{"id":349,"date":"2009-06-03T13:38:51","date_gmt":"2009-06-03T17:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/?p=349"},"modified":"2009-06-03T13:38:51","modified_gmt":"2009-06-03T17:38:51","slug":"memories-of-hong-kong-mayjune-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/2009\/06\/03\/memories-of-hong-kong-mayjune-1989\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of Hong Kong May\/June 1989"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty years ago this week, I was in Hong Kong visiting a college friend. I arrived late in the evening on Saturday May 27th and flew home Sunday June 11th.<\/p>\n

Midway through my trip, on June 3rd & 4th, the Chinese government cracked down on the protesters in Tiananmen Square<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had a decent 35mm SLR camera, and took a fair amount of pictures during my stay, but the only four I can find at the moment are the ones on display in the downstairs bathroom. I’m sure the photo album is buried somewhere deep in the basement. I looked, but could be down there all day and still never find it. I have a husband who likes to move things.<\/p>\n

So, since I really should be writing a chapter for my marketing book, I decided to share some of the memories, and let you imagine the setting.<\/p>\n

My first full day was Sunday June 28th. My college friend and I joined the 1.5 million people who paraded through downtown Hong Kong in a Democracy Demonstration. There was (and still is ) a strong democracy movement in Hong Kong focused on retaining as many of the colony’s freedoms as possible following 1997 reunification.<\/p>\n

I still remember how to say “Down with Li Peng<\/a>” (Premier of the PRC)\u00a0 in Chinese although I wouldn’t even dare to try and spell it \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The balance of the first week was spent exploring different parts of Hong Kong. I have small memories as well as big ones. Breaking a heel on the way to the top of Victoria Peak and having to find a cobbler (which we did). Wandering around the different neighborhoods when I was on my own; my friend could only take some days off. Having lunch at the Vocational Technical Center Hotel School. Man Mo Temple. Shopping in a street market. Taking the ferry from Lantau Island, where my friend lived, to Hong Kong proper. The Star Ferry. Playing Pictionary with a group of my friend’s neighbors and colleagues.<\/p>\n

It was during that game of Pictionary that we saw the first news about the crackdown on CNN. And the world tilted just a little bit.<\/p>\n

After the crackdown, my plans for the second week changed. We cancelled a planned day trip to the mainland. Instead,\u00a0 I took a jetfoil to Macau on June 5th.\u00a0 On Wednesday June 7th, there was a General Strike in Hong Kong, and I remember just walking around, observing.\u00a0 I still have the scissors I bought to cut some cloth to make black armbands, but the armbands are long since gone. The week wrapped up with the Dragon Boat Festival (and I KNOW I took pictures of that) and souvenir shopping. Most of the rice bowls I bought have been broken, but I still have and use the chopsticks.<\/p>\n

Fittingly and almost a reflection of the mood, toward the end of the week, a major tropical storm approached the island, with warnings ranging from Signal 1 to Signal 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then I flew home — from the old Hong Kong airport. The one that was so close to the buildings you felt you could reach out and touch them as you landed.<\/p>\n

I would love to go back some day. See what Hong Kong is like post-reunification. See what it is like in more normal times. Certainly, many of my experiences were no, or not much,\u00a0 different than they would have been in quieter times.<\/p>\n

Yet, I can tell you — nothing was the same either. The events in Tiananmen Square changed Hong Kong the two weeks I was there. Hopeful, exuberant, defiant the first week. Somber, saddened but still defiant the second.<\/p>\n

That’s what I will remember the most about Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

It endures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty years ago this week, I was in Hong Kong visiting a college friend. I arrived late in the evening on Saturday May 27th and flew home Sunday June 11th. Midway through my trip, on June 3rd & 4th, the Chinese government cracked down on the protesters in Tiananmen Square. I had a decent 35mm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,55],"tags":[59,58,57],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}