It may be billed as the day of the decade, but, really, who is excited about the 10th Anniversary of the reunion of Hong Kong with China?

words marissa brodney

You might say it’s fortunate for China that the Hong Kong economy is booming. The 500,000+ who took to the streets in protest on the 2003 Handover anniversary were fuelled by a floundering job market we don’t see the likes of today and a legislative attack on individual freedoms that’s fallen by the wayside. With a current unemployment rate of just over four percent, the SAR can afford to live pretty comfortably without anxiously pointing to its relationship with China as a current cause of debilitating civil and economic pitfalls.

The 10th anniversary of the Handover is upon us. And Hong Kong is… celebrating? Pockets of reunification mania seem to be emerging from an atmosphere that’s generally, well, fairly uninterested – at least until conversation turns from the reunification’s significance to vacation plans for the July 1 holiday. Cindy Lui and Sarah Lai, 24-year-old talent search agents born and bred in Hong Kong, spoke about their enthusiasm for the Handover anniversary and celebrations. “I don’t feel anything especially,” says Cindy, whose comment on change in Hong Kong post-1997 Handover is telling: “It’s the same,” she says. Sarah points out that the only thing she really sees people excited about are the fireworks planned for the evening of July 1, but when asked if she is looking forward to the event, her answer is a quick, “No!”

On the one hand, this anniversary marks 10 successful years of the previously untested ‘one country, two systems’ political experiment, which you might think would generate more excitement over what we’re managing to do (or not) as a society of political entrepreneurs. But on the other hand, it’s pretty easy to see why broad questions of political significance aren’t at the forefront of whatever attention is being paid to the Handover anniversary by most Hong Kong residents: “The most acute problems Hong Kong faced were not political,” offers CNN’s former Asia anchor Mike Chinoy, citing the Asian financial crisis, bird flu, and SARS in an analysis of why he doesn’t think this anniversary will be receiving all that much probing international political coverage. If, as he puts it, “Hong Kong is basically a ‘good news’ story”, there isn’t really all that much for people to get riled up about.

Which isn’t to say that a great many don’t care deeply about marking this anniversary. One need only look at the illuminated 10th Anniversary banners hung across the streets in many areas of the territory. And then the free-speech protestors plan on taking to the streets on July 1 (though granted, the expected attendance isn’t anywhere close to the 500,000 of a few yeas ago) – they care, and are willing and ready to stand up for what they believe in…

Allan Zeman, the businessman extraordinaire known as the Father of Lan Kwai Fong, is proud of the way Hong Kong has fared in the 10 years since reunification with China. Back in 1997, Zeman spoke with a number of journalists about his confidence in Hong Kong’s future at a time when many were sceptical about a union with the Mainland. “Ten years later,” he says, “many have come back and they say, ‘You were right. Hong Kong is booming.’” Zeman sees the Handover Anniversary as a milestone signifying an event that has “really enabled Hong Kong to go from strength to strength.” Though he also adds, “We’re lucky that it’s been a good year, and that people are content.” And the protest marches being planned for the morning of July 1? “The ability to march shows you that the basic law really works,” Zeman says. “In the end, it makes for a more mature Hong Kong.”

For the Hong Kong Tourism Board, this celebration isn’t much more than a birthday party. It’s a time to all be happy together, and go shopping. The board plans to enhance “mega-event programmes such as a Hong Kong Shopping Festival held during July and August,” says an official spokesman, because that is the best way it believes it can “strengthen promotion of Hong Kong’s core strengths”. Hong Kong’s core strengths encapsulated by the expansion of an already huge shopping festival?

Well, in that case, the Just Gold jewellery brand is caring about this anniversary the right way by cashing in on promoting Handover mania. You don’t want to be the only one in your massive apartment complex not sporting a “Hong Kong in Bloom” gold brooch or pendant, which Just Gold advertises as the perfect “stylish gift and souvenir”. Because whose experience of the 10th Anniversary Handover Celebration would be complete without a necklace that “symbolizes the radiant sun of the Motherland, nourishing the blossoming flower 10 years after reunification”?

Even the MTR refuses to stand idly by while the Handover publicity train whizzes past. Tenth Anniversary MTR souvenir tickets are priced at $60 a set. If you’re one of the many who purchase commemorative MTR tickets as collectors’ items with plans to sell them in the future, you may want to consider this first: 1997 Handover tickets are only selling for about US$4 on ebay, or around HK$30.

And then there’s the Giordano clothing line, issuing limited edition print tees with graphics related to the 10th Anniversary. Which means that you too can sport a panda, bauhinias, or the number ‘10’ while wandering the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui or the beaches of Lamma as you relax on your day off.

