Hong Kong, a Chinese port city initially part of Guangdong Province, was lent to Britain as its colony by a non-Chinese regime (Manchus’ Qing Dynasty) for 99 years. After more than a century, the city eventually returned to China in 1997.
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1894, a Hong Kong street after a plague. Over 2,000 people died and one-third of residents fled Hong Kong.
British authority that administrated the colony provided no healthcare to local Chinese people in Hong Kong until the 1960s.
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1906, Hong Kong police force. Note, by then Indian policemen in Hong Kong were eligible to carry a gun while the local Chinese policemen were not allowed to do so, because the Chinese in Hong Kong were a conquered people.
COMMENTS FROM MINDS.COM
soxfan1957
Okay I’ll admit I need to brush up on Hong Kong history before I can get into any real discussion. That said these people have lived in a democratic society very different from the politics of the mainland so I can understand why they (especially the young) would be apprehensive of Communist intervention. As much as I’m interested in China (especially it’s history and culture), I’m glad I live here.
Eric
This is indeed going to be a difficult process to bring HK into the communist regime of China.
All Things Chinese
In 1906, Hong Kong was under British rule who made the Chinese the third-class citizens after British citizens and citizens from the “Commonwealth” circle. While in mainland China, the Chinese were also under Manchu’s alien rule.
By then the first Communist country had not yet appeared in the world (Soviet Russia) and the Chinese Communist Party had not yet established, and in many mainland Chinese cities (like Shanghai and Tianjin), the Chinese were third-class citizens under foreign colonial regimes.
In fact, it was until 1949 when a weak and wretched Nationalist Party (KMT) lost power to the Chinese Communist Party, China in the mainland gained full independence again for the first time since Manchus entered China in the mid-17th century. But the Chinese in Hong Kong were still third or second-class citizens until 1997.
I have to say I think Deng Xiaoping did a crooked job when the return of Hong Kong is concerned. As a result, Hong Kong is still under foreign jurisdiction by now and is dominated by a small group of ultra-rich property developers and financial swindlers and becomes the haven of money laundering for corrupt Chinese officials and businessmen from the mainland and the biggest hub for CIA operatives outside its home base.
I guess Deng might just want to leave his name in history as a man who reclaimed Hong Kong but cared little what Hong Kong might become.
rbli88
So the seed was planted then and now it bore its toxic fruit. So sad…
All Things Chinese
It is sad. I found China was on the track of an orderly open reform since 1974 known as “Four Modernisations”. The normalisation of the relationship between China and the US was a key step in the progress.
Although Mao’s wife Jiang Qing was an extreme leftist with a mindset quite similar to that of Clinton’s wife, as both approached politics, culture and world affairs in a fanatic religious manner, loving to discipline the non-believers and mind-controlling their followers, her close ally late Zhang Chunqiao, as well as Mao’s nephew Mao Yuanxin, on the other hand, are the men with a strong faith in the common good and chosen path. I have little doubt they should be able to continue the task following Zhou and Mao’s untimely death in 1976.
Yet a coup in October steered China in the direction of a radical U-turn that has resulted in massive negative side effects.
China’s success began in 1949, not in 1979. You need to contract your energy first before you can release and expand it. Without state ownership of the land, without the implementation of free education programs, without women’s liberation (the most advanced in the world at the time) and without the establishment of the basic infrastructure and industry system, the so-called “open-reform” would only lead to social chaos, widening the gap between rich and poor and the re-colonisation by world powers, like what we see in Hong Kong today. This is why China success is hard to duplicate in other countries.
In fact, China’s success did not even begin in 1949. The event of entering a new human civilisation following the renaissance of classical Chinese culture (existed before 1644) in the mid of the 21st century was foretold 2,500 years ago and recorded on various Daoist documents. It’s the historical trend and is unstoppable.
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1922, the UK’s Prince of Wales visited Hong Kong.
COMMENTS FROM MINDS.COM
Eric
I think that should be Edward, the one who abdicated for the love of his life, Wallace Simpson.
All Things Chinese
Yep, that was the one.
Eric
He could have walked you know. 😂
All Things Chinese
It’s not the British prince’s fault – he just followed the local custom of the time. The man-powered carriage was one of the popular organic vehicles in China for thousands of years and is one of the negative heritage in Chinese tradition.
Eric
Doesn’t that carry on down from the days of imperial China??
All Things Chinese
It did Eric, be it emperors, officials or ladies.
rbli88
ppl have to do what they need to do to survive when society does not offer much opportunity for them.
All Things Chinese
It’s not about job opportunity rbli88. It is the idea that the elite class in China in the old days would think a carriage powered by men is more prestigious than by horse. When there are people craving a puff, there are people peddling drugs.
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This is part of the Hillside Chinese residences. According to the Peak District Reservation Ordinance passed in 1904 by the British authority in Hong Kong, local Chinese were not allowed by law to live on the peak of Peach Hill, as the area was reserved for British settlers.
COMMENTS FROM MINDS.COM
Eric
Wow! British arrogance at its finest. I think over time they became a little more reasonable in administrating HK? I can see though how one might feel like a second-class citizen in one’s own country.
All Things Chinese
Nothing can be a more potent force than the power to corrupt an individual or a people.
soxfan1957
Well the Brits abolished slavery long before the US. Still the thought they were of superior intellect to non-European still existed.
All Things Chinese
Britain became a bit more civilized since it lost its global dominance to the US.
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This was where many local Chinese in Hong Kong called home.
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A day in the 1940s in Hong Kong – British police body searched Chinese on street, which was part of the routine security measures against the local Chinese population.
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1946, Child labourers in Hong Kong.