The Influence of Western Powers’ Colonization on Modern Hong Kong

虽然香港有只返回到中国不到20年的时间里，它已经成为发展最快的城市在中国，最高的住房价格，最高档的娱乐设施和接收其超级巨星的最关注在大陆中国的观众。此外，这是唯一的城市，学生接受双语教育。因此，在中国的其他地区，掌握英语是帮助学习者获取利润的技能。然而，在本港，能够用英文说、写的能力，并不是一种技能。事实上，英语只是作为他们的语言，他们的交流工具，就像在本港的母语的人一样。最重要的是，最鲜明的特点是，大多数人的行为，如西方人，而不是传统的中国。

Although Hong Kong has only returned to China for less than two decades, it has been the fast developing city in China, with the highest housing price, the fanciest entertainment facilities and its superstars receive the most attention from the audiences in mainland China. Besides, this is the only city where students receive bilingual education. Therefore, in other parts of China, mastering English language is the skill that helps the learners to make profits. However, in Hong Kong, being able to speak and write in English is not counted as a skill. In fact, English is only used as their language, their tool to communicate, just like the mother tongue of people in Hong Kong. Most importantly, the most distinctive feature in Hong Kong is that most people act like westerners instead of traditional Chinese. Even in high schools and universities, teachers and professors have been instilling western ideology and western values into the students’ heads. As a result, when a new comer arrived in Hong Kong, they would feel like they are in land full of people with Asian faces but western values.

In fact, I have been curious about how the western imperial powers inserted influences on modern Hong Kong. Also, I am wondering how come people in Hong Kong are more proud of themselves being thought as a British rather than a Chinese. Recently, a lot of youngsters in Hong Kong are protesting against the Peking government. Some of them even went out of line to make a request that Hong Kong shall return to the ruling of the United Kingdom. There are a lot of questions worth studying to find out why the majority of people in modern Hong Kong are so eager to demonstrate western values and to cozy up to western rulers.

The history of Hong Kong is worth mentioning. The name Hong Kong actually means “the Fragrant Harbor” in Chinese. (John Mark Carroll, 2) Therefore, this island’s origination is a Chinese one.  Before January 25th, 1842, Hong Kong was a quiet coastal city in China. However, that night, a British naval crew landed on the shore of Hong Kong. In the next morning, the leaders and the officials of the British naval crew directly start their possession of the small island. Since that day, Hong Kong had been under the British occupation, ceded by the Qing Dynasty to the Great Britain. (John Mark Carroll, 3)

Hong Kong is not only an important part of modern Chinese history. Besides, it is part of British history as well. (John Mark Carroll, 4) It is often well recognized that even though Hong Kong owns the “Chinese root”, most of itself currently is shaped by the British colonial rule. Before 1942 when Hong Kong still belonged to the Qing Dynasty, the society, economy and politics around the world did not change so dramatically. Although there were changes, most of them were not noticeable. Before 1942, the notion of democracy and freedom had not been widely recognized all around the world. The way of developing economy and making profits in the majority parts of China were dependent on growing crops.

On the contrary, after 1942, it was the time when historical turns happened. Farmers started to give up their cropping machines to work in factories. People began to doubt the ruling of a single emperor. Hong Kong was put under the domination of the western power during the time when most changes in political life, economic life and cultural life happened. That is why most historians do not agree that the modern Hong Kong is shaped and influenced by China. On the contrary, it is the Colonialism that transformed Hong Kong’s historical development. According to John Mark Carroll, the author of the book A Concise History of Hong Kong, “Simply put, Hong Kong would not have become the place it did had it not been a British colony for over 150 years. ” (John Mark Carroll, 5)

I have chosen to read the article Putting Knowledge in its Place: Science, Colonialism and the Postcolonial written by Suman Seth. In fact, I have learned that there is the common idea that western imperial nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America have brought new science as well as new technology to their colonies. Historians have defined that the new science and technology that western power brought to the new land is an inevitable part of the colony being civilized. (Suman Seth, 1 ) According to Suman Seth, although the intelligent people within the place that was occupied and colonized have been trying to refuse to admit that fact that the science and technology in the colony is a way of allying with the imperialist officials, this fact cannot be denied. Take Hong Kong as an example, although Hong Kong since 1997 had broken away from the domination of the United Kingdom, right now, a lot of companied, institutions or factories which were built by the British people while they were ruling Hong Kong still exist. If the western imperial power had not colonized Hong Kong after 1949, the year when the People’s Republic of China was founded, the economic development in Hong Kong would not be so prosperous. The western imperial powers have left the notion of creation, new technology and advanced scientific knowledge in Hong Kong, which helps Hong Kong become the wealthiest city in China.

