History of Hong Kong

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This article is part of the
History of Hong Kong series
Timeline
Years

Prehistory
Imperial China
First contacts with the West
Opium Wars
    First Opium War
    Second Opium War
British colony (pre-war)
    Founding of crown colony
    Early 20th century
    Battle of Hong Kong
Japanese occupation
British colony (post-war)
    1950s | 60s | 70s | 80s | 90s
    Transition to PRC rule
After 1997

Economic history
Military history
Aviation history

This article details the history of Hong Kong.

Contents

Prehistory

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According to archaeological studies and many other resources, human activity in Hong Kong dates back over five millennia. Excavated Neolithic artifacts suggest a difference from northern Chinese Stone-Age cultures, including the Longshan. Bronze fishing and combat tools were excavated on Lantau Island and Lamma Island. Eight stone carvings (on Tung Lung Island, Kau Sai Chau, Po Toi Island, Cheung Chau, Shek Pik (石壁) on Lantau Island, Wong Chuk Hang (黃竹坑) and Big Wave Bay on Hong Kong Island, Lung Ha Wan (龍蝦灣) in Sai Kung) have been found so far; all are believed to date back to the Bronze Age during the Shang Dynasty on weather-related worship. Excavations in the 1930s have been dated between the 6th century BC and the 3rd century BC and suggested to be culturally related to those in neighboring modern day Guangdong during the Warring States Period.

Imperial China

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The territory has been settled by Han Chinese since the Han Dynasty. The ancient tomb at Lei Cheng Uk has been commonly linked to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Hong Kong's history during Three Kingdoms, Southern and Northern Dynasties is less known owing to the lack of records and archaeological findings. A statue at the Castle Peak Monastery is said to illustrate a Buddhist itinerant monk of the Southern dynasties.

Guangzhou flourished as an international trading center during the Tang Dynasty. The so-called "Tuen Mun area" (which can be thought of as the area from Lantau Island to Dongguan in Guangdong) served as an outer port, naval base, salt production and anchorage area. Pearl has been exploited since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Still, no significant residence occurred until major migrations from other parts of China to Hong Kong during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Salt production was stepped up under state apparatuses. This is evidenced by excavations of coins, fishery and farming utensils. All this was reduced by Mongolian conquest to a mere anchorage for the exiled Song government which controlled the area of present day Kowloon City.

In 1276, the Southern Song Dynasty court left for Fujian, then to Guangdong by boat, fleeing Mongol invaders after the surrender of Emperor Gong of Song China in Hangzhou. Any hope of resistance rested in two young princes, who were Emperor Gong's brothers. The older boy, Zhao Shi was declared emperor at age nine, and in 1277, the imperial court sought refuge first in Silvermine Bay (Mui Wo) on Lantau Island and later in today's Kowloon City (see Sung Wong Toi). The older brother became ill and died, and was succeeded by the younger, Zhao Bing, aged seven. When in 1279 the Song army was defeated in its last battle, the Battle of Yamen, against the Mongols in the Pearl River Delta, a high official is said to have taken the boy emperor in his arms and jumped from a clifftop into the sea, drowning both of them. These emperors are also believed to have held court in the Tung Chung valley, which takes its name from a local hero who gave up his life for the emperor. Hau Wong, an official from this court, is still revered as a god in Hong Kong.

The Mongolian conquest of the Song Dynasty pushed even more Han Chinese refugees into the area including the descendants of the Chinese patriotic leader Wen Tianxiang. The five families of Hau (Hou, 候), Tang (Deng, 鄧), Pang (Peng, 彭) and Liu (Liao, 廖) and Man (Wen, 文) were claimed to be among the earliest recorded familial settlers of Hong Kong. Despite the immigration and light development of agriculture, the area was still relatively barren and had to rely on salt, pearl and fishery trades.

First contacts with the West and Hong Kong during the Ming and Qing dynasties

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Hong Kong also features in the first contact of organized western merchants with China. When the Portuguese merchant Fernao Pires de Andrade met Chinese officials through an interpreter at Pearl River estuary in 1517 to negotiate trade with Canton (Guangzhou), the sailors landed at a so-called "Tuen Mun Island" and killed some local villagers. This "Tuen Mun island" and village has been interpreted as proof of the maritime trading decline of the aforementioned "Tuen Mun area". Kowloon first appeared in a military text of the Jiajing era. A map of Hong Kong of the Wanli era recorded names of places including Hong Kong Island, Wong Nai Chong, Stanley and Tsim Sha Tsui.

