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 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
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
Wee Kek Koon
Opinion

Opinion

Reflections by Wee Kek Koon

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

Wee Kek Koon
Wee Kek Koon

Updated: 11:58am, 16 Jan, 2020

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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 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
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
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