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A reawakening sense of identity

Like people, cities have ups and downs that defy logic. Most observers would agree that Hong Kong was knocked flat after 1997 by an unholy combination of regional and global financial crises, poor governance and self-absorption. The city's decline and fall has been trumpeted by pundits. It hardly seems possible that Hong Kong could get its groove back. But if I am not mistaken, its identity, missing for the last seven years, is in the process of being found.

The old identity, of course, was the Hong Kong of taipans and tycoons, with a British potentate genially overseeing the market melee, more like an investment banker than a governor-general. Hong Kong bore the benign imprint of British imperialism, with multiple cultures living in close proximity but mingling little. The common denominator, and measure of success, was money. With a few exceptions, expatriates commanded the social heights, Chinese were immigrants, the arts were imported and politics happened a long, long way away, in London.

Beijing, when it resumed sovereignty of the territory, had every reason to believe the system would keep on ticking with a few changes, such as a Chinese chief executive. But Hong Kong's new sense of self has been growing like kudzu vines in a wild mountain valley, sending out exploratory shoots here, there and everywhere. The new Hong Kong is Chinese, tolerant and political, although a bit of a lightweight when it comes to such things as the arts, creative design and deep thinking. Maybe Hong Kong, like a Honolulu with skyscrapers, is simply too rich in physical beauty to nurture the dark mental spaces inhabited by artists. Or perhaps it is just a matter of time before the artists, writers, creative designers and people of the mind take root here.

Admittedly, the evidence for cultural transformation is tenuous, composed of snatches of conversation, images from the media, and a look in people's eyes. New entities such as the Hong Kong Development Forum provide one benchmark. Hong Kong's senior businesspeople are staging political debates with democrats, trade union leaders and others. Many of the same businesspeople would not have been caught dead talking politics a few years ago.

Another bellwether is the sudden popularity of public meetings on issues ranging from governance and constitutional reform to the future of Victoria Harbour. These may be little more than talk-shops, but they have captured an intangible but valuable result of the Sars tragedy.

In the crisis, Hong Kong's government started to listen to the public. The emerging phenomenon of civic activism has had its costs. It caught Beijing by surprise, and has been responsible for the sudden rush of tough-sounding official interpretations of the Basic Law, pompous Xinhua statements and ugly threats against outspoken media personalities. Yet the central government seems to have caught on quickly that Hong Kong's is not simply an economic malady, and that the cure requires structural and social change.

Besides these surface indicators, there is a new-found dignity, based on the good faith and civility of last year's pro-democracy march on July 1, and its positive outcomes, which have included a new dialogue between Hong Kong's previously ostracised democrats and Beijing.

Best of all, Hong Kong seems to be defining its values along the lines of tolerance and diversity. Not long ago, I was sitting with a Chinese friend overlooking the tennis courts at the Ladies Recreation Club on Old Peak Road, once a bastion of British female snobbery. My Chinese friend looked around and saw, not an expatriate haven, but a pleasing environment for people of all races. Others may not yet have that vision, or rose-tinted glasses, but surely it is coming.

Edith Terry is a writer based in Hong Kong

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