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[text/author zhou xian]

october 1st is the founding of the people's republic of china and the 75th anniversary of the founding of new china. when the author wrote this article, preparations for the celebrations from all walks of life were in full swing, with everyone working together and making every effort.

since the handover in 1997, hong kong's two major annual events are the "july 1st handover day" and the "national day". the july 1st handover ceremony is usually held in hong kong, and on national day, hong kong’s top political and business leaders are most honored to be invited by the central government to attend the national day ceremony in beijing. those invited may think that this means they are valued by the central government. this honor deserves to be preached everywhere.

this year is the first national day after the completion of article 23 legislation, which is of great significance. therefore, the sar government and all sectors of society organized more than 400 activities, displaying more than 185,000 pieces of festive promotional materials, including national flags, regional flags, large banners, large stickers, posters, lamppost bunting, electronic screens, lighting, etc.

on the evening of september 30, the west kowloon cultural district held a chorus for the new generation to celebrate the national day, during which a record-breaking 2,099 drones performed. this number comes from 2024 + the 75th anniversary of the national day. on the morning of national day, the sar government held a flag-raising ceremony and national day reception, and that night there were large-scale fireworks displays on both sides of victoria harbor.

as people get older, they inevitably have more memories. seeing people happily preparing for the national day, we old hong kong people can't help but think of how we spent the national day in the past.

even after the founding of new china in 1949, if we only talk about hong kong, the kuomintang is still the strongest. in 1956, supporters of the kuomintang launched a large-scale riot. the main battlefield was in lei cheng uk estate. hong kong police and british troops stationed in hong kong were dispatched to suppress the riot, resulting in a tragedy of 59 deaths, 443 injuries, and more than 6,000 people being arrested. this was the most brutally suppressed riot in the history of hong kong, with the largest number of deaths.

ten years later, hong kong’s leftists also launched an “anti-british rebellion.” after that, the british hong kong government carried out a large-scale political reform. firstly, it allowed more chinese to join the governing class, such as becoming members of parliament and senior officials. secondly, starting from 1971, free education was implemented for six years. free, and then extended to nine years, taking the opportunity to start brainwashing from the baby.

after the "anti-british rebellion", because people sympathized with the left and hated the british hong kong government, the number of people enrolling in left-wing schools increased significantly. however, even though the tuition fees of leftist schools are cheap, they are still not as good as those of free government schools, and only a few students attend them.

our generation grew up in this atmosphere: chinese history is a compulsory subject, not much modern history is taught, and it is still the kuomintang’s view of history. regarding the history of the communist party, except for the xi’an incident and the five encirclement and suppression campaigns, basically nothing.

hong kong people's understanding of the mainland is mainly from period films, and their knowledge of the history of the republic of china is limited to "shanghai beach". huang zhan, the talented person who wrote the lyrics for this classic tv series theme song, was considered a knowledgeable person at the time. thirty years after he wrote the famous line "wandering, wandering", it was only then that he suddenly learned that "shanghai beach" the word "tan" refers to the "bund" and there are no waves. it is conceivable that this generation lacks basic knowledge about modern china.

until the 1980s, hong kong people were said to be "politically indifferent". everyone concentrated on making money, and when they made enough, they would "money" to the west. this was exactly the "brainwashing education" intended by the british hong kong government. don’t think that hong kong people only experienced a wave of immigration in 1982 when deng xiaoping publicly stated that he would take back hong kong. hong kong people have always had a tradition of immigrating to the west after making enough money. this is because many of the people in hong kong who have the ability to make big money are high-class chinese. that is the "fake foreign devil" described by lu xun's ah q. it is for this reason that the west describes hong kong as "borrowed time, borrowed place". it was only deng deng’s words and mrs. thatcher’s fall in 1982 that accelerated the immigration rate of that generation of hong kong people.

as mentioned before, the communist party’s historical view is only taught in left-wing schools. what is taught in ordinary schools and the standard answers in public examinations are all the kuomintang’s historical view. in middle school, i went to huaren academy, a catholic school. the person who taught chinese history was a veteran of the kuomintang.

in fact, the power of the kuomintang still existed after 1956. in 1994, the "one, two, three alliance" was established and a member of the legislative council, ren shanning, was elected. he did not step down until 1997. interestingly, his son's name is "yam liangxian". he once joined the "people's power" political organization "anti-china and chaos in hong kong" headed by huang yumin. he was a rising political star at the time and had many fans. soon, he turned against huang yumin and turned to the bright side to help the pro-china factions xie weijun and bai yunqin in the election. ren liangxian works in the financial industry and gave up politics long ago. in recent years, he has made his first pot of gold. he and i are good friends, and we often eat at the same table with ren shanning from time to time, but this old man no longer talks about politics.

the "sino-british joint declaration" was signed in 1984, and the return of 1997 became a definite reality. afterwards, the "national day" gradually became popular, and hong kong people's understanding of new china became increasingly deepened. however, backlash appeared in 1992. chris patten, a heavyweight politician who was defeated in the british election, came to hong kong and became the last governor of hong kong, determined to engage in confrontation with china. this is because after the collapse of the soviet union, political cooperation between china and the west changed. to avoid going too far, i will not go into details.

in short, the ideology of "hating china" was fanned by the last governor of hong kong and the "next media" group. on "national day" in hong kong, one side was full of patriotic enthusiasm, and the other side was cynicism. full of "haters of the kuomintang". after the handover, this kind of extreme differences in the "five heavens of ice and fire" has been exacerbated by the "next media" supported by the united states, as well as many political organizations that "anti-china and disrupt hong kong" such as the civic party, the democratic party, the journalists association, etc. under the fire, it became an irreconcilable and serious confrontation, which finally led to riots, suppression, and counter-violence from 2019 to 2020.

"chinese dragon and lion show" on the streets of central, hong kong to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the national day china news service

2019 was the year when the riots were at their most rampant. starting from september 25, the opposition launched "anti-china" demonstrations in hong kong and even in more than 20 countries and more than 60 cities around the world for many consecutive days. on september 29, 96 people were charged with rioting in hong kong.

on august 10, 2020, the national security division of the hong kong police force arrested jimmy lai, the founder of "next media", and some senior executives of "next media" on suspicion of violating the "hong kong national security law" and "colluding with foreign forces." the headlines of other newspapers on october 2 were mainly "thousands of police arrest 74 people."

it was only in the past two years that the headlines on october 1 and 2 were corrected and reported on the theme of "national day". in the blink of an eye, decades have passed. it has been 75 years since the founding of the people's republic of china. hong kong has finally successfully returned to china for the second time, and we have spent the great days of "national celebration" together.