Outside In | The stifling of Hong Kong’s once unstoppable aspirations

In the early 1980s as I sweated through the chaotic corrugated iron squatter shanties up above Sham Shui Po, or pawed through the dark, damp grotto we called Kowloon City, I would always marvel at two things: first, how could families living in such primitive circumstances walk out every morning with their children in crisp ironed shirts and shorts? And second, why were these communities not railing against the excesses of the local rich, and clamouring for a more even distribution of wealth, unemployment benefits, and minimum wages?

Local friends always explained that Hong Kong was an aspirational society. We may have arrived poor, but with hard work, we can become rich. If we invest in our children’s education, we and our families will be rewarded in due course. These were the days when Li Ka-shing was “superman”, and his rags to riches story front of mind for thousands of Hong Kong’s immigrant poor.

Today, those squatter shanties – and the Kowloon Walled City – are long gone, but why is the mood today so changed for the worse? Why the glowering political standoffs? Why the Occupy movement? Why the clamour for standard working hours and a minimum wage? Even more serious, why has business become a dirty word, seemingly synonymous with corruption, and perceptions of collusive back-room deals with government officials?

The first and most obvious answer is that Hong Kong has gone through a terrible couple of decades – and despite the predispositions of international journalists and some local politicos, this cannot be blamed on the 1997 change of sovereignty. From the Asian Financial Crisis through the dotcom crash and on to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003 and the 2008 global crash, Hong Kong has seen nearly two decades of wage deflation while property prices have roared off over the horizon.

Since 2008, other economies worldwide have begun to feel similar angst-creating adversity, and the grim consequences of this are already clear in Trump, in Brexit, in Marine Le Pen, and so on.