September 17, 2022

Why some Hong Kongers are mourning Queen Elizabeth II

topic:	Colonialism
located:	Hong Kong, China, United Kingdom
editor:	Sasha Kong

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is arguably the world’s most famous royal family member, not just because she visited many world leaders, but also because she remained the head of state of 15 Commonwealth countries until the moment she left the world. 

Hong Kong, also a former British colony, wasn’t one of these countries, but hundreds queued on a scorching September day outside the British Consulate-General of Hong Kong to pay their respects to her. Many said her death is “an end of an era” and that the Queen was part of the city’s “great development in colonial times.”

For the financial hub that has witnessed its freedoms muzzled by Beijing after the controversial national security law in 2020, citizens’ nostalgia was perhaps a reflection of the daily powerlessness they feel to change the status quo. Chris Patten, British Hong Kong’s last governor, was often the one vocally criticising China for suppressing the freedoms it promised at the 1997 handover.

It was not hard to understand where Hong Kongers’ love for colonial times comes from. Compared to other British colonies, Hong Kong has never stood on its own. It was taken away by Britain during World War II from China. Despite a level of repression seen in many colonies at the time, Britain decided to make Hong Kong a trade hub and a tax haven, bringing prosperity to the once quiet fishing village. They brought over the common law system, the British education system, among other social implementations to the city. 

Residents in the city enjoyed a different kind of freedom they had not tasted when it had been part of China. When they started buying properties, developing their financial careers and as the city was experiencing the golden age of its world-famous film industry, mainland China, just a river away, was experiencing famine and the aftermath of a devastating Cultural Revolution – a bloody era where the then-leader Mao Zedong tried to stabilise his power by encouraging people to assault those against the central governing party. 

Waves of illegal immigration from mainland China to Hong Kong spoke volumes for citizens’ fear and frustrations with modern Beijing’s governance. Hong Kongers only knew two options at the time: continuing the prosperity brought by British governance, or going back to their motherland that has been ruled by a party they had qualms about. That explains the exodus before the 1997 handover, as many could not imagine a future of returning to China. 

To Hong Kongers, the Queen represents the short time during which they had a taste of freedom and the rise of the current prosperity, which are both now waning. When only presented with a better life under colonial rule and Beijing’s tightening governance, their mourning of the Queen was more a grieving of their loss of a better life. 

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante

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