Typhoon and treasures of the Forbidden City
I bid you farewell
Since I’ve start blogging, I realized if I have anything to say, I’ve got a platform to publish. So, I’m going to jot down random notes about last week. Maybe a couple of years later, I might find this post useful in some way.
A few days ago on 30 Jun, tropical cyclone Chaba hits. It’s a typhoon a.k.a. Severe Tropical Storm. The whole city was under very strong wind and heavy rain. No joke. Most of the shops were closed and public transport was almost shutting down with very limited services. Typhoon Signal No.8 SE was hoisted, and it lasted for more than 21 hours. We’ve got typhoons visiting a few times during summer pretty much every year. I think we’re quite used to it. But this one seems to me a bit earlier than usual.
On the next day, the 1st of July, Signal No.8 remains until around 1600. I forgot to tell you that our Mr Xi, the President of China was visiting for two days. But you may wonder what’s the big deal. In fact, it wasn’t. And I’m going to tell you why.
The day 1 July 2022 marked 25 years of Hong Kong handover.
After 1997, we were part of China, again.
Our city was a colony of the British maybe since 1841 for 156 years.
It could be earlier but I guess my history lessons failed.
You gotta Google, DuckDuckGo, well search for it yourself.
I’m not gonna do the homework for you.
Anyway, what makes Hong Kong special is the “One country, two systems”.
We have our own government, legal, judiciary, economic and freedom of speech, et cetera.
In short, a Western-style metropolis.
Mr Xi had said something to us, to we lowly peasants: “You’ll be just fine if any of you doesn’t cross the ‘bottom line’.” At least, that’s what I interpreted.
Well, good to know. The Central government may as well let us live our lives peacefully for 25 more years as long as we remain “under control”. The gravity of the words from the Emperor himself will cause ripples in our society and maybe last for years. Enjoy our freedom while we can.
After the protests in 2019, people were busy fighting Covid. It seems fairly quiet for a while in such a crowded city. Where is the noise? No one could hear them now. Red are literally everywhere. And it may perhaps be a bit too much.
On the same day, the HK Palace Museum was supposed to be its grand opening. Of course it’s for our Mr Xi. It was cancelled because of Chaba. The Museum itself is a “gift” from the Central government. A friendly gesture from China. Apparently a political move. The soon to be displayed artifacts are kind of world class big. It’ll showcase the treasures of Beijing’s Forbidden City. To be honest, I will go there if I’ve got the chance.
On the exact same day was also the Hong Kong’s new Chief Executive Lee Ka-chiu sworn in. It’s like Prime Minister but for a city. Mr Lee was the only candidate nominated for the role. And of course he was elected and supported by the Central government without a doubt. Some side notes, during the election Lee’s YouTube account was blocked. I laughed very hard. Because that’s almost exactly the time when I joined the Fediverse. So, I might be able to teach our new Chief Executive about decentralization.
The last thing I want to say is that, as a peasant who can barely speak English, “I bid you farewell, Emperor”.
This is #Day29 of #100DaysToOffload.
Footnotes
- One country, two systems via Wikipedia. ↩︎
- Hong Kong Palace Museum by WestKowloon. ↩︎