112 | March• 2018
HONG KONG REVISITED
water and public transport. It ranked
71st among 231 cities for quality of
life – higher than the 11 other Chi-
nese cities included.
Theoutlookforpressfreedomis
lessencouraging:aReportersWith-
out Borders (RWB) survey shows
Hong Kong has slipped from 18th
in 2002 to 73rd today (China ranked
176th.)RWBcitesgrowingdifficulty
in covering sensitive stories about
Hong Kong’s government and main-
land China, and finds “extremely dis-
turbing”thepurchaseofHongKong
media by Chinese companies such as
Internet giant Alibaba.
Politically, Hong Kong residents
use their right to protest when they
perceive China to be overreach-
ing. In late 2014, thousands took to
thestreetsinaprotestdubbedthe
Umbrella Movement when Beijing
insisted on vetting candidates for
chiefexecutive.Chinagotitsway.
Anothertriggerforprotestshasbeen
tourism from mainland China. Before
1997 most visitors came from Japan
andTaiwan,butwhenBeijingrelaxed
itsrulesintheearly2000s,thenum-
ber of mainland visitors jumped from
about seven million per year in 2002 to
awhopping43millionby2016.
Forsomelocals,that’stoomany;
they say the visitors are rude and
loud. And they blame mainlanders
for the scarcity of such necessities as
baby formula and medicines.
Indeed,whenJuleswenttobuy
shaving cream, he was mystifieddegree of freedom in Hong Kong on
a day-to-day basis remains very high.”
We’llhearasimilaropinionovera
lunchofdimsuminKowloon,where
we’reheadingnowontheStarFerry.
It’s been chugging across Victoria
Harboursince1888.It’sashortwalk
to Serenade Chinese Restaurant; it’s
vast,withhugewindowsoverlooking
the harbour.
There we meet my longtime friend
JunkoWatanabe.WithherareRon-
nie and Jennifer Ho, retired teachers
intheirlate50swhohavejustmoved
back from Boston to their home city
after23years.Overbamboobaskets
ofhar gau(s t e a me d s h r i mp) a ndsiu
mai(pork dumplings) and an order
ofyi mein(egg noodles), Ronnie and
Jennifertellusthey’redelightedto
behome.“Wehaven’tnoticedmany
changesindailylife,”Ronniesays.
TheirparentsfledpovertyinChina
for colonial Hong Kong at a young
age. Ronnie’s father encouraged
thecoupletoemigratebefore1997.
“OurparentsknewChinawastobe
feared,”saysJennifer.The1989Tian-
anmenSquaremassacreinfluenced
theirdecisiontoleave.Theyreturned
to Hong Kong to be back among fam-
ily. Says Ronnie, “We’re too old to
worry about politics now.”
CLEARLY, HONG KONGis thriving. In
arecentsurveyoftheworld’scities
by consulting firm Mercer, it ranked
sixthforinfrastructure,whichin-
cludes such criteria as drinking