February 11, 2010 - 20 Questions on Hong Kong

I was absent for this lesson, so I am not able to reflect on that particular lesson but here are my responses to the questions which were discussed during that lesson:

1)What are some significant changes in your daily life?

I have not noticed many significant changes in my daily life other than personal changes such as moving schools, going into secondary school and so on. In terms of Hong Kong, I have noticed many changes in terms of the harbour front and how it is constantly changing as I have grown up. My views have been obstructed through land reclamation.

2)How long have you been in Hong Kong?

I was born in Hong Kong and have always lived here and nowhere else, I am now 15 years old.

3)What are the basic needs of your life?

Being a human being, I need a place to sleep at night, 3 meals a day, clothing, water and the obvious. To be more particular with me, the basic needs of my life would be education (going to school everyday), those mentioned earlier, support from my family, a balance of work and fun.

4) Are there social classes and what are the differences?

Upper Class - rich and wealthy + educated overseas

Middle Class - working couples, educated, own their own home, dual income, both spouses working, combination of local and overseas educated

Lower Class - uneducated, chauffeur, amah, factory workers, employees of the goods and service industries

5)How do people react to the 'One Country, Two Systems' concept?

Overall, I don't think people have a big problem with being apart of China, but the 'two systems' concept is failing Hong Kong as a city and people are really beginning to notice this in the recent years, especially. It is ineffective, and dysfunctional and just a big mess. Some say all the government do is have restrictions and oppose anything suggested. I think many of the people who lived through the colonial days especially, are noticing the difference and the ineffectiveness of it and it is very frustrating for them.

6)How did the British colonization affect your life and were there any differences to the traditional Hong Kong way of life?

I do not personally remember living through the British Colonial days although I did for the first three years of my life. It has most definitely impacted my life though in terms of the number of english speaking people in the city, some of the few buildings remaining and how it made Hong Kong an international city through the harbour while China was going through its internal problems.

7)How much time do you spend with your family?

I spend a lot of time with my family in comparison to a lot of my friends. I eat dinner with them most days of the week excluding when they have occasional dinner parties. My mum drives me and my sister to school every morning, and we always spend Sundays together and sometimes Saturdays too. We spend all of our holidays together and barely get sent off to camps. I visit my extended family in Australia every Christmas and during the summer holidays and sometimes at Easter as well.

8) Do you prefer Hong Kong in the past or the present?

I often dream of living in Hong Kong in the past. I would love so much to be able to explore Hong Kong in its colonial days, back when all of the buildings were the beautiful colonial style buildings, and there were rickshaws and more street vendors and markets. When the water and air was clear and you could always see out over the Kowloon hills from Hong Kong Island, and when Repulse Bay was clean and did not have all of the awful concrete infrastructure on it but rather the Repulse Bay hotel, changing stalls and so on.


Here is a great youtube clip on Hong Kong in the 1930s:




9) What was a trip to the cinema like in the 1980s when the film industry was booming? What is cinema experience like today?

In the 1980s in Hong Kong, the cinemas were usually single screen, very crowded, people would talk, shout, speak on mobile phones as they were able to watch the movie and read the subtitles in Chinese. The overall quality was good, but the sound was not always good. Many poor quality cheaply made advertisements would be shown before the film opened. Because there were not that many screens, there was limited choice available and movies were shown in HOng KOng several months and sometimes almost a year after their initial release overseas. There was more of a local audience than expat. The films were shown on projectors, they were not digital but the screens were big. The rooms were bigger than cinemas today even. The cinemas were all quite dirty and cockroach invested, the exception being the palace cinema in Causeway Bay.

Compared to today, where there is a much greater and variety of choice available in Hong Kong with almost all cinemas being multi screen complexes. Cinemas tend to be smaller in number of seats with digital sound and video. Tickets are more expensive today and are sold differently. Today you can book online, on your TV, by phone whilst in the past, it was manual and hand-writeen and you had to personally go to a ticket booth and queue up (only choice). The quality of the environment is much better now - clean theaters, clean toilets, movie releases can be same as in USA, Europe etc. Because can now be sent digitally, not on reels of tape. Cinemas today are in shopping complex whereas before were freestanding single buildings. The first multi screen cinemas appeared in the late 80s in places such as Pacific Place.

10) How do you feel about the decrease in size of the harbour?

I understand that is the main source of commerce for Hong Kong Land and development of the city, but I think they need to take a step back and look at the long term effects of this. The harbour is Hong Kong's main asset. If we continue to make it smaller and smaller it will become less and less significant and will soon become a tiny river. I think the government should stop reclaiming land or at least reduce the rate of it until they come up with an alternative solution.

11) When did air quality start becoming such a big issue in Hong Kong?

