TRANSLATION
Outlook, February 1990
Staffan Heimerson writes about diligence and flight in
HONG KONG IN THE YEAR OF DESPONDENCY
Hong Kong is cracking. The old English crown colony is bending under the pressure of almost six million people's diligence, will and energy. The strain resulting from the threat of annihilation in 1997 is now being added to this. Below, the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation's correspondent in Hong Kong, Staffan Heimerson, gives a personal report to the readers of Outlook.
Fireworks exploded in the sky above the world's most resilient skyline. Bengal lights illuminated mahogany jonks, international roro-ships and unpainted sampans in the world's most lively port. The world's most diligent and ingenious worker-bees let champagne corks pop.
The Chinese New Year at the end of January in Hong Kong is the only time when the Hong Kong Chinese allow themselves to have two days off on a row.
Ring out the old year, ring in the new. The Year of the Horse.
The horse is described
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as well as the animals for the other years: the Year of the Tigre, the Year of the Monkey, the Year of the Snake in Chinese almanacs and horoscopes.
realists
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Hong Kong Chinese are practical, grasping, cynical in other words,
but superstitious at the same time. They do not read horoscopes in a giggling way like a Swedish women who believes in them and does not believe in them at the same time. Hong Kong Chinese read them in balanced earnest, like people in the country used to read the Farmer's Almanac in the old days, convinced that some things cannot be explained but are the way they are. Chinese accept good advice when they get it. They clean their houses before the New Year. They pay their bills. During the month immediately before the New Year, banks and jeweller's shops are robbed frequently in Hong Kong, which is otherwise free from crime. This is the sign that all methods are acceptable in order to done one's share economically and start the new year "with a blank sheet".
Almanacs say that the Year of the Horse will be "lively, hectic, adventurous and will inspire people to act".
That's right! There is an atmosphere of leave-taking among the old British colony's 5.7 million inhabitants. The sand in the hour-glass is running more and more quickly, Beethoven's fifth symphony is roaring more and more loudly. Tick-tack, tick-tack. Day by day, 1 July 1997 is coming closer and closer.
On that day, 7 years from now, Hong Kong will be taken over by continental China, red China, communist and totalitarian China, which is being thrown between cultural revolution, economic opening and massacre of democracy-demonstrators, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping's China. China will take over and Hong Kong will be ruled from Beijing.
And ignore whatever you hear about the opposite: that Hong Kong is waiting and is calm, that the ordinary Chinese does not care about who is ruling, he takes care of his own business and is pleased with that the Year of the Horse inspires people to act. It is going to be adventurous.
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The inhabitants of Hong Kong listen to politicians' assurances and babble. It is being said in London that a mini-Constitution is to be written, guaranteeing fifty years of continued market economy. A slogan from Beijing says: "One country, two systems". This means that Hong Kong is to be allowed to stay as it is: Communist-China is to leave Hong Kong alone. It is wise not to disturb the hen that lays golden eggs.
But Hong Kong does not believe what is being said. Instead 5.7 million people are are getting prepared to stand up and go. I look at the night
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