Author Zha Jianying says Hong Kong stands 'at a crossroads, confronting a crisis'
Author Zha Jianying reflects on complex sentiments over future direction
For author Zha Jianying, things in Hong Kong have become so complex that no words can truly convey the sentiment felt here.
The Beijing-born writer and contributor to magazine says something was different when she and her family returned last month for the first time since 2000, when she left after living in the city two years.
"The city remains modern and efficient even by Western standards. But after the handover and especially with China's economic take-off, I can feel things are not the same anymore," Zha told the in an exclusive interview ahead of her talk at the Book Fair, which opens today.
"It seems Hong Kong is now at a crossroads, confronting some degree of crisis in its next move," she said.
Zha was among the first batch of students who left the mainland to study overseas after the Cultural Revolution ended in the 1970s. She returned to China in 1987 and left again after the bloodshed of the Tiananmen Square crackdown two years later. The idealism among like-minded young intellectuals in the 1980s became the subject of her first book, published in 2006.
"The people profiled in my book were leaders in various cultural realms in those days, including poet Bei Dao, pop singer Cui Jian, film director Tian Zhuangzhuang … and they were all eager to contribute in their own way to a better tomorrow for the country," she said.
But the gunshots of 1989 shook them up and made many realise their ideals were no more than empty thoughts, and they have since gone separate ways in reflecting on China's future.
"China has undergone super-fast economic reform and super-slow political reform over the past 30 years, which is something beyond us," she said.
She says even the high hopes of many in the country's newly wealthy middle class could end in disappointment.
"We used to hope the new affluent class would come forward to defend their economic gains," she said.
"But they seem to indulge in their new wealth so much that they are not willing to give it up for a higher cause. That too is beyond us."
However, Zha, 55, who now divides her time between Beijing and New York, applauds China's openness in granting her the freedom to travel in and out of the country, despite the controversial subject matter of some of her work.
"My latest book, , is banned in China because of two chapters I previously published in . Even my friends were surprised I could still travel freely," she said.
"I am a cautious optimist, but I don't think I will see in my lifetime a China with freedom, democracy and justice like the rest of the world."
