How the Hong Kong cenotaph rose to the post-war occasion, albeit slowly
- Plans for a cenotaph in the colony were announced in March 1920, several months after Shanghai’s ‘very excellent plan’
- Reporting on its official unveiling in 1923, the Post called it ‘an ominous challenge to tyranny and selfishness, rising starkly to the sky’
On January 9, 1920, the South China Morning Post reported on the decision of the Shanghai War Memorial Committee to erect a cenotaph and questioned why Hong Kong had not yet done so. “It would be a lasting disgrace to this British Colony if it allowed the years to slip by without commemorating in some worthy and permanent way the four years of noble sacrifice which have ensured its freedom,” the writer opined.
“The War Memorial Scheme Committee seems to have departed this vale of tears,” lamented a February 26 Post article. “It is many months, at least, since there was any sign of activity on its part [...] Meantime the war is slipping further away from us.”
Returning to Shanghai’s cenotaph, the story continued, “Let us agree in the first place that this is a very excellent plan [...] But I should like to see the Colony go one better.”
On March 17, the Post reported it was “decided unanimously that the War Memorial should take the form of a simple and dignified cenotaph on ‘the finest site’”.
“Nearly five years have passed since the great war drama ended on the battlefields of Europe,” stated a Post article on May 25, 1923, the day after the monument’s official unveiling in Statue Square.