It started in the late 80s, early 90s during the administration of government Chris Patten. Due to the explosion of factories in the Pearl River Delta and the increase in the population of Hong Kong and the vehicular traffic.

12) Hong Kong is rapidly developing, with the Macau bridge and the high speed railway. How does this affect your daily life?

As Hong Kong continues to go through all of this change, I am living in a more and more modern developing city. It affects my life in terms of I am able to be exposed to many forms of new technologies and see how the world is developing. But on the other hand, we are losing touch with traditions of Hong Kong and its culture and heritage which is important to the city. I think the government should be careful not to go too far with this and end up losing Hong Kong in the process.

13) What sort of transportation do you use to travel around Hong Kong?

I live in Pokfulam, which unfortunately is not close to any MTR station and does not have a huge variety of buses passing by. But when I can, I take the minibus or citybus into central, and from there I usually take the MTR to get to anywhere urban in Hong Kong. I prefer the MTR the best because it is simple, fast, you skip the traffic, and you can get almost anywhere so quickly.

14) Has the rapid development of Hong Kong affected you in any way?

It has definitely affected me in many ways. These include the increase in air pollution, population, density, number of buildings, land reclamation etc. Land reclamation is one that I can personally relate to because I can remember when I was little, I used to be able to sit on my balcony and look over and see the Lamma Channel and ships passing by and a little fishing village. But then the government reclaimed all of the land, got rid of the village and built the Cyberport. My Dad tells me even before this, there used to be a small golf driving range in the valley behind the village. I never got the chance to experience Hong Kong as it used to be with little family owned shops, masses of street markets, fishing villages and so on all around me.

15) Are people in Hong Kong generally satisfied with the government?

I don't think the people in Hong Kong are satisfied with the government at all. Whenever I hear people talk about the government, they are always complaining of how hopeless and backwards it all is. They talk of how all they are doing is going around in circles with pointless restrictions opposing everything whilst worrying what other people in the government will think of their decisions. They are all running around in circles doing nothing to solve Hong Kong's problems.

16) What do you think life was like for the cage people?

Cage people are extremely poor old single without family people. They are one step above homeless people, because they at least had shelter, but did not have room or toilet. They put all of these people in these rooms of bunk beds and each was a metal cage where they slept and had all their possessions. It was especially prevalent in the late 70s, early 80s as a result of an influx of refugees and a shortage of public housing. Life for them would have been lonely, miserable, a fight for survival.

17) What do you like to do in your free time?

I love going out and exploring Hong Kong's streets if I am in the area. Recently, I've gone into Causeway Bay or Central and into smaller back streets and looked in all of the small boutique shops and some of the local traditional shops. I also like to go boating to Lamma, but get dropped off at the fishing village where the restaurants are and hike to the beach and visit temples along the way. I also love to read, and draw and generally create things. I have a scrapbook which I often update in my free time as well.

18) How did culture develop under British rule?

Culture definitely changed during the British rule. It changed from being a small fishing community on a big rock to a bustling colony filled with an international population of merchants. The British introduced Western religion - churches, cathedrals, religious schools, Introduction of Western cuisine, music, literature, libraries, fashion, architecture. Basically under British, Hong Kong became a more Western styled city.

19) How did the Japanese occupation affect you?

The Japanese occupation effected me in the long term rather than the short term. It was after the end of the Japanese occupation, when the question of power arose in Hong Kong. Chiang-Kai-Shek assumed he would be ruling the whole of China. And 3 years earlier, U.S. President Roosevelt said it was time that Hong Kong's Colony should end and it should join back to China. However this did not happen and Britain came back quickly and got the power back. Somewhat due to this pressure of them coming near the end of their rule, they became much more flexible with their policies on where the locals could have access to. They removed the restriction of the Chinese not being allowed on some beaches and not being allowed to own land on the Peak. This was the start of Hong Kong opening up and becoming the city it is today. This has affected me in terms of this bringing the end of the colony closer and into the current state it is today.

20) If there are three things you can change about Hong Kong, what would they be?

I would want to make it much cleaner in terms of both the air and sea because I love outdoor activities and particularly swimming in the sea and visiting beaches. Photos of Hong Kong's water in the past astonishes me and it bothers me that it has worsened so much in the last few decades. The air is also disappointing because it brings down the standard of Hong Kong and is making it a dangerous place to live in. I would also want the government to stop destroying heritage sites in Hong Kong such as Graham Street's Wet Market which is currently on the verge of being knocked down to create more high rise buildings. And lastly, I would want the government to take more care in terms of simple infrastructure and making them not only functional (current state) but also have some taste and quality. For example, Hong Kong is one of the only cities in the world where it has ugly silver bars on every footpath preventing people from running onto the road. It is unnecessary and making Hong Kong an ugly city.