Many ingredients have combined to create the Hong Kong magic – economic dynamism and cultural creativity among them. Now an open question exists as to whether it can be sustained.
Many ingredients have combined, like fine cuisine, to create what I call the magic of Hong Kong – the economic dynamism and cultural creativity that has sustained an allure to rival that of Paris or New York. Now an open question exists as to whether this Hong Kong magic can survive. I write this, by the way, as someone with a long-standing personal connection to Hong Kong, rather than as a sinologist or political scientist. My purpose here is not to analyze current confrontations, but rather to illuminate what is at stake.
Without a doubt, Hong Kong has been an engine of wealth creation with few equals. Recent statistics reveal it to be a city with the largest number of skyscrapers, the most super-rich residents, the world’s 10th largest volume of imports and exports, the 7th largest stock exchange. And it is a city historically blessed with a disproportionate amount of poetry as anyone can attest who has taken the Star Ferry at dusk, eaten local food, strolled the many shopping arcades and inhaled all the while the sweet perfume of money.
But where did this magic come from? First, a bit of potted history. What we might call Hong Kong 1.0 began with the first Opium War in which China’s loss led to the dawn of the British colonial era in 1842. Hong Kong 2.0 dates from the 1997 handover to the People’s Republic of China, which was based on the principle of “one country two systems” for 50 years to follow.
