Chilly Times in Hong Kong

Yesterday we returned to Hong Kong for an early holiday. It was quite a contrast to the sweltering and humid weather that we usually experience each summer. Now there were grey skies, a chilly wind that whipped up small waves in the harbour, smog that reduced visibility to a few hundred yards, and everywhere people were bundled up in overcoats and heavy jackets.

Most Hong Kongers are a hardy lot. Although they love air conditioning in the summer, they don’t believe in central heating or electric fires in winter; rather, they add layers of clothing to keep out the chill. Today’s maximum temperature of fifteen degrees Celsius (60 degrees Farenheit) is hardly Arctic but everyone on the streets is bundled up like it was ten degrees lower (but there is a cold wind blowing in from the harbour that cuts through the warmest clothing - brrrr!)

The political temperature has fallen too. The honeymoon with Beijing that followed 1997 is long past and the mainland authorities are increasingly irritated at the way Hong Kong underlines its independence while agitating for increased democracy. Not only have the Hong Kong people demonstrated each year in memory of the Tiananmen Square protests; they have also declined to introduce the national education system; they have protested during visits of the Chinese leadership; a protest group plans to close down the main financial district this summer in protest against the lack of suffrage – and last week some ill-tempered Hong Kongers were ungrateful enough to demonstrate against the hordes of mainland visitors that have invaded the city in recent years, referring to them as 'locusts'. In response, the Beijing authorities have vented their frustration by moving a planned key regional finance meeting from Hong Kong to Beijing, muttering darkly about the ‘spoilt’ inhabitants of this city.

There was an interesting article in the South China Morning Post today. Apparently elderly bachelors of this fair city are being duped by heartless young gold-diggers from the mainland. Mr. Law, 83 married a young woman in her 30s but has now been divorced, has lost custody of his son and has been evicted from his 150sq ft public flat. The paper quotes the assistant executive director of the welfare agency Against Elderly Abuse as believing ‘the main reason mainland women married elderly men in Hong Kong was to get residency in the city and seize their flats.’

I’m sure the relationship with Beijing has also produced many positive benefits for the city (I seem to remember Beijing supported the Hong Kong economy by liberalising permits for mainland tourists following the SARS outbreak) but I’m not reading much about that aspect at the moment.

Finally, there was a protest in central Hong Kong today, a small and rather sweet one (they handed me a small bunch of flowers as I passed) - but it had nothing to do with relations with mainland China.

The Ukranian minority in the city were demonstrating against President Putin’s apparent attempt to seize Crimea by force. It is a very healthy sign that they were allowed to make their views known. I wonder if there were similar demonstrations in Beijing? Perhaps not…