Feisty Hong Kong!

I know I'm forever talking about HK's perpetual state of Threatdown and how it joyfully moves from panic to panic, however, to be fair, I should also talk about how feisty the place is; how strong the urge for justice; how intelligent the protests; just how righteous and fine they become as a people when they feel they are being challenged in any way.

We all know how, back in 2003, nearly a million people marched to protest Mainland China introducing Article 23 into our Basic Law. But do you know what also happened in 2003 when Mainland China presumptuously ordered a pair of zany young TV presenters (you know the type) to change their hairstyles, saying "You are Chinese. Chinese have straight black hair."? What happened was that a significant proportion of the population went out and had their hair bleached and permed, and said "Wow, look. I'm still Chinese." Their hair looked awful permed, although blond looked fabulous, so this trend it didn't last longer than needed to make a point - but it made me so proud to see them do it. Yeah, you go HONG KONG!!!

And then there was that fascinating conversation I chanced upon and, yes, blatantly eavesdropped on, wherein two terribly British upper-class gentlemen were talking about how one of them had just been up in China for high level talks, regarding a "please explain", and what China had to say for itself. Totally an insider story, so how could I not listen in, especially considering how those Ox-bridge tones carry.

This was also back in 2003, when, immediately post-SARS, suddenly the Mainland got, well, not just hands-on with regard to HK but more like "Fists-on". Truly, things got very very scary here: all sorts of bad stuff was happening: Pro-Democracy sorts - wonderful "Atticus Finch-type" men like Martin Lee - getting beaten up, and liberal radio stations being trashed, and outspoken media personalities having their lives threatened and ordinary workingmen pulled off soap-boxes on Sundays in Victoria Park (free-speech day) and beaten up by Mainland thugs. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Bad stuff even happened to me personally; like two attempts on my life in a single weekend. (Should find those letters!)

Indeed, those were bad, bad times, and then it suddenly stopped, and the reason, I would chance to say, was what I overheard in that conversation: you know how Prince Charles, in his Handover speech, said "We will be watching events closely in the future."? Those weren't just words! He meant it! And although I didn't hear anything to support my belief here, I strongly feel that this terribly upperclass gentleman's request for a "please explain" was on Charlie's behalf.

However, I won't tell you the details of what I actually heard except the bit that makes this point: that the Chinese Communist Party never expected HK's feisty response. And, yes, "feisty" was the actual word they used. Seems they believed that if they roared HK would just roll-over and submit, but instead they got fine and intelligent protest, clever too although often a tad smarty-pants, but it mostly made them laugh. And no one got hurt. Seems this type of thing was all brand-new to the Communists and they said they needed to think about it.

And the outcome was an immediate replacement of the Old Guard - the Long March types - and HK has, for the most part - except for the occasional wafts of really scary strangeness - has been left alone ever since.

So let us hereby give Hong Kong the credit that it's due! Yes, here we enjoy nothing better than a good bout of PANIC! Yes, we are all a bunch of Nerdy Girly-Swots with our Over-Caution and Hyper-vigilance. BUT we are also FEISTY!!!!

So this blog will now balance the posts on THREATDOWN with posts on FIGHTBACK!!! OK, those won't be so numerous, but I will be talking about whatever causes that HK espouses and wins on! I can even think of a couple of recent ones, but those are for future posts.