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 | HONG KONG: THE HANDOVER July 3, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:Should Christians in Hong Kong be concerned for their personal security? Did the sheer numbers of reports alter the atmosphere? Will Tung Chiwah be independent enough to make critical executive decisions? What's it like with Chinese Liberation Army troops in Hong Kong?
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Read our last forum with Professor DeGolyer in Hong Kong.
June 23, 1997: How the British will retreat from Hong Kong.
June 16, 1997: Will China's communism bring drastic change, or business as usual?
June 10, 1997: Just who is Tung Chee-hwa--the man who will take over Hong Kong when it is returned to Chinese control?
December 17, 1996: Human rights abuses in China.
November 21, 1996: Asia's dynamic and fast-growing economy. .
The NewsHour Asia Index.
A question from Jenny Long of Madison, GA : The TV coverage of the Hong Kong handover seems so sterile and flat. What have you seen that has been beautiful, human and funny?
Professor DeGolyer of the Hong Kong Transition Project responds:
The funniest sight was of a truckload of obviously nervous PLA troops being handed big bouquets of flowers, and then, driving off, standing in discipline as much as possible, were these soldiers, guns in one hand and flowers in the other. Another was of one of the local advisors at a solemn ceremony mispronouncing the mandarin term for Special Administrative Region, and saying instead, to a lot of titters, Special Nervous Region (in mandarin, especially his bad mandarin, the two words, Adminstrative and Nervous sound similar).
The most beautiful was of the children, especially for the British sendoff, doing their absolute best in the pouring rain.
The most human was of Patten's youngest daughter, who is the same age as my son, crying as she boarded the ship. She was leaving behind not a job, but friends and the place where she had been at school for five years. Also, Governor Patten as he received the flag from Government House, just before he left it the last time. And finally, Chief Executive Tung at Government House, giving out awards for the first time. He looked very proud to be the first local Hong Konger to lead his people.
Michael Browning of the Miami Herald responds:
Hong Kong in any weather is one of the most beautiful and striking land- and seascapes on earth: great green mountains towering up out of the South China Sea, with glassy palisades of skyscrapers all along the waterfront, brilliantly lit with festive lights nowadays.
I view these lights with mixed feelings, as they are put up by rich businessmen trying to curry favor with the Chinese authorities -- it is pretty slavish of them, but they hope to do good business after 1997. The back streets of Hong Kong, in the older parts of town are richly atmospheric, with exotic medicines and foods and beautiful porcelain and calligraphy scrolls for sale. Humanity just seethes through the place -- it will give you a whole new concept of how many people can fit into a small place, just to walk along a sidewalk here. I have to be careful not to get poked in the eye by umbrellas as I am tall, and I take up more than my share of the sidewalk because I am a big Westerner.
I am reminded at night of Wordsworth's lines on London Bridge:
"Earth has not anything to show more fair;
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty;
This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theaters and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hills;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!"(Except that Hong Kong's heart is never still; it is always beating restlessly. There is no deep calm here, but there is a gorgeous panoply of land and sea and humanity, all hustling and bustling)
As for funny, Hong Kong has a rather sly sense of humor. I talked to a taxi driver this afternoon and asked him if he were happy about the handover. "No more England. Now China," I reminded him in broken Mandarin. "England, China, no difference," he shot back. "I'm still driving a cab."
Freelance reporter Samy-Leigh Webster-Woog responds:
As relating specifically to the handover (as opposed to Hong Kong in general), images which come to mind are the following:
A drunken English girl outside of the Democratic Party rally/demonstration out side of the Legislative Council Building on the night of the handover with a large glossy photo of Chris Patton sticking out of her brazier. Talking quite seriously about the bravery of the people around her and her patriotism for England.
An old grandmotherly Chinese woman marching in the rain on July 1, carrying a red placard calling for an end to "one party dictatorship in China."
A distinguished looking Englishman standing in the entrance to a building on the night of June 30 waiting for his wife, wearing an enormous floppy bow tie of the Union Jack.
Martin Lee, the Democratic Party leader, standing on the balcony of the colonial style, yellowing Legislative Council building in the early morning hours of July 1, surrounded by fellow exiled legislators, bathed in light, exulting the the thousands gathered below, while dark clouds filled the sky above and the ominous rumble of unseen helicopters echoed off of the surrounding buildings.
Chinese tourists and onlookers posing for photographs with members of British military marching band replete with plumed headresses, kilts, and too tight chin straps. The soilders were all very young, blond and sunburned are were trying very hard to be serious. The Chinese seemed seemed to be treating them as living statues.
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