Last but not least, because of the long period of time of the control for the United Kingdom, Hong Kong itself has formed a community of a mixture of workers, working in electronic factories and other factories. Graduates from around the world such as Thailand, Singapore and European countries are willing to work in Hong Kong, contributing their intellectual and scientific knowledge to the city.

What’s more, in the fastest changing world, the western imperial powers have not only had impacts on the colonies’ scientific development. On the contrary, they have infiltrated the colonies with western scientific knowledge and western ideology, which has been co constituted with colonialism. (Suman Seth, 3)

Now, it has been widely acknowledged that the notions of democracy of people in mainland China and people in Hong Kong are in the dramatic contrast. First, the way the government rules its own people are different too. Within mainland China, the Peking government, which is a group of communism party members, has been ruling the common citizens. Most of the media of negative information are blocked in mainland China, most people are taught to obey the government and not to question the firm ruling of Peking government. Students in mainland China had been taught to put the benefit of the whole group and the whole nation as their priority. However, in Hong Kong, citizens are more aware of their individual rights, their chances to protest against the Hong Kong administration while the equal rights cannot be realized. Students in Hong Kong are taught with the western values and the western notion of democracy. That is because Hong Kong’s history has been greatly influenced by its colonial administration. (John Mark Carroll, 6) before the nineteen seventies, Officials and people who government the Hong Kong island were chosen from the British colonial service. Therefore, these people who made Hong Kong’s policies and wrote Hong Kong’s textbooks were from the western world. That explains the reason why students in the 1970s, who are the same generation of our parents are more proud of themselves believing in the western values. What’s more, during the 1960s, Hong Kong had got a group of colonial “retreads”. (John Mark Carroll, 6) This group of colonial “retreads” was consisting of the second generation colonial officials who were allocated from the recently independent British colonies and dependencies in other places such as the South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Simply put, since the time, the officials who were ruling and educating citizens in Hong Kong are from other colonized world which was taught with the western ideology from the Great British.

Right now, Hong Kong is one of the most international cities. By international, it means the Hong Kong city is always ready to welcome any new culture from around the world like Africa, South America and even Japan. I firmly believe that it is because of the new officials allocated in Hong Kong in the 1960s that results in the international mindset of modern Hong Kong right now.

To compare with the mainland China and Hong Kong island right now in the twenty first century, there is an obvious contrast that most places in China except for the coastal cities like Guang Zhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen, are not ready to embrace foreign culture. The majority of the cities in mainland China were not only not open minded. What is worst, the citizens in those areas have been rejecting foreigners. The reason why modern Hong Kong becomes such a prosperous international city but the majority of cities in China are still resisting foreign comers and suffering from poor economy is because of the different administrations in the 1960s. It has already been mentioned in the previous paragraph that during the nineteen sixties, Hong Kong had embraced various officials and governors from places that had also been colonized by the Great Britain, such as the Middle East and Africa. Therefore, during the time when new electronic technology and new ideologies were raising up, Hong Kong took a large step onto the international stage. Its people also gladly embraced the various mix of culture within the island. On the contrary, during this period of time, it was the darkest moment in mainland China. The officials and leaders in the central government made serious mistakes in terms of economy, politics and culture. During that time, foreigners were despised and looked down upon in China. Students were taught that any incoming culture was evil. What’s worse, when the world and Hong Kong was busy encouraging young people to be creative and busy inventing new electronic devices, the students in mainland China were occupied with reciting Chairman’s diaries and sentences. Besides, in great contrast, intellectuals were punished and everyone was forced to grow crops. In terms of culture, during that time when people in the western world began to realize the importance of democracy, equal rights and even homosexuality, Hong Kong government wisely let the new culture get inside Hong Kong, therefore, youngsters in Hong Kong grew up knowing various cultural ideologies from different countries and being taught with the western value of getting equal right, free love and sexual liberation. On the contrary, students in mainland are forced to get rid of any material that contains the western values. English language was no longer taught. What is worse, government was forcing its own people to believe in the old and out-dated traditional culture of China. As a result, the modern Hong Kong now becomes the most outstanding city in China with the most forward-minded people.

