Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on December 29, 2005 at 11:45:31 from 213.38.124.194 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Catriona's Start in China posted by John Nichols on December 23, 2005 at 01:24:26:
I count myself reasonably well acquainted with the history of Hong Kong and I do not recall significanty rioting in the 50's.
The main riots were the "Star Ferry riots" in 1966, triggered by a rise in fares on the ferry, and later, more extensive, rioting in 1967. Both outbreaks were really triggered by the Cultural Revolution.
The 1950's were a grim period, in which immigration from China was at its height (population of Hong Kong, 1945 - 250,000 - population today 6,750,000!) and most new arrivals were living in squatter camps as the Government dithered before deciding what to do. (It did the right thing, and embarked on one of the world's most sucessful public housing policies.) One may get some impression of conditions at the time from Richard Mason's "The World of Suzie Wong".
At much the same time, the British security services were concerned about inflitration of the New Territories where farming conditions were marginal; they encouraged New Territories farmers and their families to relocate to Britain and this movement formed the backbone of today's British Chinese population. As the example I cited earlier illustrates, there was no shortage of abandoned girl babies in Hong Kong at that time.
So the person who showed you the article really had no idea of what she was speaking of. Conditions in Hong Kong in the 50's were dreadful; most of the population were hungry, ill-clad, ill-fed and desperate. Nobody could doubt that those little girls did better by being adopted.
I have a friend who was adopted from Hong Kong at much the same time by an American family with rather grand New England antecedents. She is in all discernible cultural respects a very nicely brought up New England lady and has rather a good job with the US Government.
Nowadays, Hong Kong is richer than Britain in terms of GDP per head; there is no comparison.