"There's a high-born friend on the back of the coins
Eternally youthful, her name is The Queen
Out shopping or in business, she goes with me everywhere
Her face shows no feelings, but she brings success
With just a "bye-bye" this dear friend is leaving this city and going far away
It'll be up to our Great Comrades to put a new face on everything
We'll still buy and sell, with work units everywhere among the new apartment blocks
But maybe Mong Kok will need a new name. . . ."
These are lines from the pop song "Queen's Road East" written and recorded by Lo Ta-yu in 1991. Though the words are six years old, they vividly presage the changes in historic symbols taking place in Hong Kong today on the eve of its return to Chinese rule.
These changes are not arriving with earth-shaking upheavals, but quietly they are happening nonetheless.
Conspicuously positioned inside the main entrance to Victoria Park in the downtown area of Hong Kong Island stands a statue of Queen Victoria. Tourists often choose this spot for a photograph.
In August last year a performance artist who had arrived in Hong Kong from Beijing made a brutal attack on the Queen's face, smashing off her nose, and covered the white statue with bright red paint. The "artist" sat alone in front of the statue, also painting herself blood red.
She said she meant no harm by this, but simply wanted to warn the people of Hong Kong: "The communists are coming! You had better be careful with these symbols of colonial rule-better get rid of them!"
This wasn't the first time Queen Victoria's statue had suffered an unprovoked indignity. When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in 1941 the statue, which had been erected in 1897 to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, was also treated with scant respect.
At that time it stood in what is now Statue Square in Central. The occupying Japanese governor-general found its presence there irksome, and ordered that it be removed and replaced with a monument inscribed with his own edicts. The Queen's statue was shipped off to Japan as a trophy of war.
After Japan was defeated, a search was made at the request of the reinstalled British administration in Hong Kong, and the statue was finally tracked down in a warehouse. During the war Japanese soldiers had used the Queen's head for target practice, and this, along with the rigors of her "journey," meant that when she returned to Hong Kong she was thoroughly scarred and pockmarked. It was only after repairs lasting two years that she was given a new home in Victoria Park.
Queen Victoria's statue has accompanied the people of Hong Kong as they have grown through history, and the performance artist from Beijing should have known that Hong Kong people would ask angrily just what it was she was trying to say with her violent action and bloody symbolism. In the end she was charged with damaging public property, and spent 10 months in prison.
Historical symbols quietly changing
In June 1997, with less than a month to go before Hong Kong officially returns to the "motherland" on 1 July, the whole world's gaze is turned towards the territory. In the streets and shops, people are eating dim sum or shopping as usual, and there are no outward portents of "transition." But below this unruffled surface, many changes are quietly taking place.
On the small change in people's pockets-the HK$1, HK$2 and HK$5 coins they use to take a bus or buy a drink-the bauhinia flower has quietly replaced Queen Elizabeth's head; on large-denomination banknotes, the word "colony" disappeared a few years ago, and now the rapier-like Bank of China building has displaced the British royal coat of arms. And at a time when tourists are reminding each other not to spend coins with the Queen's head, but to keep a few to take back as souvenirs, on footbridges in downtown Central people are buying up these coins at several times their face value.
The changes often attract attention because of speculation. In mid-March of this year, the Hong Kong Post Office's last issue of stamps bearing the Queen's head attracted a rush of buyers. Assistant Postmaster General K.L. Tsang says that in just one day the issue earned the Post Office almost HK$90 million in revenue. In May of last year, some old-style British-made pillar boxes which came into use in the Victorian era were sold to the public by tender. They went for prices ranging from HK$6000 to HK$30,000.