During the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong was governed under Xin'an County (新安縣 pinyin xin1 an1 xian4). Forts, garrisons and outposts, including:

  • Tung Lung Fort: Built from 1719-1724 on the Tung Lung Island during the Kangxi era after the defeat of the Koxinga Administration in Taiwan. It comprised of guardhouses and cannon. The fort was abandoned in 1810 when its personnel moved to another fort at the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula. Tung Ling was declared a historical site in 1977 and restored in 1988.
  • Tung Chung Fort: Also known as Tung Chung Suocheng or Tung Chung Battalion, the fort was built by the Qing government in 1832. It was used as Imperial Chinese naval headquarters of the Right Battalion of Dapeng. Taken over by the British in 1898 and became a police station and Wa Ying College. It is now the Rural Committee Office and the Public Primary School of Tung Chung
  • Fan Lau Fort: Built in 1729 during 7th year of Yongzheng and one of two forts on Lantau Island. The fort was abandoned in 1898 and ruins restored between 1985-1990.
  • Kowloon Walled City Fortress built by the Qing government in 1847 and remained during the early British rule of Hong Kong. Parts of the Walled City used to build Kai Tak Airport during the 1940s, it was finally torn down in 1993.
  • Tung Chung Battery built in 1817 and served along with Tung Chung Fort by the Chinese to defend Chinese Hong Kong prior to British control of the region.

There were conflicts, and even small scale wars, between Puntis and Hakkas as a result of the Taiping Rebellion.

East India Company

The British East India Company made the first successful British sea venture to China in 1699, and Hong Kong's trade with British merchants developed rapidly soon after. In 1711, the Company established a trading post in Canton (Guangzhou).

British colony

Main article: Colonial Hong Kong

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After a series of Chinese defeats during the First Opium War (1839-1842) at the hands of Capt. Charles Elliot of the Royal Navy and Capt. Anthony Blaxland Stransham of the Royal Marines, Hong Kong Island was occupied by the British on January 20, 1841. The ostensible authority for the occupation was negotiated between Captain Eliot and the Governor of Kwangtung Province. The Convention of Chuenpeh was concluded but had not been recognized by the court of Qing Dynasty at Beijing.

Subsequently, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking, at which point in time the territory became a Crown Colony.

The Opium War was ostensibly fought to liberalize trade to China. With a base in Hong Kong, British traders, opium dealers, and merchants launched the city which would become the 'free trade' nexus of the East. American opium traders and merchant bankers soon joined in the trade (See Russell family; Perkins family; Forbes family).

Britain was granted a perpetual lease on the Kowloon Peninsula under the 1860 Convention of Beijing, which formally ended hostilities in the Second Opium War (1856-1858).

During the 1890s, an epidemic of bubonic plague broke out in southern China. In the spring of 1894, about 100,000 dead were reported from Guangzhou. In May 1894, the disease erupted in Hong Kong's overcrowded Chinese quarter of Tai Ping Shan. At its height, the epidemic was killing 100 people per day in Hong Kong, and it killed a total of 2,552 people that year. The disease was greatly detrimental to trade and produced a temporary exodus of 100,000 Chinese from the colony. Plague continued to be a problem in the territory for the next 30 years. 1,290 people died of the disease between 1898 and 1900.

In 1898, the United Kingdom, concerned that Hong Kong could not be defended unless surrounding areas were also under British control, executed a 99-year lease of the New Territories, significantly expanding the size of the Hong Kong colony. The lease would expire at midnight, on June 30, 1997.

In 1914, despite an exodus of 60,000 Chinese fearing an attack on the colony after the World War I, Hong Kong's population begins its evermore claustrophobic climb - to 530,000 in 1916, 725,000 in 1925 and 1.6 million by 1941.

In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, Hong Kong developed into a warehousing and distribution center for U.K. trade with southern China.

World War II

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

The development of Hong Kong was disturbed by the Japanese rule during World War II.

The British, Canadians, Indians and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defense Forces resisted the Japanese invasion commanded by Sakai Takashi which started on December 8, 1941, a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor (which stated earlier the same morning at 03:23 Japan Standard Time). The defensive positions were doomed from the start; the Japanese achieved air superiority on the first day of battle and the defensive forces were outnumbered. The British and the Indians retreated from the Gin Drinker's Line and consequently from Kowloon under heavy aerial bombardment and artillery barrage. Fierce fighting continued on Hong Kong Island; the only reservoir was lost. Canadian Winnipeg Grenadiers fought at the crucial Wong Nai Chong Gap that secured the passage between downtown and the secluded southern parts of the island.

On December 25, 1941 - which has gone down in history as Black Christmas to locals - British colonial officials headed by the Governor of Hong Kong Mark Aitchison Young surrendered in person at the Japanese headquarters on the third floor of (the hotel) The Peninsula Hong Kong. Isogai Rensuke became the first Japanese governor of Hong Kong. This ushered in the three years and eight months of Imperial Japanese administration. The Chinese population who lived through the Japanese occupation simply refer to this period as "Three Years and Eight Months" (san nian ling ba ge yue, 三年零八個月).

