Symbols of crown and colony have stood the test of time
Colonial landmarks have survived remarkably well in Hong Kong, historians said yesterday, even as authorities consider moves to shift the statue of King George VI in the botanical gardens.
The dumpy figure of Queen Victoria still sits in Victoria Park, the Legco dome retains its crown, the Noonday Gun fires daily - watched by many mainland tourists - and streets still honour past governors. 'I expected far more drastic changes than have happened since 1997,' historian Dan Waters said, adding the crown and the Tudor coat of arms still remained on the Legco building.
Political and public appetite for banishing such symbols has proved weak. In 1997, the Legco Commission, a panel of 11 members responsible for internal affairs, told the chief secretary's office they wished the two Legco symbols of British sovereignty to stay.
Historian Jason Wordie said: 'Most people, especially the great and the good in government, retain a fondness for these things. Many are quite Anglophile. The problem is small-time politicians such as district board members trying to prove how patriotic they are by doing things like trying to move King George VI.'
Some district councillors want to remove the colonial monarch's statue and replace it with one of Chinese revolutionary hero Sun Yat-sen.
Mr Wordie said over-zealous officialdom had sometimes led to items being replaced later.
'The badge of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps was removed from the gate of City Hall's gardens and was put back in 1998 by order of Tung Chee-hwa - the gardens were dedicated to the volunteers,' he said.
It was the invading Japanese during World War II who ensured there would be a dearth of British statues left for the Hong Kong government.
'They looted the Duke of Connaught, King George V and his wife Queen Mary, Edward VII and his wife Alexandra, the Hongkong Bank lions and Queen Victoria,' Dr Waters said.
Of these figures, the lions and Queen Victoria were later retrieved from a scrap yard in Osaka, Japan, with that of the bank's chief general manager Sir Thomas Jackson. He was reinstated in Statue Square, as were the lions to the bank. In 1953, Queen Victoria, previously in Statue Square, was re-homed in Victoria Park.
Visitors to the botanical gardens yesterday had mixed views on whether the King George VI statue should be moved.
Richard Ma Wei-hung, 28, a tourist from New Zealand, said: 'I think it's a good idea to move the statue. I think Sun Yat-sen is a more important figure. Nothing lasts forever. I believe in change in order to make progress.'
Financial adviser Odilia Mo Mun-yi, 43, said the statue should remain. 'It is part of our history. It's not like when we got Hong Kong back after Japanese occupation, [when] we had to reverse the changes they made. We returned to China peacefully.'
Graphic: BRIT11GET
