A plan by Hongkong Post to cover the British royal insignia on historic postboxes has local Anglophiles up in arms.
The post office said it was "inappropriate" to display the insignia on 59 historic postboxes that came into use during the colonial period.
But heritage fans have dismissed the rationale, saying it's really a deliberate attempt to suppress part of old local culture.
Some suspect the decision wasn't even made by Hongkong Post, but by people even higher up within the government. One reason for the suspicion is that the post office has traditionally been friendly to traditional postboxes that are still in service.
Back in 2010, it even repaired an old King George V postbox on Lamma Island after conservation activists objected to its removal. Officials have left alone those politically incorrect postboxes since the 1997 handover, so why are they suddenly "inappropriate"?
My own suspicion - though I have no proof - is that it's the government's revenge against people who protest while waving British colonial flags. Mainland honchos have repeatedly expressed dismay at the sight of such protests and pointed to the colonial mentality that has failed to be properly "decolonised".