They say Hong Kong has changed a great deal since I was last there in 1976. Then, there was no subway, no building taller than the Connaught Centre, and a population in the three millions. Sure, the basic info has changed and images of the waterfront look different to last year’s ones; and the airport may be a long way from town now instead of being located between buildings; but after venturing to my old Kowloon ’hood, I can report nothing has changed.
   The building I lived in is pretty downmarket now, and the yuppies (people like my parents) have gone. Even the apartment block across the road, which was being built in 1976, has been torn down and higher ones erected. But look at ground level and the smells, the people, and the character are unchanged.
   The Reds will be happy I wrote that, proving that they have kept Hong Kong the same since 1997. I have written elsewhere about that and don’t necessarily agree that multiple recessions in the last decade and Politburo-meddling croneyism are good things. But this visit proves the resilience of the Hong Kong people and now character is not something that can be easily dismantled.
   The strange thing is the amount of Mandarin one hears in transit: on the flights to and fro, there were Cantonese-speaking attendants, but the announcements were mostly in Mandarin and English (with German first on Lufthansa). To us southerners, at least southerners who left in the 1970s, this is as foreign a development as American street slang would be to al-Qaeda. It may be Chinese, but not as we know it.
   And, despite being a native, I can hear a distinctive accent on my mother tongue. Pity: I can no longer pass as a local in my own home town. Further, being someone who has travelled is no longer a credential of any particular importance, since Hong Kong is very much the global city. I never saw so many people without yellow skin there before.

Del.icio.us tags: Hong Kong travel character change language accent Posted by Jack Yan, 11:56  permalink

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