Hong Kong and Its Moving Identity

Jennifer Franquez, 18, looks like your typical first-year college student as she wears her hair up, her glasses on, and casual attire. She is slender, on the taller side, and has dark hair and eyes. She is slightly nervous during the interview, and gives short but concrete answers.

The reason why the author might have chosen the case-study approach to writing this book is because of the numerous similarities between the living conditions and circumstances that Ye and Ma faced. Both Ye and Ma were born in Beijing in around same period, they had both lived through the revolution in 1958 in the city, they became Red Guards in their early youth, and they both were sent to the countryside, and allowed to return back order to study. Also, they both traveled to the United States for their higher studies. Ye and Ma are discussing each aspect their life trajectory paralleled to

“It was not easy to live in Shanghai” (Anyi 137). This line, echoed throughout Wang Anyi 's short piece “The Destination” is the glowing heartbeat of the story. A refrain filled with both longing and sadness, it hints at the many struggles faced by thousands upon thousands trying to get by in the city of Shanghai. One of these lost souls, the protagonist, Chen Xin, was one of the many youths taken from his family and sent to live the in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Ten years after the fact, Chen Xin views the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution internally and externally as he processes the changes that both he, and his hometown have over-gone in the past ten years. Devastatingly, he comes to the conclusion that there is no going back to the time of his childhood, and his fond memories of Shanghai exist solely in memory. This is in large part is due to the changes brought on by the Cultural Revolution. These effects of the Cultural Revolution are a central theme to the story; with repercussions seen on a cultural level, as well as a personal one.

(Larsson, 1997). Would Hong Kong’s role as a door to China strengthen with the liberation?

The plans and narratives of the Kowloon Walled City have drastically changed through the years, as it has been an unrolled and unregulated enclave between the British and Chinese governments. It began as an officially planed Chinese military fort and afterwards witnessed three distinct stages of lawlessness, demolition and rebirth as an urban garden. It all officially began in the 16th century, when the Chinese built a defensive garrison town filled with soldiers, civil officers and their families (Carney, 2013). However, when Hong Kong was leased to the British in 1898, the Kowloon Walled City became a enclave in the colonized territory, where no laws of the official state applied and everything began expanding spontaneously. The first stage of the city’s unintentional self-organization began in the 1950’s. It is widely known as the time of three vices – gambling, prostitution and drug dealing. The official regulations of the British did work on Hong Kong and were reversely reflected in the Chinese enclave. As soon as something was forbidden in the city-state, people massively poured into the un-ruled territory and let the sins to flourish. This way the Kowloon Walled City became synonymous with violence, crime and disturbance. During this period, the city and people became one, the buildings were connected by piping systems and wires, the water poured through the holes and sunlight could barely reach the lower levels. Yet, in the early 1970’s the situation started changing

For all of the aunties, the past was a thing better not talked about because of the amount of loss and pain they had endured. Like all survivors of tragedy, the past was not a subject they reflected upon, but chose instead to move as far away from as possible. The result was their pasts inflating to legendary proportions and influencing them for the worse by going unrecognized. Because they never took the lessons offered from their pasts, they went could not share them with their daughters, drawing a farther line of separation between them. For the daughters, China became a fantasy- land, a place that was not a part of them. Because of this tenuousness, the daughters did not have the real China, nor a fully realized Chinese-side of them. The aunties watched in dismay as their daughters began to lose their ethnicities and stumble through a new, un-Chinese world.

These problems combined with their terrible sense of communication are what cause the problems between their relationships in this book. These problems do not start to be resolved until the daughter (June) starts to learn more about where and how her mother (Suyuan) was raised, making her understand and accept their differences. There are many themes the author tries to express to the reader through their

I agree with the statement “the history of a family begins when a person leaves home” . when Chang left rural tradition behind to make a new life for themselves in the city. The old rules no longer apply, traditional education and family values have little or relevance, and new arrivals in the city have to learn fast and adapt quickly in order to survive and prosper in this strange and often hostile new environment. I saw so many changes for people migration to city .

The Canadians at the Battle of Hong Kong failed due to the insufficient training of the soldiers, which impaired their fighting effectiveness. When selecting troops to deploy to Hong Kong, Major General H. D. G. Crerar chose two infantry battalions, the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada, from a list of units deemed unsuited for deployment. “Instead, Crerar chose the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers from category C, defined by Lawson as “those units which, due to either recent employment or insufficient training, are not recommended” to be deployed at the present time.”[ Pages 13-14, The Damned] Due to the recent deployment of these troops to Jamaica and Newfoundland, and their need for refresher training,

Providing the two heroines with strong and engaging personalities, the novel portrays the life of two young Chinese girls, who because of historical events and family secrets, have to grow up faster than what they had planned. The book delivers emotional themes that are powerful yet familiar, and is written in a compelling manner.

Hong Kong is an island off the coast of mainland China. It was a British colony until 1997 when it was officially handed back to China. Even though Hong Kong has its own constitution and currency, China still controls its defense and foreign policy. Hong Kong 's constitution, the Basic Law, states that Hong Kong will co-exist with China as "one country, two systems" for 50 years after the handover of power in 1997. Due to expire in 2047, it states that the city "shall safeguard the rights and freedoms of the residents." One of the tenets contained in the Basic Law was the right to develop its own democracy. However, Beijing keeps reinterpreting this document and recently released a White Paper reaffirming its “complete jurisdiction” over

Transnational issues are conflicts that typically go beyond national boundaries. For the conflict between Hong Kong and China, this is not the case because Hong Kong is a part of China that is ruled under the “one country, two systems” principle, where certain distinct regions like Hong Kong and Macau would keep their own capitalist political and economic systems while still being a part of China. It is important to note, however, that Hong Kong and Macau were former colonies of Britain and Portugal respectively until the late 1990s. As a result of the 100 years that Hong Kong spent as a colony of Great Britain, there are significant ethnic and cultural differences between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland that have led to a escalation in tensions, currently cumulating in the umbrella revolution in 2014.

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?

Often when we talk about culture and belonging, cultural identity is a large component which follows up the traditions, values and customs practised by a group. The most prominent concern there is with Hong Kong’s political and social situation is the issue of independence, nationalism and identity. Hong Kong’s political identity and struggle, although has extensive history, prevails today. The identity crisis began in the year 1997. On July 1st, Hong Kong was handed over back to the People’s Republic of China (PRC); acquiring the title of being a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC. This is only a temporary title, however, as on July 1, 2046, Hong Kong will lose its SAR status, and become a regular state of the PRC. Hence,

There are several changes that have affected the social aspect in rural china since 1949. Most of these have had a great influence in rewriting the history of the regions. One of the most evident changes took place following the revolution in 1949. Thirty years after winning the revolution against the colonial and the feudal cultures China has been able to establish a tradition that Walder describes as “more robust.” However, during the entire period there was an unpredictable environment for the occurrence of the revolutions. As a result, from 1949 to 1978, a number of changes by varied institutions and social movements that were not controlled by the choices of the Chinese people have taken place. These choices exerted some positive changes on the values and the social behaviors of the people. But, they also had some negative effects. The people had a great passion for revolution that inspired most of the events since 1949, it largely differs from the social mentality and the traditional culture. It cannot be said to be modern since the traditional values and the social mentality still affect China and its people in varied ways (Fan, Heberer &