The speculation stems from the fact that all these things are about to disappear. Stamps bearing the Queen's head, pillar boxes with the British royal crown and Post Office vehicles marked "Royal Mail" are all destined to change after 1 July. The Queen's head on the stamps will be replaced by scenes of Hong Kong's waterfront, the words "Royal Mail" will be painted over, and the crown emblems on letter boxes will be removed wherever possible. In the case of old-style pillar boxes where the crown is cast into them in one piece, the Chinese have already agreed that the crown will be painted over with red paint, and a new emblem attached. The new design is a stamp-shaped oblong emblazoned with an English letter "p" for "post." This logo was used to a limited extent a decade ago, but after 1 July it will go into general use. As for why the design did not include the Chinese character for "post," the Post Office says that this was because "at that time we had not thought about the issue of 'Chinese characteristics.'"
The trappings of colonialism
Under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, on 1 July British rule in Hong Kong will come to an end, and the territory will become a Special Administrative Region of the PRC, to be ruled by Hong Kong people. It is to keep its present social and economic system, its laws are to remain largely unchanged, and it is to continue as a free port and retain its international monetary status. But it was agreed in the bilateral discussions that the trappings of its status as a colony cannot remain. This is the background to the Hong Kong government's all-out drive to remove the symbols of colonial rule.
In September 1994 the Cultural Committee of the Preparatory Committee began to formally discuss such matters as the names and emblems of government departments and agencies, arrangements for public holidays, the design and issue of postage stamps, the content of school textbooks, recognition of academic qualifications and so on, and also affirmed the principle of removing the visible trappings of colonial rule. Since then, wave after wave of actions to remove historical symbols has swept through both the public and private sectors.
If the old is not dispensed with the new cannot come, but amid the transition from old to new symbols, the people of Hong Kong have not been completely passive. The emblems of the Hong Kong Government's 15 policy branches have mostly been changed in a very direct way by simply substituting the bauhinia flower for the crown.
The bauhinia (Bauhinia blakeana, also known as the Hong Kong orchid tree) is a flowering tree which is grown in streets all over Hong Kong. It was discovered on Hong Kong's coast by a French missionary in the early 20th century, and was cultivated in large numbers on Hong Kong Island from then on. It was adopted as the colony's official flower in 1965.
The bauhinia was chosen as the official emblem for the Hong Kong SAR by the Basic Law Drafting Committee after much thought, as being best able to express the local spirit of Hong Kong. But many scholars, after turning up all kinds of reference materials, have written about how the plant is a sterile hybrid which can only reproduce by artificial propagation, but is also extremely "cheap." "It will grow under any conditions without special care," writes newspaper columnist Leung Man Tao, in a highly sarcastic tone.
Although the new emblems of many agencies include the bauhinia, they seem strangely similar to the emblems of mainland Chinese government departments. For instance, the emblem to be worn by health inspectors with the Urban Services Department looks very like the one used by the mainland health ministry, and the building-shaped emblem of the Government Supplies Department seems more or less a carbon copy of the emblem on the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
There is much nostalgia about. One person said of the new emblems: "The stylized bauhinia flower is too big and looks shabby-it's not as elegant as the old crown symbol." Another commented: "Now that the emblems have all been designed by the individual departments themselves, they don't have a uniform overall style as in the past." Some designs have attracted ridicule by breaking taboos. For instance, police officers have protested at the proposed bauhinia design for their cap badges, since wearing flowers is considered unlucky in their line of work.
Removing the symbols of colonialism really is a major undertaking. Apart from the emblems of government departments, the crown appears in the official seals of most of the 80-plus government primary and secondary schools throughout Hong Kong. The prestigious government secondary schools King's College and Queen's College also use the crown in their school badges, and at these schools one finds images symbolic of British sovereignty on all kinds of other items such as crests, seals, flags and displays. Last year the Hong Kong Education Department sent out a circular saying that these should be removed as far as possible.
This was something many pupils felt they could not get used to. One third-former at Queen's College said that if the crown on the school badge really had to go, then he hoped they would "just leave it blank, and not put a red star or bauhinia flower on it." This school, once attended by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Founding Father of the Republic of China, was established in the 19th century, while China was still ruled by the Qing dynasty. Up until the 1960s there was no crown on the school badge. Today, when history is being set to rights, the solution was very simple: the school has simply returned to its old badge without the crown.
