British Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a Crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1841 to 1982, and a dependent territory from 1 January 1983 to 30 June 1997. From 1941 to 1945, it was under Japanese occupation during the Second World War. British rule began with the British occupation of Hong Kong Island under the Convention of Chuenpi in 1841 during the Victorian era, and ended with the handover of Hong Kong in July 1997.

Under Article III of the Treaty of Nanking of 1842, signed after the First Opium War, the island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity. It became a Crown colony in 1843. In 1860, the British added the Kowloon Peninsula to the colony. In 1898, they obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories. The Qing had to cede Hong Kong Island and Kowloon permanently, but the leased New Territories made up 86.2% of the colony and more than half of its population.

As the lease neared its end in the late 20th century, Britain did not see a workable way to run the colony by dividing it. The People's Republic of China would not consider extending the lease or allowing continued British administration afterward.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed in 1984. It stated that the economic and social systems in Hong Kong would remain relatively unchanged for 50 years. The British government agreed to transfer the entire territory to China when the New Territories lease expired in 1997. Hong Kong would then become a special administrative region (SAR) until at least 2047.

History

Further information: History of Hong Kong (1800s–1930s) and Bao'an County

Main articles: Battle of Hong Kong and Japanese occupation of Hong Kong

Further information: Liberation of Hong Kong, 1950s in Hong Kong, 1960s in Hong Kong, 1970s in Hong Kong, 1980s in Hong Kong, and 1990s in Hong Kong

Main article: Handover of Hong Kong

In 1836, the Qing dynasty reviewed the opium trade. Viceroy Lin Zexu was given the task of stopping it, and he ordered foreign traders to hand over their opium, which was destroyed in public. The British wanted payment and then pressed for force. During the First Opium War, Elliot agreed to the Convention of Chuenpi in 1841, which gave the barren Hong Kong Island and its harbour to the British Crown. British rule began when the island was occupied, and it was ceded in the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. It became a Crown colony in 1843. During a later conflict, the British occupied the Kowloon Peninsula. In 1898, the British extended Hong Kong for defence through the Second Convention of Peking. This gave Britain a 99-year lease on the land known as the New Territories, and the British took possession of it in 1899.

In 1941, during the Second World War, Japan attacked Hong Kong, and the British lost the battle that followed. Japan then ruled the territory until its surrender. Many people left during this time, and the population fell from 1.6 million in 1941 to 750,000 at the war's end. British rule returned in 1945, and the British governor, Sir Mark Young, returned in 1946. The economy was the main concern of the British government after the Chinese Civil War, and many refugees arrived from mainland China. In 1984, the British and Chinese governments signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which said that China would take back sovereignty over Hong Kong from 1 July 1997. A handover ceremony was held on the night of 30 June 1997, and Charles, Prince of Wales read a farewell speech on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.

Government

• Elizabeth II, Monarch (1952–1997)
• Chris Patten, Governor (1992–1997)
• Anson Chan, Chief Secretary (1993–1997)

Hong Kong was a dependent territory of the United Kingdom. Its government was roughly modelled on the Westminster system, and its basic rules came from the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 and the Hong Kong Royal Instructions 1917.

The Governor of Hong Kong was the head of government. The British monarch chose the Governor, who held most of the power and picked nearly all members of the Legislative Council and the Executive Council. The Foreign Secretary approved new members of these councils. The Legislative Council was made more democratic in the last years of British rule, with functional constituency seats introduced in 1985, geographical constituency seats in 1991, and further electoral reform in 1994. The courts followed English law, with the Supreme Court of Hong Kong as the highest court.

Cadets

Main article: Administrative Officer (Hong Kong)

In 1861, Governor Sir Hercules Robinson started the Hong Kong Cadetship. It recruited young British graduates, who learned Cantonese and written Chinese before joining the Civil Service. Over time, these cadets became the core of the government's administration. They were renamed Administrative Officers in the 1950s and stayed the elite of the Civil Service during British rule.

Military

Main article: British Forces Overseas Hong Kong

Before and during the Second World War, the garrison included British Army battalions and local recruits. The garrison was defeated by the Empire of Japan in the Battle of Hong Kong. After the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong ended, British forces returned. Later, the garrison included Gurkhas from Nepal, who served in the British Army. The Royal Hong Kong Regiment, part of the Hong Kong Government, was organised like a British Territorial Army unit, and most of its members were local citizens of Chinese descent.

Economy

The economy of Hong Kong under British rule was based on free trade and positive non-interventionism. There were few rules and low taxes, which helped the colony grow mainly as a free-trade zone and later as an offshore financial centre. The stability and predictability of British law and government helped Hong Kong become a centre for international trade. In the colony's first decade, money from the opium trade was an important source of government funds. Opium became less important over time, but the government still relied on its income until the Japanese occupation in 1941. Although the largest businesses in the early colony were run by British, American, and other foreign people, Chinese workers did most of the work needed to build the new port city.

