Let's have less gloom and more of that Hong Kong 'can-do' spirit
Bernard Chan says city has many reasons to be proud and optimistic
On several occasions recently, friends and contacts of mine have asked a similar question: why is Hong Kong going through such dissatisfaction and gloom, when signs of our traditional "can-do" spirit are all around us?
Most of us can probably think of other examples. That can-do spirit is one reason why Hong Kong recently came top in Asia and seventh in the world in the Global Innovation Index survey. It is why Hong Kong's creative influence appears so much around the world in fashion, computer games, architecture and fields such as industrial and automotive design. On a day-to-day basis, probably hundreds of thousands of people face personal or professional challenges and overcome them; this city wouldn't have its success and energy otherwise.
Yet we are bombarded with negative ideas. The people who make the most noise seem to give us the most reasons to be depressed and to lose confidence. They tell us Hong Kong has no future because the mainland is overtaking (or taking over) us. They claim we are doomed to have problems with housing, or pollution or poverty. Some of them say the city is finished unless it can adopt their own favourite, specific model of constitutional reform, and no other.
The people who make the most noise seem to give us the most reasons to be depressed
I am aware that we face some serious problems, but I do not see the need for so much pessimism. The rapid development of the mainland means that the gap between Hong Kong and the rest of China is narrowing. But it is absurd to see that as a bad thing for us.