King's College, on the other hand, asked its pupils to design a new badge. Most of the children's designs revolved around dragons, but to switch from the crown to the dragon in one go was too great a change, and in the end the design the school selected for a prize was one which stylized the crown by turning it into a pair of curved arms embracing an open book, on the pages of which are written the Chinese characters for King's College. But the Education Department was still not satisfied, and suggested that the arms should be removed to leave only the book and the name. Perhaps by not doing away with the school's name, with its British imperial connotations, the department had already gone as far as it was prepared to go.
Legislating under the crown
Whether by conscious emulation or natural inclination, the designs of the new emblems almost inevitably tend towards a "Chinese style," and when questions of political sovereignty are involved these are even more certain to influence the equation. In April of this year controversy arose over the question of whether the carved crown should be removed from the domed roof of the Legislative Council Building, which stands close to Statue Square and Chater Gardens in Central.
The building was constructed in 1912, and first housed the old supreme court. It is regarded by architects as one of the colonial buildings in Hong Kong of the greatest architectural worth. Professor P.Y. Lung of the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong notes in one of his books that it was the first building in Hong Kong to be designed by a famous British architect.
In Lung's view, the importance the Hong Kong Government attached to public buildings at that time was indicative of Hong Kong's rapid advance in the 20th century "It was no longer a barren place which cost more than it earned, as it had been seen by Queen Victoria, and still less the insignificant speck of land it had been in the mind of the Empress Dowager Cixi," he writes. In 1984 the building was listed as a historic building.
Surrounded by towering banks and office blocks, this two-storey structure has a very historic atmosphere, but inevitably also gives the impression of being hemmed in. This does not detract from its important status, however, for after 1 July this is where the HKSAR's legislative body will meet.
But this is exactly where the problem lies: How can the SAR's Provisional Legislature operate under the crown? This is question of "political protocol"-how can a Chinese legal institution have attached to it a symbol of foreign colonialism? Thus Rita Fan, president of the Provisional Legislature, insists that crown must be removed no matter what, and that the royal coat of arms on the building's facade, which has the same symbolic significance as the crown, cannot remain either.
History cannot be obliterated
This has aroused the opposition of architectural circles in Hong Kong. Lam Sair Ling, Senior Property Services Manager for Antiquities at the Architectural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government's Property Services Branch, says that the crown and the coat of arms are both integral parts of the building, and any change might damage the building's structure. "Of course, with modern technology this problem is not one that cannot be overcome," he says, but the question is, "is that what we want to do?"
"If the SAR government really does feel that to legislate under the crown is inappropriate, then perhaps it could consider finding a new venue for the Provisional Legislature, and not go damaging a historic monument." This alternative approach is suggested by Associate Professor C.K. Hui of the University of Hong Kong, who is also opposed to the building being altered.
Lam Sair Ling comments that from a historical perspective, colonial history is part of Hong Kong, and is not something that can be obliterated simply because it is not to the liking of the new political authority. "Without its colonial past, would Hong Kong still be Hong Kong?" he asks.
This goes to the heart of the question. Just how has colonial rule affected the people of Hong Kong? Apart from some superficial symbols which can be removed, what aspects of life under British rule have the people of Hong Kong really internalized? And can they be erased?
"Where does it end?" wonders Lam. Today everyone's attention is focused on the visible symbols of British sovereignty seen on postage stamps, coins, emblems, buildings and so on. Next, it will shift to road and place names, which have a deeper significance. But in the future? "Will Christian beliefs, the English language, or simply a taste for Western food be seen as symbols of colonialism which have to be eradicated?" he asks.
The East Wind blows along Queen's Road
Lam's worries are not completely unfounded, for people have already suggested publicly in the Hong Kong media that it would be better to change those street and place names which have strong British associations. Opponents of such suggestions have satirized them in the press by proposing that: "In future, Queen's Road had better be called Dongfeng [East Wind] Road, Victoria Harbour should be called [Mao] Zedong Harbour, and Victoria Peak should be renamed Mt. [Zhou] Enlai." But this has not put a stop to one wave of changes after another.
