Introduction

In the words of Mr Tung Chee Hwa, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), “Hong Kong opened a new chapter in history” on 1 July 1997 (Tung, 1997a). Hong Kong was reunited with China after more than 150 years of British colonial rule and began a new identity of being China's first special administrative region. According to the Joint Declaration signed by the British and Chinese governments in 1984, the Hong Kong SAR will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all its domestic management, yet China will be responsible for its foreign and defence affairs. Under the concept of ‘one country, two systems’, the Basic Law provides a constitutional framework whereby Hong Kong is allowed to preserve its capitalist system and lifestyle, which are different from those of mainland China.

The framework provided by the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law is a blueprint for change, but at the same time it is an assurance of preservation. On the one hand, it governs the change of sovereignty and, perhaps to a certain extent, the way in which Hong Kong is to be administered. On the other hand, however, it also stipulates the continuation of the capitalist system, its distributive machinery and, above all, the status quo. Paradoxically, the momentous historical event of resuming national sovereignty seems to rely mainly on the reproduction of the previous colonial rule. For example, in addressing an international audience two months before the handover, the then Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong Government maintained publicly that continuity was the key to Hong Kong's future, and that Hong Kong was to continue in virtually the same way after the handover to China (Chan, 1997a). Likewise, the Chief Executive himself also made a number of similar reassurances on different important occasions that it would be ‘business as usual’ in Hong Kong after the establishment of the SAR (Tung, 1997b; 1997c).

However, it was important for the new SAR government and the Chief Executive himself to establish their own identity and legitimacy by distancing themselves from former colonial rule. The urgent need for a new identity and a new legitimacy was voiced by the Chief Executive in his first policy address: “Hong Kong has finally broken free from the psychological constraints brought about by the colonial era” (Tung, 1997d, p 1).