Indeed, even though in the past, historians mostly focuses on the damaging aspects of colonialism of Hong Kong. Nevertheless, two decades of prosperous development of Hong Kong has proven that the Great Britain’s domination is not certainly damaging, instead, the main influence is actually quite beneficial. According to scholars studying both history and sociology, the colonialism was no longer seen as a destructive and traumatic experience for native people. The truth is that now colonialism of a city can be a way of bringing in economic development and generating mutual understanding of different cultures.

According to another scholar called Tony Fu Lai Yu, who has written the book Entrepreneurships and Economic Development in Hong Kong, he has mentioned that Hong Kong’s society has been influenced by Western culture and the traditional Chinese values. (Tony Fu Lai Yu , 61) He has claimed that the Chinese culture should be categorized into two parts, which are called the great tradition as well as the small tradition. It is necessary here for me to explain the great tradition as well as the small tradition. In fact, the great tradition means someone is making an effort to achieve a goal. This goal is a wealthy, prosperous and strong nation. However, for the small tradition, it actually means that a person is making an attempt to maintain a good life and good earnings. Therefore, the first one, the great tradition aims at the collective interests, which means if the whole nation if wealthy, then the goal is achieved. On the contrary, the second one, the small tradition, is aiming at the individual’s interests. Therefore, it means that if a person can guarantee that he makes a good living, earns enough money to support his family and be able to afford good food and good products, then the goal is achieved. The benefit of the other people does not need to be considered. (Tony Fu Lai Yu, 61)

The truth is, according to Tony Fu Lai Yu, Hong Kong belongs to the small tradition. (Tony Fu Lai Yu, 62) The great tradition is originated from the Confucianism, which can never find root in the culture of Hong Kong. Obviously, after being ruled by the United Kingdom for more than five decades, Hong Kong has already been heavily influenced by the British western culture in many ways. This feature is most distinctive when it comes to the people in Hong Kong’s way of pursuing material satisfaction and their social status. (Tony Fu Lai Yu, 62)

In mainland China, the notion of blindly seeking for profit and fortune is not only not encouraged but also despicable. By contrast, the idea of pursuing profit and fortune is not only acceptable but also regarded as an ambitious goal in Hong Kong. (Tony Fu Lai Yu , 62)

What’s more, the influence that the western imperial powers have on Hong Kong does not only focus on the scientific development, economic development and the cultural ideology. In fact, it has also made a great impact on Hong Kong’s religious development. In mainland China, the majority of religious people believed their god is the Buddhist and they are firm Buddhism believers. However, after being ruled by the western power, the people in Hong Kong are not so much enlightened about the Buddhism. On the contrary, they are more aware of the western gods such as the Thor and Christ. Catholic churches and Christian churches are frequently visited by native people in Hong Kong.

However, although it seems that the colonization of Hong Kong has brought drastic benefits to the area, including advanced technology and scientific knowledge, forward minded values and ideologies and the most advanced administrative system and education, many historian are still aware of the danger that western powers’ colonization can do to Hong Kong.

First, recently, citizens in Hong Kong have been protesting against the central government in mainland China. Even those teenagers in Hong Kong who are not enough educated to realize what the problem is are also badmouthing the central government in mainland Chinese, calling it a ruthless ruler. Obvious, western powers and western media do not only bring Hong Kong to the international stage to embrace various culture, at the same time, the western media and the western power have been instilling the negative image that they created into the mind of Hong Kong people. Gradually, citizens in Hong Kong believe that only the western value is correct and the traditional Chinese values are not only out of date but also morally wrong.

It is true that the Great Britain’s domination has brought great opportunities for people in Hong Kong to develop economy and politics, many Chinese historians have raised questions about whether the Hong Kong area is still a part of China. Certainly, politically speaking, it is a part of China. However, the constant riots in Hong Kong have proven that its people are more of the believers of western culture and the majority of them are more willing to admit that they are the British rather than Chinese. Therefore, it is worth considering that whether the colonization has brought actual benefits to Hong Kong society of whether it has caused its people to turn away from the cultural root that they belong to.

Reference:
John Mark Corroll, 2007, A Concise History of Hong Kong, Rowman and Little field publication
Tony Fu Lai Yu, 2009, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Hong Kong, London, Cambridge Univerity
David Scott, 2004, The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightment, Duke University Press
Suman Seth, 2009, Putting Knowledge in its Place: Science, Colonialism and the Post Colonial, Published Online


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