Hong Kong Today

My first visit (hopefully not the last) to Hong Kong dates back 13 years ago when I was still in my care free childhood days. The only memory I had during my visit to Hong Kong in 1995 for my holiday was my joyful moments in Ocean Park; other than that, I couldn’t remember much about the country. Although I have been exposed to the culture and life style of Hong Kong countless times through Hong Kong dramas and movies broad casted in my country when I was growing up, I never really thought about visiting the country again due to the fact that I was too young to appreciate the country. I managed to make a couple of Hong Kong friends in university during my fall semester last year and like most international students would do, they promoted their country with utmost enthusiasm. Furthermore, they even told me more than a hundred reasons why I should visit their country. One of my Hong Kong friends even showed me a photo book of her country and I was truly amazed with the urban landscape as well as some of the country’s landmarks. Ever since my exposure to the photographic scenery of Hong Kong, my eagerness to know more about the country was spawned; it wasn’t long before I thought about revisiting the country as well as to know more about it. During my random video browsing on YouTube, I came across an Al Jazeera video regarding Hong Kong today. The video was from a subsidiary TV program of Al Jazeera which was known as 48, hosted by Amanda Palmer whom briefly reported on Hong Kong today. I felt grateful bumping into this video as it was what I needed to know about Hong Kong today.

Formally known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, this territory borders the Guangdong province in the north and is surrounded by the South China Sea. Once governed by the British, the country distinguishes itself from its Chinese predecessor in terms of politics, economy and infrastructure. During its handover back to China in 1997, many feared that Hong Kong would lose its independence; Prince Charles, one of the royalty during that moment announced that Great Britain will remain keeping a close eye on Her Majesty's former colony with the objective of preserving British interest despite the country was returned to the Communist Chinese government.

The Hong Kong Island is best known for its financial district and its concrete jungle of sky scrapers. Within the urban jungle of the main island are several hundred meters of new lands dedicated to the construction of commercial installments such as offices and shopping malls. The Hong Kong government is not keen on heritage preservation as the lands are among the populated. Hong Kong became a financial center after the 2^nd World War and it was during that moment when the government decided to replace old buildings with modern sky scrapers where many of the country’s past was erased as urban development followed. Several locations like Wellington Street where shops, markets and houses remained in their original form which dates back more than hundred years ago are targeted for removal by the Hong Kong government in a few years time to facilitate future construction of commercial buildings. As the government furthers its ambition to modernize the country, there’s a growing community in Hong Kong which are against the government’s decision as they deeply value their heritage.

The Hong Kong Central on Sunday is usually occupied with Filipinos. Most of them share another common characteristic apart from their similar nationality: their occupation which revolves around serving their Chinese employees at home as house maids. Since these Filipinos are banned from working outside their employee’s home, it is common for these maids to be vulnerable to abuse. With Hong Kong’s development progressing, it is a matter of time before these Filipino maids lose their common gathering to the government’s plans to allocate Hong Kong Central with office buildings and shopping malls. Their problems are further exacerbated by the obligations for these maids to pay a $5000 bond which leaves them no choice but to organize a peaceful protest in the streets of Hong Kong Central to justify their unfair treatment. Despite the harsh weather presented during the summer and winter in the country, the majority of the Filipino maids there will still congregate together at their usual gathering spot as they deeply value their companionship together. According to these maids, their pay over there in Hong Kong is 3 times more than their usual pay in their motherland which explains the vast number of Filipinos over here in Hong Kong. A majority of them agreed that the life as a working maid in Hong Kong is difficult nevertheless; they believe that their hardship is worthwhile with their tremendous pay they earn here in Hong Kong. These maids are regarded as the new heroes by the government; conversely they just prefer to earn a living wage back home. Until then, they continue carrying their traditions in their foreign land, Hong Kong.

Among Hong Kong’s political arena are a group of people pushing for full democracy in the country. Kwong Fung Tsang, a rising politician and Long Hair, a legislative council member are one of the few pro democracy movement members committed to promoting the idea of full freedom in Hong Kong despite realizing that China is a Communist nation. The pro democracy movement are angered by Beijing‘s false promise to provide full democracy to Hong Kong by 2007. The movement was informed by China that Hong Kong will be given full democracy by 2017; yet with the pro democracy impatient, it seems that China is not doing well to convince them. The fact that half of the legislative council in Hong Kong is elected while the rest is appointed by Beijing seems to anger not only the pro democracy movement but also a handful of Chinese people in Hong Kong. The movement also added that the government in Hong Kong has been a regime for the collusion between the rich people and the government. A majority of the people realize that their enterprise city is largely subjugated by major corporations forcing small businesses to struggle which then leads to the presence of the underclass. Although half a million of the Chinese Hong Kong have defeated the anti subversion laws proposed by Beijing, the pro democracy movement faces apathy as many of the Hong Kongers are enjoying China’s economic boom.

Another interesting aspect about Hong Kong would be its stock market. With 2.8 trillion dollars in their savings, the Hong Kongers has recently invested heavily in China. Many of them have left their jobs to try their luck in the market with the rapid cash flow in Hong Kong. As gambling is one of the few favorites for the Chinese, the trading of stocks in the market is not only for the profit but for the excitement as well. Since gambling is restricted according to the law, the people in Hong Kong adopt stock trading as their gambling pleasure.

Apart from staking their money in stock trading, the Hong Kongers places their bets on the horses racing against each other on the tracks. One of the few famous horse betting dents in Hong Kong is the Happy Valley which was constructed by the British in 1846. Initially, the Happy Valley was restricted to English people and it was mostly an English gentle men’s club in Hong Kong. However, 1 in 7 Hong Kongers today bet in horse races and an increasing number aren’t gentlemen. This gambling dent generates 5% of all Hong Kong’s taxes contributing to the development of the country.

I felt grateful bumping into this video as it was what I needed to know about Hong Kong today. Perhaps, one of the most interesting highlight of the video was when several Hong Kongers were asked whether they preferred to be regarded as Chinese or Hong Kongers. Like most of them I have asked myself over here in the university, some preferred to be identified from Hong Kong while there are also a few who wouldn’t mind being regarded as a Chinese given the fact that their culturally Chinese. One of the few reasons why some strongly insist that they preferred to be identified as Hong Kongers could be the fact that before Hong Kong was returned to China when it was still under British rule, they were taught to see themselves as Hong Kongers whom were different from their Chinese neighbors seeing that they were governed under a different set of British system that stands to separate them from the Chinese in Communist China