Much has been made of Disney’s selfless offer to give all children born in 1997 a year’s worth of free park entry, so that all 10-year-olds regardless of economic circumstance will have the opportunity to beg their parents for the latest-edition Mulan snow globes and Lilo and Stitch pillows. But beyond that, 500 sets of limited-edition pins, priced at a hefty $680 per set, are also being released on June 29, not to mention the line of 10th Anniversary souvenir merchandise that will already have been in stores since June 22. Disney is certainly working hard to turn this anniversary into a magical windfall.

Though it doesn’t seem to much matter what Disney does when it comes to vying for attention with competitor Ocean Park: Disney may have pins, but Ocean Park’s got pandas. Take that, Mouseland. Cute and cuddly Le Le and Ying Ying have gotten the kind of news coverage politicians and Disneyland executives dream about. Plans are already in the works to build a new section of the park designed to house the pandas and some other lucky creatures, to be called – get ready – Astounding Asia. Move over Magic Kingdom. I mean, how joyous to celebrate the reunification of Hong Kong with China, the Motherland, with national treasures symbolic of a shared heritage leading us into a common
future. Oh, did I mention that on average, visitors spend $300-$400 on panda souvenirs alone?
Even the Hong Kong government’s awareness campaign implicitly supports the view that Handover excitement is quickly becoming little more than a marketing opportunity. The SAR issued an official booklet in February 2007 meant to encourage solidarity and advertising community events. Yet it is hard to imagine a more compelling reason for over 150 pages worth of HK associations raising their hands in support of the 10th anniversary season than some free publicity. Which is not to disparage the well-intentioned and community-building events that have been and will be taking place here recently. As Allan Zeman says, “There are so many things going on over the next six months, it kind of pulls everybody into the happy occasion.”

And a happy occasion it is. If not for the official Events Calendar, I doubt I would have known about such important happenings as the Rope Skipping Day, featuring a rope skipping demonstration and rope skipping by 1,000 people, sponsored by the Wanchai Sports Federation on June 10. It’s also nice to know that organizations like Taxi Dealers & Owners Association Ltd have planned a party in a car park in which taxis and public light buses from all over the SAR will celebrate the 10th anniversary. Hong Kong is proud to be hosting a Dragon Jamboree, a bus parade, a dress-up parade in Tin Wan, and a Gymnastics Extravaganza. The Government Flying Service is sponsoring a Helicopter Fly Around, in which “A Government Flying Service helicopter will fly around the city with a banner carrying a congratulatory message.” And we can’t forget the Kwai Tsing District’s Sports Carnival for the Elderly, for which we hope proper safety measures will be in place.

Perhaps because the Home Affairs Department is just a little bit worried about lacklustre attendance at these programmes, they’ve concocted a blatant attempt to bribe the Hong Kong community into wanting to attend celebratory events. They’ve teamed up with designer Winson Ma to produce 13,000 sets of commemorative figurines - you can only get them via lucky draws in August and October, after proving (by submitting your entry tickets) you attended at least three events featured in the official Events Calendar. Each figurine set is gender-balanced and contains two smiling and wide-eyed panda characters as well as a pair of specifically 10-year-old children; I personally think that one of them looks a few months shy of 10, but then we all go through puberty at different times, don’t we?

It’s more than a bit ironic that, although Hong Kong is celebrating this anniversary with an eye to the future and is largely viewing it as a way to call attention to impending years of continued success (you won’t find memorializing here), it hasn’t quite managed to spark the interest of the up-and-coming generation of Hong Kongers. Many of those who have grown up living in a Hong Kong free from British rule and thriving as a global business centre see no reason at all to focus on this anniversary as anything profoundly significant. “I’m planning on treating the Handover weekend like any other weekend of the summer,” says high-school student Felix Tsang, “I feel like this doesn’t affect me personally.” Hong Kong has tried to woo Felix’s generation into a spirit of country pride and support with the star-laden celebratory song Just Because You Are Here all over the radio, but students like Felix aren’t so easily persuaded to back away from their Xboxes in favour of flag waving or political activism. He’s appreciative of being thought of as a demographic to be catered to, but his primary reaction is “It’s not a great song.”

The 10th Anniversary of the Handover is upon us, but who cares? I know that I for one am excited to see the two pandas we got out of the deal, not to mention the massive fireworks display that’s going to illuminate the city skyline. I also really want to see what the wax statues of Chinese leaders unveiled at the Hong Kong Madame Tussauds look like. From the pictures I’ve seen online, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and Sun Yat-sen all look pretty chummy… and what with their positioning atop the Peak with a view of the entire city, you might say we’ve voluntarily surrendered to a whole new sort of Big Brother watching over Hong Kong. All fittingly in the name of a tourist attraction and some additional revenue. It’s the 10th Anniversary of the Handover and I’m ready to celebrate – point me to the nearest shopping mall.