from ethnic minority group

Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)

Farzana is a 46-year-old Hong Kong woman who is the city’s first – and so far only – female franchised bus driver from an ethnic minority group. She joined Citybus last autumn.

Roger Wong Wai-yip is a general manager at Citybus. He said Farzana was part of a growing number of women from ethnic minority groups joining the company, which is pushing for more diversity in hiring.

Wong said the number of ethnic minority applicants to the company in 2023 increased by 15-fold from 2022, while the number of female applicants for drivers from those groups jumped 60 per cent.

Farzana began driving routes between Tuen Mun and other districts after receiving her licence last September. She said she enjoyed her job despite hearing a few passengers’ unpleasant comments about her ethnicity and “skin colour”.

“They think I don’t know Cantonese, but I know what they are talking about,” Farzana said in fluent Cantonese. “Sometimes, they look at me with a surprised expression and say, ‘Wow, an Indian woman’.”

Farzana is among 200 female bus captains with the company, or 5 per cent of its total of 4,000 drivers. The company currently has about 200 openings for drivers.

Quiz time

1. What is unique about Farzana?

2. How many more ethnic minority women applied to be drivers for Citybus in 2023 as compared to the previous year?

3. In which part of Hong Kong does Farzana drive buses?

4. Name a few unkind things Farzana has heard about herself while driving the bus.

5. How many captains at Citybus are women?

Farzana, Hong Kong’s only female bus driver from an ethnic minority background, with her husband. Photo: Handout

Suggested answers

1. She is the first – and so far only – female franchised bus driver from an ethnic minority group in Hong Kong.

2. 60 per cent

3. the routes between Tuen Mun and other districts

4. comments about her ethnicity and “skin colour”

5. 200