Call a particular type of Hongkonger "filth" and you might actually come away without injury.

An acronym popularized in the 1980s, "filth" is one of those terms you have to be from Hong Kong to know: "Failed In London, Try Hong Kong." Arising from an influx of British immigrant bankers, lawyers, and other professionals, seeking greater opportunities in the then-U.K. territory 30 years ago, the moniker is only slightly insulting. To this day, several Hongkongers proudly claim to be "flith."

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Playwright Jingan Young explores the expat experience in her three-act play, Filth. Taking place in Hong Kong 10 years to the day of the 1997 hand-over of the territory to China, the cast is composed of Joe, an American banker and aspiring poet and his wife Rebecca, a Eurasian editor of a fictional paper called the Hong Kong Enquirer whose media mogul father just died. The play is set to run in March.

Their friends are Ricky, a pot-smoking Australian radio presenter who lives on Lamma Island, and Elaine, a Londoner not particularly taken with Hong Kong but has come along for the ride.

Ironically, Young's own experience was just the opposite of her work. Born in Hong Kong, it was in London at the Royal Court Theatre's young writers' program in 2011 where she found her initial success.

"I completely fell in love with London," she says. "It was my love, my life and I fell in love with theatre."

Returning to Hong Kong last year, she struggled until landing a job as an administrative assistant with the Hong Kong Arts Festival. When one of her superiors noticed her flair for theater writing, Young was asked to pen a piece that would resonate with Chinese and ex-patriots alike. Filth is the result, and Young uses her own experience as an expat and being biracial in her work.

"It's centered around society and the family," explains Young. "In order to explore the backdrop of this changing political landscape of Hong Kong, I used universal themes like love, hate, friends, and infidelity."

Summing the plot, Young says, "They decide to establish a life here, but they set up this small network that creates a safety net and they live a very privileged life.

"In 1997, the U.K. was undergoing this huge political overhaul and so was Hong Kong, so there are very odd parallels," she says, referring to when Britain's Labor Party ended 18 years of opposition rule with the ascendancy of Tony Blair to the position of prime minister.

"Filth" has company; in recent years, the term has come to share the spotlight with "flits" (Failed In London, Try Singapore) and the very creative "fishtail" -- Failed in Shanghai, Try Again In London.

TagsFilth, Play, Hong Kong, Jingan Young, Hong Kong Arts Festival