During the Japanese occupation, runaway inflation and food rationing became the norm of daily lives. The Hong Kong Dollar was replaced by the Japanese Military Yen, a new currency issued by the Japanese Imperial Army administration. Historians estimate that as many as 10,000 women were raped in the first few days after Hong Kong's capture. The Japanese administration turned the city into a military base, summarily executing many residents suspected of opposing them. According to Philip Snow, a prominent historian of the period, the Japanese cut rations for civilians to conserve food for soldiers, usually to starvation levels and deported many to famine- and disease-ridden areas of the mainland, and even dumped some on barren islands. Most of the repatriated actually had come to Hong Kong just a few years earlier to fled the terror of the Sino-Japanese War happening in the Mainland.

By the end of the war in 1945, the population of Hong Kong shrunk to 600,000, less than half of the pre-war population of 1.6 million.

Post-War period

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After the end of World War II and the communist takeover of mainland China in 1949, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated from mainland China to Hong Kong, which had been an important entrepôt. However its position declined greatly after the United Nations ordered a trade embargo against the People's Republic of China as a result of the Korean War. Luckily, some of the new immigrants brought with them skills and capital, while others became a vast pool of cheap labour. At the same time, many foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong. This helped Hong Kong achieve its first economic successes and become a major manufacturing centre.

However, despite the economic success, many employers did not treat their employees well. The ideal of communism impressed many young Hongkongers in the 1960s. In May, 1967, a labour movement under the influence of the Cultural Revolution in the PRC became violent. Riots followed in the next six months. A famous radio host, Lam Bun (林彬), who openly criticised the movement, was murdered. Leftist agitators in Hong Kong resorted to terrorist attacks by planting real and fake bombs around the city. After the Hong Kong government brought down the labour movement, the communists' web in Hong Kong was broken and the Hongkongers' view of the communists became negative. (Refer to Hong Kong 1967 riots)

In 1974, Murray McLehose founded ICAC, the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The situation was so bad that there was a mass petition by policemen against prosecutions. Despite early police opposition to the ICAC, Hong Kong was quite successful in its anti-corruption efforts, eventually becoming one of the least corrupt societies in the world.

The opening of the mainland Chinese market and rising salaries drove many manufacturers north. Hong Kong transformed into a commercial and tourism centre. High life expectancy, literacy, per capita income and other socioeconomic measures attest to Hong Kong's achievements over the last four decades of the 20th Century.

Transition to PRC rule

Main article: Transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong

In 1982, fifteen years before the lease on the New Territories would expire, the governments of the UK and the PRC began talks on the future of Hong Kong. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, hoped that the increasing openness of the PRC government and the economic reforms on the mainland would lead the PRC to agree to a continued British presence. On the contrary, not only did the PRC want to see the New Territories returned to Chinese control (with the PRC as the successor to Qing and the ROC) but it refused to recognise the unfair and unequal Treaties under which Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had been ceded to Britain in perpetuity. The PRC did not recognise British sovereignty in Hong Kong, only its administration.

In fact, a decade earlier on November 8, 1972, the 27th United Nations General Assembly had adopted a resolution affirming PRC's stand and demands on the issue of Hong Kong. In a letter to the chairman of the UN Committee on Decolonization in March 1972, Huang Hua, the PRC permanent representative to the United Nations wrote that 'Hong Kong and Macau are parts of the Chinese territory occupied by the British and Portuguese authorities. To solve Hong Kong and Macau issues is completely within the sphere of the PRC's sovereign rights, as a successor to Qing and the ROC. It does not at all fall into the general category of the so-called "colony"'. He added that 'China will use peaceful means to resolve the Hong Kong and Macau issues when the conditions become ripe. The status quo will be kept until the settlement.'

Regardless of the competing claims for sovereignty, the PRC's 'paramount leader' Deng Xiaoping recognised that Hong Kong, with its free market economy, could not be assimilated into the People's Republic overnight and that any attempt to do so would not be in the interests of either. He advocated a far more pragmatic approach known as the One Country, Two Systems policy in which Hong Kong (as well as Macau, and proposed to Taiwan) would be able to retain their economic systems within the PRC.

On December 19, 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong (The Joint Declaration) was signed between the PRC and UK Governments. Under this agreement, Hong Kong would cease to be a British Crown Colony from July 1 1997 and would henceforth be a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC. Hongkongers opposing the handover led to the first wave of emigration. The Governor, Sir Edward Youde, died in 1987, and was replaced by Sir David Wilson.

