The Dragon and the Crown: Hong Kong Memoirs

Preface

As a third-generation Hongkonger, my life and family fortune have been inexorably tied to the fate of the former British colony during the past century. We were wedged between the East and the West — the Dragon and the Crown. I was born, in 1925, into a banking family steeped in Chinese culture and tradition, but I studied at King’s College under the British colonial system. I served as an army interpreter during the war, liaising between the Nationalist Chinese and American forces in southwest China. After the war, I worked for a British firm, then the American Consulate General and finally, back to my roots, a local Chinese bank — Hang Seng Bank — where, as head of the research department, I launched the Hang Seng Index and witnessed the dramatic ups and downs of the Hong Kong economy. As Chinese in Hong Kong, we benefit from easy access to both China and the West, but we are also the passive subjects, and sometimes victims, of international agreements. Many of my generation felt deep humiliation at the cession of Hong Kong to Britain after the Opium War, but we benefited from the stability and prosperity of the colony. All of us should have celebrated when Britain handed back Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, but many greeted the occasion with feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. We have all been deeply affected by developments in China and, as a result, our lives have taken very different directions. Our patriotic feelings for China soared during the Anti-Japanese War, but our reactions to the Communist takeover in 1949 were mixed. My two younger brothers and some of my friends and relatives went back to China to join the revolution, but others emigrated and settled overseas. Still others came to Hong Kong in search of a better life and stayed, contributing to the colony’s prosperity. I myself stayed in Hong Kong until 1984, when I retired and emigrated to Canada. I have tried to look back on my life and explore the contradictions and dilemmas that we faced in Hong Kong, as well as the social, economic and political forces which shaped our destinies. It is my hope that this can contribute Preface xii The Dragon and the Crown to the discussion on Hong Kong identity and our understanding of where we came from and where we are going. This memoir was written primarily from my own memories, observations and reflections, and supplemented by our own research and personal interviews. The authors are solely responsible for any errors. Stanley Kwan ...