THE South China Morning Post today brings itself into line with mainstream modern usage and adopts the style of writing Hong Kong as two separate words.
We realise some traditional readers will choke over their newspaper this morning. There will be, however, many readers, equally convinced it is they who are the purists, whose breakfasts will be improved by the experience.
This is a radical change. On November 6, 1903 HONGKONG appeared, as one word in capitals, on the front of our first edition. It has stayed there since. We have been in good company. Many of Hong Kong's most venerable institutions retain the single-word usage. But they are in the minority.
That is not itself a good reason for change. But there are many. First, where the eye is drawn by the single word, the tongue is tempted to follow, stressing the first syllable in the American or Mandarin manner. Yet Hong Kong is the Englishman's mispronunciation of a Cantonese name. In both British English and the local Chinese dialect, the two syllables are stressed more or less equally. Such considerations may appear anachronistic when this British territory is about to be handed back to Mandarin-speaking Beijing. But this is also a matter of self-confidence and identity.
There is also the matter of confusion. How often do people find themselves writing both versions on one envelope, addressed (for instance) to Hongkong Telecom or Hongkong Electric, GPO, Hong Kong? The Hong Kong Government originally used the single word, but long ago switched to two. In both local and Chinese government usage, Hong Kong is now the territory's official name. That is how we shall write it, too.