A worker cleans up one of the guardian lions at the HSBC headquarters, in Central, after it was vandalised during a protest on New Year’s Day. Photo: Nora Tam
Opinion
Opinion
Reflections
HSBC’s guardian lions are a Chinese cultural tradition, but the animals were not native to East Asia, so where did they come from?
The Chinese probably made first contact with the big cats during the Han period, when the empire expanded into Central Asia
A worker cleans up one of the guardian lions at the HSBC headquarters, in Central, after it was vandalised during a protest on New Year’s Day. Photo: Nora Tam