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"country" or whatever. But we know that's impossible. I think the only [realistic] attitude is that as long as I am in this place, I contribute as much as possible.
They managed to neutralize controversial subjects such as the Cold War and colonialism by discussing them on an instrumental level. They presented themselves as above politics. As B26 asserted:
'Politics have little influence on the textile industry. Mainland China produces cotton, but there is no export. Taiwan is our competitor, and it has nothing to sell us. We buy cotton from the United States as well as from the U.S.S.R.'
Colonialism was similarly evaluated in economic terms. On the bright side of the colonial system, A24 said,
'In the early stage, actually we enjoyed Commonwealth Preferences. We did derive benefits by exporting to the United Kingdom and so on. There was free duty on cotton yarn. Only after Britain joined the EEC (European Economic Community) was the situation changed. Being a colony, we did have some benefits.'
On the dark side, A30 reflected:
'Not so good [being a colony], because in textile negotiations Hong Kong cannot participate as an independent country. Furthermore, Britain is on the other side. (He laughed).'
Therefore the cotton spinners' political vision was mundane, devoid of larger designs. It was as if they were content to build castles around an oasis, weather permitting. When storm should come, they would move on to look for yet another spring. It never occurred to them that they could perhaps harness the desert. They had not out-grown Marie-Claire Bergere's description of the outlook of the early Chinese businessmen (1968: 246);
'The bourgeoisie, combining an atavistic distrust of politics with a philanthropic utopianism, seemed to think that it could change its own way of life without making any change in the lives of the rest of the Chinese people, and furthermore that one province could be modernized without entailing the