By the late 1980s, many ethnic Chinese people had become major business leaders in Hong Kong. Among these billionaires was Sir Li Ka-shing, who had become one of the colony's richest people by then.

Culture

British Hong Kong was described as a mix of East and West. Traditional Chinese values such as family honour, filial piety, and a preference for sons remained common, and nuclear families were the most usual households, though multi-generational and extended families were not unusual. Most people were ethnically Chinese, and the mainstream culture came from immigrants from various parts of China. Hong Kong developed its own identity through its long colonial period, British-style education, and a separate political system. In 2018, after the handover, 52% of people called themselves "Hongkongers" and 11% called themselves "Chinese". Polygamy was legal until 1971 because British authorities did not interfere with local customs they viewed as relatively harmless. Spiritual ideas like feng shui were followed, and bagua mirrors were used to deflect evil spirits. Buildings often lacked floor numbers with a 4, because the number sounds like the word for "die" in Cantonese. British English was the common second language and the sole official language until 1974, when Chinese gained co-official status. English was taught in primary and secondary schools, and the English Schools Foundation, established in 1967, ran English-medium schools. Unlike Mainland China, where metro lines were numbered, Hong Kong's metro lines were named after places, and roads were named after British royals, governors, and places in the UK and the Commonwealth, as well as Chinese cities. Chinese New Year was the most important festival, and Christmas came second. Some idioms in Cantonese were directly translated from English.

Food was mainly based on Cantonese cuisine, with rice as the staple, and freshness was emphasised. Wet markets sold poultry and seafood, often live, and there were five daily meals, including siu yeh. Dim sum was a dining-out tradition during yum cha, and dishes included congee, cha siu bao, siu yuk, egg tarts, and mango pudding. Local Western-style cafes, called cha chaan teng, served Hong Kong-style milk tea. Film making began in 1909, but Hong Kong only became a film hub in the late 1940s, when Shanghai filmmakers arrived. By the 1960s, films such as The World of Suzie Wong made the city known to overseas audiences, and after Bruce Lee's The Way of the Dragon was released in 1972, local productions became popular abroad. In the 1980s, films such as A Better Tomorrow, As Tears Go By, and Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain widened interest beyond martial arts films, and dramas like Farewell My Concubine, To Live, and the films of Wong Kar Wai were internationally successful. Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat, and Michelle Yeoh often played action roles in foreign films. In the early 1990s over 400 films were produced each year, but this had fallen to about 60 by 2017. Cantopop, a genre of Cantonese popular music, emerged in the 1970s, drawing on shidaiqu, Cantonese opera, and Western pop. Artists such as Sam Hui, Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, and Andy Lau were well known, and the Four Heavenly Kings dominated Asian record charts in the 1990s. Western classical music also had a strong presence, through the publicly funded Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the territory's oldest professional symphony orchestra, and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, made up of classical Chinese instruments. The territory regularly hosted the Hong Kong Sevens, Hong Kong Marathon, Hong Kong Tennis Classic, and Lunar New Year Cup, and hosted the first AFC Asian Cup and the 1995 Dynasty Cup. Hong Kong had its own teams in international competition, and Lee Lai-shan won the territory's first Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Between 1972 and 1996, Hong Kong athletes won 60 medals at the Paralympic Games, and at the Commonwealth Games it won 17 medals, with its last appearance at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Dragon boat racing began as a religious ceremony during the Tuen Ng Festival, and was revived as a modern sport by the Tourism Board. The Hong Kong Jockey Club, known from 1960 to 1996 as the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, became the territory's largest taxpayer.

Dissent

In the turbulent 20th century, Hong Kong was a safe place for dissidents, political refugees, and officials who had lost power in China. British policy let these people live in Hong Kong as long as they did not break local laws or harm British interests. How this policy was carried out depended on what senior officials thought British interests were and on the state of relations with China. The Canton–Hong Kong strike (1925–1926) was anti-imperialist in nature. The 1966 riots and the Maoist-led 1967 riots were large demonstrations linked to the Cultural Revolution. They were fuelled by labour disputes and anger at the government. The 1967 riots began as a labour dispute, but they quickly escalated when leftist groups and mainland officials in Hong Kong used the chance to mobilise their followers against the colonial government. Chinese Communist Party supporters organised the Anti-British Struggle Committee during the riots.

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, said it was "ironic" that, although Hong Kong was a symbol of China's humiliation by Britain, no major movement among Chinese residents called for the colony to return to China, even though there had been several rises in Chinese nationalism. He explained that in the 1920s, Chinese workers had no strong reason to support the Hong Kong government and were more open to appeals based on Chinese nationalism, so they followed the Communists' call. By the end of the 1960s, however, the government's efforts to keep order and improve living conditions, along with the beginning of a Hong Kong identity, led local Chinese people to largely support the British colonial government.