Last but not least, because of the long period of time of the control for the United Kingdom, Hong Kong itself has formed a community of a mixture of workers, working in electronic factories and other factories. Graduates from around the world such as Thailand, Singapore and European countries are willing to work in Hong Kong, contributing their intellectual and scientific knowledge to the city.
What’s more, in the fastest changing world, the western imperial powers have not only had impacts on the colonies’ scientific development. On the contrary, they have infiltrated the colonies with western scientific knowledge and western ideology, which has been co constituted with colonialism. (Suman Seth, 3)
Now, it has been widely acknowledged that the notions of democracy of people in mainland China and people in Hong Kong are in the dramatic contrast. First, the way the government rules its own people are different too. Within mainland China, the Peking government, which is a group of communism party members, has been ruling the common citizens. Most of the media of negative information are blocked in mainland China, most people are taught to obey the government and not to question the firm ruling of Peking government. Students in mainland China had been taught to put the benefit of the whole group and the whole nation as their priority. However, in Hong Kong, citizens are more aware of their individual rights, their chances to protest against the Hong Kong administration while the equal rights cannot be realized. Students in Hong Kong are taught with the western values and the western notion of democracy. That is because Hong Kong’s history has been greatly influenced by its colonial administration. (John Mark Carroll, 6) before the nineteen seventies, Officials and people who government the Hong Kong island were chosen from the British colonial service. Therefore, these people who made Hong Kong’s policies and wrote Hong Kong’s textbooks were from the western world. That explains the reason why students in the 1970s, who are the same generation of our parents are more proud of themselves believing in the western values. What’s more, during the 1960s, Hong Kong had got a group of colonial “retreads”. (John Mark Carroll, 6) This group of colonial “retreads” was consisting of the second generation colonial officials who were allocated from the recently independent British colonies and dependencies in other places such as the South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Simply put, since the time, the officials who were ruling and educating citizens in Hong Kong are from other colonized world which was taught with the western ideology from the Great British.
Right now, Hong Kong is one of the most international cities. By international, it means the Hong Kong city is always ready to welcome any new culture from around the world like Africa, South America and even Japan. I firmly believe that it is because of the new officials allocated in Hong Kong in the 1960s that results in the international mindset of modern Hong Kong right now.
To compare with the mainland China and Hong Kong island right now in the twenty first century, there is an obvious contrast that most places in China except for the coastal cities like Guang Zhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen, are not ready to embrace foreign culture. The majority of the cities in mainland China were not only not open minded. What is worst, the citizens in those areas have been rejecting foreigners. The reason why modern Hong Kong becomes such a prosperous international city but the majority of cities in China are still resisting foreign comers and suffering from poor economy is because of the different administrations in the 1960s. It has already been mentioned in the previous paragraph that during the nineteen sixties, Hong Kong had embraced various officials and governors from places that had also been colonized by the Great Britain, such as the Middle East and Africa. Therefore, during the time when new electronic technology and new ideologies were raising up, Hong Kong took a large step onto the international stage. Its people also gladly embraced the various mix of culture within the island. On the contrary, during this period of time, it was the darkest moment in mainland China. The officials and leaders in the central government made serious mistakes in terms of economy, politics and culture. During that time, foreigners were despised and looked down upon in China. Students were taught that any incoming culture was evil. What’s worse, when the world and Hong Kong was busy encouraging young people to be creative and busy inventing new electronic devices, the students in mainland China were occupied with reciting Chairman’s diaries and sentences. Besides, in great contrast, intellectuals were punished and everyone was forced to grow crops. In terms of culture, during that time when people in the western world began to realize the importance of democracy, equal rights and even homosexuality, Hong Kong government wisely let the new culture get inside Hong Kong, therefore, youngsters in Hong Kong grew up knowing various cultural ideologies from different countries and being taught with the western value of getting equal right, free love and sexual liberation. On the contrary, students in mainland are forced to get rid of any material that contains the western values. English language was no longer taught. What is worse, government was forcing its own people to believe in the old and out-dated traditional culture of China. As a result, the modern Hong Kong now becomes the most outstanding city in China with the most forward-minded people.
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