At the Star Ferry terminal on Hong Kong Island, from where the ferries shuttle across Victoria Harbour to Tsimshatsui, a gigantic hoarding bears a picture of a People's Liberation Army soldier dressed in green, squatting down and holding a shovel, against a blood-red background. The caption, in large black characters, reads: "All revolutions start underground." What does it mean? Don't worry! It's an advert for fiber-optic cables.
Times really have changed!
In MTR stations, advertisements to study putonghua (standard "Mandarin" Chinese) are hung high, and taxi and light public bus drivers turn on all-putonghua radio stations, saying: "We're Chinese-of course we have to learn putonghua!"
Although English cannot be said to be unwelcome in formal correspondence, the use of Chinese in official documents is gradually increasing. In Hong Kong's court system, the simultaneous use of Chinese and English in sentencing and written judgments has already been practiced for two years, but people still constantly question whether the introduction of Chinese in the judicial system is not proceeding too slowly. The government has already ordered explicitly that from 1988 onwards most primary and secondary schools throughout Hong Kong will no longer use English as the medium of instruction, but the pupils' native Cantonese. The Queen's birthday will cease to be a public holiday, whereas 1 October, the PRC's national day, will be celebrated. The calendar which Hong Kong people live by has already changed!
"If it were not for the incoming rulers' wish to eradicate the 'trappings of colonialism,' I would have almost no sense of living under British colonial rule," says Democratic Party Senior Research Officer Lau Sai Leung.
Lau was born in 1965, and belongs to the generation which grew up in the 1970s after the Hong Kong Government began active efforts to improve Hong Kong through major construction projects, building new roads, and providing Hong Kong residents with nine years of free education. He says that the Legislative Council Building is near his office, and every day when he passes it he looks up at the crown on its roof. But he has never thought that it represented British sovereignty, or felt oppressed by it. "For me," he says, "it's just a place of work."
p.7
On the eve of the 1 July transfer of power, old symbols are being quietly replaced by new ones-like a shop window display rearranged when one wasn't looking.
p.8
Would legislating under the crown detract from the authority of the new government? The question of whether the crown above the roof of the Legislative Council Building and the royal arms on its facade should be removed has aroused a controversy.
p.9
The old-style letter boxes with the crown cast into them have been a feature of Hong Kong's streets for over a century. But the bauhinia-flower litter bins which can now be seen all over the territory are a recent addition.
p.10
The statue of Queen Victoria has been repaired, and again sits serenely in Victoria Park.
p.11
The emotions surrounding the change of sovereignty have been exploited for commercial gain. Hong Kong people say this is one way of preserving the past.
p.12
The daily firing of Jardines' noon gun is a reminder of Hong Kong's early history. It harks back to the days when the company had its own battery and patrol boats, and a salute would be fired to welcome tea clippers into port. This traditional British ceremony has become a tourist attraction, and will continue after the handover.
On the eve of the 1 July transfer of power, old symbols are being quietly replaced by new ones--like a shop window display rearranged when on wasn't looking.
Would legislating under the crown detract from the authority of the new government? The question of whether the crown above the roof of the Legislative Council Building and the royal arms on its facade should be removed has aroused a controversy.
The old-style letter boxes with the crown cast into them have been a feature of Hong Kong's streets for over a century. But the bauhinia-flower litter bins which can now be seen all over the territory are a recent addition.
The statue of Queen Victoria has been repaired, and again sits serenely in Victoria Park.
The emotions surrounding the change of sovereignty have been exploited for commercial gain. Hong Kong people say this is one way of preserving the past.
The daily firing of Jardines' noon gun is a reminder of Hong Kong's early history. It harks back to the days when the company had its own battery and patrol boats, and a salute would be fired to welcome tea clippers into port. This traditional British ceremony has become a tourist attraction, and will continue after the handover.
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