Has it really been 10 years since we danced in the rain, watched the British sail away on Britannia, Prince Charles shedding a tear (or was that just a raindrop sliding down his cheek?) as Britain’s colonial empire became another footnote in the pages of history? We celebrated the old; we welcomed the new – with trepidation, maybe – the television pictures of truckloads of Chinese troops driving across the border and down our streets that first morning of July 1997 a sobering way to wake up. Tung, a man so far out of his depths he was beyond lost, branded us Asia’s World City but had no idea how to deliver, drive or motivate that city. A decade of ups and downs, a decade where despite the incompetence (or maybe because of it), we – if I may use the word ‘we’; I’m not ethnic Chinese, I can never have three stars on my ID card but, like many others in a similar position, Hongkie Town is my home and I am proud to call myself a Hong Konger – we have triumphed. We, the people of Hong Kong, have triumphed over every adversity – economic, political or social – thrown at us these last 10 years. We have shown the world that Hong Kong is a world-beater, a place
that succeeds.

We ask in this issue, Who Cares? Who cares about the 10th anniversary of the Handover? The answer is for many “No, I don’t really care,” followed by a shrug of indifferent shoulders. But if we ask Who Cares about Hong Kong?, the answer – in a multitude of languages – is a universal YES, WE CARE! We care, and we expect – no, we demand – that our ‘elected’ leaders care with the passion we do about the SAR. We are an economic, entrepreneurial, hard-working, powerhouse of a city. We have faced and, while Beijing may disagree, we have conquered the dragon. But while we are not yet a great city – we are a massive financial and shopping centre – let’s hope, as we enter the second decade of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region epic tale, that Hong Kong’s dragon can have a great city to call its home. Why? Because we are Hong Kongers and we care!

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