‘Murica!

The recent assassination attempt on a former editor of a major newspaper has caused international outrage. This event does not exist in isolation. Over the past year, four editors and founders of local media have been assaulted in Hong Kong. The application for a new television station has been debated and almost refused in a television monopoly by one network. To boycott news sources, Chinese companies withdrew their advertisements from newspapers to put them out of business.

Despite government manipulation, it is uplifting to see how minibus and taxi drivers too have pasted up plaques on their cars in protest of threats against press freedom. I cannot explain how moved I was when I saw so many people on the streets pleading for a united cause. To me it was a sign that people are showing solidarity and that even if the government can do nothing about injustices, they still get heard and debated.

On the other hand, the effect of having something so violent happen in my own community is curious. A few days after the assassination attempt was the terrorist attack in Kunming, where 33 people were violently stabbed to death. Although I have no friends and family there, the assassination attempt enlarged my capacity to sympathize with victims. Even though the event was filtered through news, the horror felt real to me.

I can’t help but think — would Hong Kong descend into a lawless turmoil like China? Recent events have made me feel like Hong Kong is sliding from being a first world country to a third world country. But is it even possible? While we are economically developed to an extent, we demand first world rights such as democracy and the freedom of press and speech. Has our political structure always been third world? The clumsiness of our political system seems to be hidden behind the glass veneers of our high-rises. Not only is our political system going backward, our education is also sliding backward and highly focused on technical education without sufficient training in critical thinking and the humanities. Even if we had free media before, most people would not have had the education to be able to think critically about the events beyond a superficial level.

A local political scientist Shen suggests that we will meet the fate of Venice as we cease to become a financial hub, we will become a tourist attraction while future generations seek to develop in nations of greater global significance. While it may not be strategically important anymore, some cultural academics have explored the possibility that Hong Kong could hold the capacity to be a cultural capital. Just as America has New York and Los Angeles, China has Hong Kong and Shanghai. Personally, I think Hong Kong’s political disillusionment could lead to a greater demand for cultural expressions.

Li Ka Shing, the number one business Tycoon in Asia, questions why we should rebel when we are economically well off. But Shanghai is going to take over, and Hong Kong won’t be able to maintain its status as a top financial hub anyway. Plus, does money make our society a happy one? The role of being a financial hub has been forced upon us by our previous colonizers. As our unique cultural identity coalesces, we cannot find ourselves when we enslave ourselves to money. While people worry about Hong Kong’s economic future, I think a pause will not be too detrimental to our prospects.

I’ve lived in Hong Kong for 19 years and only now do I realize that it is so interesting. In my life there, I have never encountered a cultural moment as critical to society as today’s. I have no idea what is going to happen a few years from now — trying to predict the whims of the Chinese government is like trying to predict the weather. While I am apprehensive and worried, I am also curious about what will happen tomorrow.