1
People-Hong Kong's Greatest Asset
A personal view by Graham Jenkins, a leading Hong Kong journalist.
旧
簡息
THE people of Hong Kong, historically immigrant though 98.1 per cent Chinese, have for about three generations now been productively cooking their human resources in the thin soup of their almost resourceless land. And, from the tiny pressure-cooker of sheer density of numbers in physical and political constraint, has arisen in 32 years a phoenix at the heart of the Far East. Shimmering under a sub-tropical sun and in a Cote d'Azur setting is that modern phoenix= an exciting, crowded, busy, thriving, noisy, sprawling complex of cities and new towns where 5.1 million people live and work, save for about two per cent who still fish and farm.
It is a place where flyovers leap skyward between skyscrapers and frenetic streams of trains, trucks, buses and motor-cars race through tunnelled hills and under a glorious harbour, linking multi-storeyed offices with multi-storeyed factories. Where in the ubiqui- tous bustling street picture, even demure Chinese girls are forever in a determined hurry - just like everybody else bent upon the task at hand with few holds barred. And, where neon-signs shine in colourful profusion not just to proclaim their oriental message but to set a mood for an extraordinary pace in trade and commerce.
Hong Kong is a British dependent territory that shrugs off that anachronism in political status with an annual 10 per cent growth in gross domestic product even in global recession. And, a place where administrative restraint in economic intervention, except to smooth the rough social edges, has raised the prospect, despite current inflation, of a median family disposable income within the next decade comparable with some developed nations, including Britain, itself.
Already 16th in world trade and third financial centre of the world, Hong Kong is not a modern miracle which only the mumbo-jumbo of some mystic might explain. The secret of its remarkable success, including its ups and downs, lies in its own peculiar social chemistry imported traditions, ideals and know-how from East and West and the aspirations, human values and character traits of its people.
People who, when they repeatedly in history flood across the China border to 'The Golden Mountain Where Men Eat Fat Pork', are unwanted, diluting the gravy we savour from our increasingly rich and sophisticated stew. But who, when cooked in the peculiar chemistry of our pressure-cooker, are integrated into a whirling human dynamo which, other than the sea that surrounds it, is Hong Kong's only natural asset.
Into that integration go the common salt of Hong Kong's British administrators, the pepper of sheer need for survival and the spice of dreams someday fulfilled. It has never been easy. But the established culinary art alone justifies Hong Kong's existence though it has done much more than that. It has created a reputation for Hong Kong, among those who know it and are fascinated by its daily visible growth, as one of the most efficient, hardworking and forward-looking places on Earth.