Hong Kong
The region of Hong Kong, which had long been a haven for coastal pirates was occupied by the British during the Opium War (1839-42). The colony prospered as an east-west trading center, the commercial gateway to, and distribution center for, South China. It was efficiently governed, and its banking, insurance, and shipping services quickly became known as the most reliable in Southeast Asia. In 1921 the British agreed to limit the fortifications of the colony, and this contributed to its easy conquest by the Japanese. It was reoccupied by the British on Sept. 16, 1945.
After 1949, when the Communists took control of mainland China, hundreds of thousands of refugees crossed the
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The crackdown in 1989 at Tiananmen Square in Beijing inspired fears that China would not respect Hong Kong's autonomy, and in the next few years many business people left, affecting Hong Kong's economy. In 1991, Hong Kong's first direct legislative elections were won almost entirely by liberal, pro-democracy candidates, and no pro-China candidates were elected.
In 1992, Britain introduced a number of democratic measures, which were denounced by China. Talks between the two countries proved pointless, and in 1994 Hong Kong's legislature approved further democratic reforms in the colony still going against Chinese ideology. In the 1995 elections prodemocracy candidates received about 60% of the popular vote. Upon Hong's return to China, Beijing abolished the legislature set up by the British and established a provisional legislature; a chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, was also appointed. Elections were held in 1998, with prodemocracy parties taking 16 of the 20 directly elected seats. Hong Kong was affected by the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, but its economy began to rebound in 1999. In the Sept. 2000 legislative council elections, prodemocracy parties won 15 of the 24 directly elected seats.
Hong Kong Demography: People, Languages and Culture
Situated at the
The movement that conveyed Hong Kong people’s discontent with the British colonial government is the Hong Kong Leftist riots in 1967. After the breakout of the Cultural Revolution in China, pro-communist leftists in Hong Kong actively found opportunities to cause conflicts against the colonial government. The labor disputes at the Hong Kong Artificial Flower Factory were a perfect time to instigate Hong Kong people to oppose its colonial government. Along with the success of leftists demonstrations in Macau and Hong Kong’s social conflicts stemmed from poor working conditions, the disputes developed into large-scale demonstrations against British colonial rule. Many pro-communist demonstrators shouted Mao’s slogans with Little Red Books held in their hands. At the end of the demonstrations without the supports of Hong Kong citizens, the riots failed and were discontinued by the first Premier of the People 's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai.
Hong Kong was taken controlled by the British government because of the following treaty the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the Treaty of Beijing in 1860 and the convention for the extension of Hong Kong Territory in 1898. The colonization of Hong Kong started from the Opium War that the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had been ceded to UK in perpetuity. Because of the failure in the Second Opium War, both sides signed a treaty that the New Territories was leased 99 years by Chinese Empire to the British for 99 years. (1) Later, the Chinese government took initiative to discuss the Handover of Hong Kong with Britain government from 1982. The sovereignty of Hong Kong provoked the conflicts between China and Britain. They argued that whether the China government should take back Hong Kong or not. After negotiation, British’s Margaret Thatcher signed the formal treaty, Joint Declaration, the sovereignty of Hong Kong would transfer from British to the China on the 1st July, 1997. Under the ‘one country, two systems’, the Chinese government guaranteed that Hong Kong people would not only run as the capitalist system and its autonomy to run its own affair, but also enjoy its rule of law and high degrees of freedoms at least 50 years. ( from chris patten, p.20) However, the promise of the Chinese government looked shaky as the China crushed pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tianmen Square with tanks and automatic weapons. Many people didn’t trust the system of ‘One Country, Two
Before the 1960s, the era of the Civil Rights Movement and People of Color Movements, ethnic towns were formed due to the anti-ethnic legislation, which forced many people of color to live in certain areas of the city. After the relaxation of some anti-ethnic legislation, especially in residential segregation, these ethnic towns changed. No longer are these ethnic groups forced to live in segregated areas due to legislation, but rather because of economic and cultural survival due to the resources that are found in these ethnic towns. Chinatown, Korea town, and Thai town are ethnic enclaves that formed due to this process.
The century during which Hong Kong was a British Colony produced significant changes. In the 1950s, Hong Kong became one of the Four Asian Tiger Economies with rapid industrialization and booming businesses. Hong Kong developed a political and economic system modeled off of the British and was known for its advanced infrastructure and status as a financial hub. As a whole, Hong Kong was better off than China, which created resentment among Hong Kong citizens when Hong Kong was transferred to China in 1997 because there was the possibility of poorer Chinese
According to scientists, there has been human activity on Hong Kong since the Neolithic and Paleolithic eras. However, the earliest recorded European man to travel there was a Portuguese man named Jorge Álvares who did not travel there until 1513. For many thousands of years, Hong Kong was subjected to the rule of the dynastic China. However, Britain gained the land of Hong Kong after defeating the Chinese army in the Opium Wars. Today, Hong Kong has a democratic government modeled very much after the British one. How did it get there? Why is it democratic? Why isn’t it included in the Chinese government?
Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China and its citizens have never accepted Hong Kong as a separate state; the reason for which lies in China’s history. When the British won the Opium Wars, they forced China into an unequal
Made in Hong Kong (1997) is one of the independent films directed by the “grassroots director” Fruit Chan on low budget production. The cost of production was kept low by utilizing the leftover film reels and amateur actors such as Sam Lee Chan-Sam who has been awarded best New Artist in the 17th Annual Hong Kong Films Awards and nominated Best Actor in 35th Annual Golden Horse Awards. Made in Hong Kong is very much a vernacular film featuring the Hong Kong society and culture in 1997, particularly the social marginality and violence in juvenile delinquency . This paper will assess how the film expresses nation’s sentiments by portraying the livelihood of four teenagers, namely Autumn Moon, Ping, Ah Lung and Susan, and the
Why did the umbrella revolution didn’t have any significant impact to the political system and relationship between Hong Kong and China? This essay will focus on what are the similarities and differences between Umbrella revolution and the Tiananmen incident in June, 4, 1989. Chinese government have promised the One Country, Two System Law at the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 in return for the Hong Kong’s sovereignty in 1997, which was an official colony of the British government after the Opium War in 1897. However, the Chinese government have failed to follow this agreement throughout these past ten years and many Hong Kongers are not happy with the degree of involvement of the Chinese Government in various political progress, especially the appoint of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, CY Leung. This essay will also attempt to examine why the Hong Kong Chief executive, CY Leung, can still retain the position after a lot of Hong Kong citizens had exploded grievances that particularly focused on his way of compromising with the Chinese government during the umbrella revolution.
Mao Zedong, the former communist leader of China, enforced changes from 1966 to 1976 where he called on the Chinese youth to purge the current leaders and the educated, “elites”, claiming that they were taking China into a wrong direction. In 1965, Mao Zedong began to fear that China would follow Russia’s path in adopting softer versions of communism after Stalin’s death. With this in mind, it was Mao’s goal to reaffirm the Communist Party in China, provide China’s youth with revolutionary experience, make educational, healthcare and cultural systems less elitist, and replace his designated successors with leaders who had a common mindset as him. This may seem like good intentions, yet when the Cultural Revolution broke out, it poorly affected the country. As a result, millions of people were punished, humiliated, imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Some may ponder that the Cultural Revolution gravely impacted all of China, yet others argue that it did not have a great affect on Hong Kong. At the time, Hong Kong was under the reign of Great Britain, so it may have been hard for inner China to impose their rules on them. Great Britain had dominion over this city from 1841 to 1997 when the lease claiming British power over some of China’s land expired. The Cultural Revolution affected Hong Kong tremendously; mistakenly some may argue that the revolution did not influence them due to the city’s greater impact from Britain and their overall exclusion from China.
The Chinese government has been against democracy ideals since the communist party rose to power in 1949. China’s communist party used Marxist-Mao-Zedong ideology, a document that formed the basis of China’s communism. Marxist-Mao-Zedong ideology has two key features that still triumphs in modern China. Firstly, the power-holders in the government are superior to the law and can do whatever they please without consequences. This was because
The common assumption throughout the selected sources was to describe the intensification of the conflict between Hong Kong And Public Republic Of China through contextual data. (Baehr 2001; Wai-Chung Ho, 2000; Wai Chung 2006) In the first place, it is important to have knowledge of the origin of the political conflict between Hong Kong and Public Republic of China before examining its relation to the hot flash of local politic song. Baehr (2001) depicts “The retrocession of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997” was marked a major consequences for both domestic and Chinese politics. The focal point is that “One country, two systems” has become the constitutional principle to Hong Kong, and remain unchanged for 50 years. Not surprisingly, social problems arise due to the hardship in assuring everyone to share a common value within the society, which is the matter of “identity”. To further examine this idea, Baehr highlights that
The opium increase had a negative effect on China and their government. Individuals became highly addicted and began trading silver to obtain opium which resulted in the Qing government losing most their silver. Due to loss of silver, tax payments began rising. Tax payments became hard for citizen to pay. With the intention of solving these issues, China banned all use of opium. Britain demanded the creation of an independent British colony in China with unrestricted trade. The British demands and Chinese resistance led to the Opium Wars. During the Opium Wars, China was forced to give in to British demands. They were required to relinquish Hong Kong forever, pay an indemnity of $100 million, and open four large cities to unlimited foreign trade. China and Western powers continued to dispute over trade, leading to the second Opium War. The second Opium War consisted of further loss of Chinese territory and forced the Chinese to accept trade and investments with unfavorable term in several more cities.
‘I am deeply disappointed by our Chief Executive, CY Leung, who refuses to express his support to the Hong Kong team during its recent World-Cup match against China. Even other governors including the Chief Secretary and Financial Secretary already express their supports to Hong Kong on the media. In recent years, CY Leung consistently favours the interest of China at the expense of the Hong Kong public opinion and interests. He abuses his power in every opportunity to destroy the well-established colonial British systems including education (the HKU crisis and the compulsory CCP-style national education), health (introduction of low-quality Mainland doctors), legislation (using pro-CCP associations to offer the elder voters free gifts before elections), entertainment (rejection of TV licensing for HKTV despite its high public supports) and so on. Despite all these, the CCP fully supports him owing to his loyalty to the party and his Maoist ‘class struggle’ political ideology. This is the main reason why we all hate CCP who loves to create disputes within societies and see it as their achievements. To them, demolition is potency and rebuilding is glory. We love our traditional
Hong Kong is a big city. She has four hundred and twenty-six square mile, but seven million people live in there. Even though so many people in here, the government still allows one hundred and fifty immigrants from China to live in Hong Kong each day. The people continued coming, even after the immigration laws had relaxed. We will have more and more people to live Hong Kong. If we still have one hundred and fifty immigrants to come to Hong Kong every day, we will have eight million people in 2016. It is a huge population for a city. It will affect the social resources for citizens. The immigrants have brought a lot of negative and positing affecting welfare, housing, and economy.
Chinese New Year in Malaysia lasts for 15 days, and is normally during January to February that varies from year to year. Normally, just like any other festivals, preparations are normally the starters of Chinese New Year.