How could I forget this one! Sorry, folks. Here's China Talk Tuesday, V2.0
Tomorrow is Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day! (SAR, of course, stands for Special Administrative Region as Hong Kong is a sort of funky part of China that USED to be a British Colony but the 99 year "lease" was up in 1997 and Hong Kong was handed back to China and...it's a long story. Basically, China left Hong Kong fairly autonomous but with no military power. The economy there was just too good to mess with.)
Anyhow - the handover was on July 1, 1997. Every year, July 1st is marked with fireworks in Victoria Harbour...plus crowds of peaceful citizens marching in the streets, protesting, led by the Civil Human Rights Front. Hmm...a little different from our 4th of July parades, yes? It should be noted that during my 15 months actually living in Hong Kong, in the New Territories, I never saw or heard ANYTHING about these parades...which would lead me to believe that these are VERY peaceful. They seem to be performed as a matter of course - citizens lobbying for human rights and democracy and other issues near and dear to them.
So, tomorrow, when you notice that it is July 1, spare a thought for Hong Kong and its return to its mother country. Maybe light a sparkler and do a little dance in the street!
(Information gleaned from Wikipedia. Do with it what you will.)
Yes, I was very interested in the hand-over when we visited Hong Kong. Our guide, Alex, mentioned that he thought the transition would be like "boiling a frog very slowly"--HK residents wouldn't know if anything had changed until long after it had. Also, we stumbled into a Falun Gong rally with a lot of smiling people playing music...peaceful indeed. It was weird to read later that such demonstrations in Beijing are whisked away instantly. All very interesting...
ReplyDeleteCorrection. I didn't move to the States in 1997. I was on my church mission in Oakland, CA in 1997.
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ReplyDeleteInteresting. If I can find a sparkler, I'll light it peacefully. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'll light one of those sparklers that was in my post:)
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