Peter Kammerer

Hong Kong’s fortune is slipping out of its hands – that’s the message of its historic protests

In a Year of the Pig where change has been foretold, the sight of hundreds of thousands on the streets brings home the message that mainland encroachment on Hong Kong’s way of life is real and unlikely to be reversed

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Protesters clash with police officers on Friday at the Central harbourfront site that, hours later, was handed over to the PLA for use. Photo: Dickson Lee

Peter Kammerer

Published: 6:30am, 2 Jul 2019Updated: 6:30am, 2 Jul 2019

Feng shui, like religion, is not something I’ve ever taken too seriously. But in the midst of the Year of the Pig, which is said to be about changes, I’m starting to be a believer.

In mere months, all that is wrong with Hong Kong has been exposed and laid bare, that most politically incorrect of terms – creeping mainlandisation – to blame. There’s a hard reality for those anti-government protesters: try as you might, there’s no turning back.

A wild boar on a Kennedy Town street put it all into perspective for me. It may seem a simple enough event; Hong Kong’s development is encroaching on habitats and it’s inevitable that these creatures will seek out new food sources.

But the animal was as unfamiliar with its surroundings as people were startled to see it and a fracas erupted when it went into a subway station. In the scuffle, it got wounded and a woman was hurt. Using feng shui and throwing in some Cantonese slang gives this a highly symbolic meaning.

The name “Kennedy” in Cantonese is pronounced Kin Lei Dei, which sounds like the slang term for not down to earth or far removed from reality. It came to prominence after former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah called himself middle class, despite having a lifestyle far beyond, leading to him being described as “far from the ground middle class”. Those out of touch with reality, government officials among them, have since come to be mockingly known by the same name as the district.

Nor is a bleeding boar good, in part because African swine fever is rife, but mainly due to this being a pig year.