Dear Mr. Know-It-All,
What’s with all these confusing one-word road names? “Queensway,” “Broadway,” “Glenealy,” “Smithfield”… it just doesn’t make sense! — Road Rager
The answer, Road Rager, is “Colonialism.” What else did you expect? These names all come from the British convention of just calling a road whatever the hell you want to call it, and damn the consequences. After all, when you’re in the habit of arriving in places and taking over, you’ve got to give everything a name. Otherwise, how do they know that (against all appearances) you actually own it?
“Smithfield” in Kennedy Town was named after its counterpart in London. London’s Smithfield is an area best known for its wholesale meat market, and it’s recently become home to trendy young twentysomethings and a whole bunch of cool restaurants. Smithfield in Hong Kong, on the other hand, used to be best known for the Kennedy Town slaughterhouse. It’s recently become home to trendy young twentysomethings, and a whole bunch of cool restaurants. What’s in a name? Gentrification, apparently.
On the subject of naming, “Smithfield” has even more to teach students of nomenclature and people with nothing better to do with their time. In 2007 the Lands Department suggested renaming “Smithfield” to “Smithfield Road” in order to bring it into line with the rest of the city (and naming conventions). Of course, there were the expected complaints from traditionalists and historians. The government decided on a simple course of action: they only changed the Chinese name of the road. Smithfield is Smithfield in English, and Smithfield Road in Chinese.
In doing so, the Government might have borrowed a trick from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Coming up to the Handover, all the “Royal” clubs in Hong Kong were in a tizzy. No queen; no royal. What can you do? Reluctantly and surely, the clubs all ditched their regal pretentions. All but the RHKYC, whose members stubbornly argued that they were Royal then—and By God Sir, they’d be Royal henceforth. Pandemonium erupted, until one member stood up and suggested: why not just drop the “Royal” from the Chinese name?
An elegant piece of diplomacy, you’ll agree. And so the Hong Kong Yacht Club sails into the future: but the RHKYC will never set on the British Empire.