A Hong Kong comedy film with a less than flattering portrayal of mainland Chinese was slammed by a local Beijing film critic, a turn of events which has sparked a lot of tensions between the culturally divergent Hong Kong and the rest of the mainland.

Cross-border tensions on social media were stirred this week after a Beijing film critic slated a Hong Kong comedy film for being a work of “cultural garbage” that portrayed mainlanders negatively.

Jia Xuanning, a 24-year-old Beijing Film Academy and Chinese University graduate, won the Hong Kong Arts Development Council’s first ever Critic’s Prize with a scathing critique about 2012 film Vulgaria.

Jia’s 3,500 word essay titled “Gazing at the Anxiety of Hong Kong Film Through Vulgaria” won her the ADC’s Gold Prize on Monday, which came with a HK$50,000 cash reward.

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