On May 27 1989, 1,500,000 Hongkongers marched for the topic of "Love and democraticize our country."(愛國民主). On June 4, 1989, one million Hongkongers marched in support of the Beijing students in the Tian'anmen Square protests of 1989. After the suppression of the protests, Hongkongers were polarised into two groups, the pro-Beijing who supported the suppression and the pro-democratic who opposed it. The unpleasant feelings led to the second and largest wave of emigration. Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the United States emerged as the favourite emigration destinations. Richmond, British Columbia gained the nickname "New Chinatown".

On April 4, 1990, the Hong Kong Basic Law was officially accepted as the mini-constitution of the Hong Kong SAR after the handover. The pro-Beijing bloc welcomed the Basic Law, calling it the most democratic legal system to ever exist in the PRC. The pro-democratic bloc criticized it as not democratic enough.

In July 1992, Chris Patten was appointed as the last British Governor of Hong Kong. Patten had been Chairman of the Conservative Party in the UK until he lost his parliamentary seat in the general election earlier that year. He was the only professional politician to hold the post of Governor of Hong Kong, his predecessors having been from the diplomatic service. By contrast, Patten had little knowledge or experience about Hong Kong or China, and spoke neither Mandarin Chinese nor the local Cantonese spoken variant.

Relations with the PRC government in Beijing became increasingly strained, as Patten introduced democratic reforms that increased the number of elected members in the Legislative Council. This caused considerable annoyance to the PRC, which saw this as a breach of the Basic Law. (See Politics of Hong Kong.)

On July 1, 1997 Hong Kong was handed over to the People's Republic of China by the United Kingdom. The old Legislative Council, elected under Chris Patten's reforms, was replaced by the Provisional Legislative Council elected by a selection committee which members are appointed by the PRC government. Tung Chee Hwa, elected in December by a selection committee which members are appointed by the PRC government, assumed duty as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

Some of the changes were purely symbolic:

  • All public offices now flew the flags of the PRC and the Hong Kong SAR. The Union Jack now flies only outside the British Consulate-General and other British premises.
  • More (but not all) schools would now teach in Cantonese with textbooks written in Chinese, and in parallel to English. English is still an official language (see Hong Kong Basic Law) and is still being taught in all schools. This has been quite contoversial, since such a change may cause a decline in the level of English in Hong Kong.
  • Queen Elizabeth II's portrait disappeared from banknotes, postage stamps and public offices. As of 2005, many pre-1997 coins and some banknotes are still in circulation.
  • The 'Royal' title was dropped from almost all organisations that had been granted it, with the exception of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.
  • Legal references to the 'Crown' were replaced by references to the 'State', and barristers who had been appointed Queen's Counsel would now be known as Senior Counsel.
  • Public holidays changed, with the Queen's Official Birthday and other British-inspired occasions being replaced by PRC National Day and Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day.

In other respects, many things remained unchanged:

  • The new SAR remained a separate jurisdiction, continuing to use English common law.
  • The border with the mainland continued to be patrolled as before.
  • It remained a separate customs territory, with freer trade with the rest of the world than with the mainland.
  • It retained most immigration controls to foreign countries, except politically related visa applications. Similarly, Hong Kong SAR passport holders had easier access to countries in Europe and North America, while mainland citizens did not. Note that the citizens in mainland China can only apply for a visa to Hong Kong from the PRC Government; the same practice executed before and after 1997. Many former colonial citizens can still use British National (Overseas) passport after 1997. (Main article: British nationality law)
  • It continued to have more political freedoms than the mainland China, including freedom of the press (although this became vulnerable to self-censorship) and freedom of expression.
  • Electric plugs (BS1363), TV transmissions (PAL-I) and many other technical standards from the United Kingdom are still utilised in Hong Kong. However, telephone companies ceased installing British Standard BS 6312 telephone sockets in Hong Kong. (Main article: Technical standards in colonial Hong Kong)
  • Hong Kong, unlike mainland China, continues to drive on the left.

Hong Kong since 1997

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In 1998, another election was held. The real estate market, a key component of the Hong Kong economy, went into free-fall due to increasing governmental interventions on private ownership as well as housing supplies and partially as a consequence of the Asian financial crisis.

In 2003, concerns about the proposed anti-subversion bill that would have eroded freedom of the press, of religion and of association arising from Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 and the unpopularity of Tung Chee Hwa and his officials, plus dissatisfaction about the poor state of the economy, prompted 500,000 people to march on July 1, making it the largest protest aimed at mainland China ever in the history of Hong Kong, and the largest since the 1989 Tian'anmen Protest. The legislation was overturned as a result of the public outcry.

In March 10, 2005, chief executive Tung Chee-hwa resigned as the chief executive. Tung's position has been filled, after a by-election with only one qualifed candidate, by the No. 2 ranking official, the Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, a popular bow tie-wearing career civil servant who was educated at Harvard and received a knighthood for his service during British colonial rule.

For more details about the political situation, see Politics of Hong Kong.

See also

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Life in
Hong Kong

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External links and references

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