The Queen and I
The passing of the British Queen Elizabeth II has made me pause to reflect on what she meant to me, my hometown, and the future of Hong Kong. God save the queen
I have an interesting relationship with the queen. With the recent news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, I thought back to what she meant to me. Growing up in Hong Kong, we acknowledged her presence every day - after all, her face was on the postage stamps and money, while she was technically our head of state (though the governor loomed much larger). There’s a hospital named after her in Yau Ma Tei, opposite the Kowloon Cricket Club, while in Wan Chai there’s the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, an indoor arena where I once saw INXS play, led by ex Hongkonger Michael Hutchence.
Yet she was always a distant figurehead, much like the mandarins in London who controlled the territory’s affairs from Whitehall. After all, we were but a distant colony, a hangover of empire that for some reason had persisted through to the late 20th century - theirs, until one day in 1984 when they decided we weren’t wanted anymore. However, the queen did make the effort to visit the city twice: once before my time in 1975, and again in 1986, two years after the signing of the Joint Declaration.
On her first trip to the city, the Queen visited Queen’s Pier (since removed), City Hall (home to the best dim sum), the Oi Man Public Housing Estate in Ho Man Tin, Hung Hom KCR station, the University of Hong Kong, the Kwai Chung container port, and the Happy Valley racecourse to watch the Queen Elizabeth II Cup. She also enjoyed the city’s first fireworks display since the 1967 riots. A decade later, after becoming the first British monarch to ever visit the People’s Republic of China, she arrived in Victoria Harbour (named after her predecessor) onboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. Coincidentally, the exact same boat that the last governor Chris Patten used to leave Hong Kong on 30 June 1997, alongside the queen’s son Prince - now King - Charles.
When news of her passing was announced last week, Hongkongers began gathering at the British Consulate General to pay their respects, lining up for hours along the steep Supreme Court Road to lay flowers and messages in her memory. But was it her they were actually mourning? With protests banned under Covid rules and national security reasons - in a city that was once known as a paragon of peaceful free protest for decades (though admittedly little in the way of democracy - thanks for nothing, Whitehall) - the passing of Queen Elizabeth II provided a window of opportunity to protest without risk of arrest. They came to say goodbye to si tau por, ‘boss lady’, which she was affectionally called in Cantonese, but also a Hong Kong perhaps gone forever.
With hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers leaving the city, many emigrating to the UK under the BNO visa scheme, the golden age of Hong Kong might be over, but the memory of what it was still shines strong. The majesty, you might say, of a better time.
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