HONG KONG: AFTER THE HANDOVER (2016 - 2017)
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is marking 20 years in 2017 since the territory was handed from Britain to China, after more than 150 years of British rule, as the handover on July 1, 1997, had been viewed with a mixture of uncertainty and hope. The territory's economy has seen benefits from the closer links to China since the handover although social and political tensions have been brewing over the last two decades. Hong Kongers have developed a stronger sense of identity, which is also been defined by anti-mainland sentiments, and that led to the Umbrella protests of late 2014.
Hong Kong, was promised “50 years of changelessness”—a transformative and unique indicator for its transition. Every day since the handover, society has been infiltrated with minute changes that cannot expressed, ranging from the development of hardware, to the rise and fall of ideologies. Instead of outlining history, this work aims to document transitions in different facets of society, from singing "God Save the Queen" (the national anthem of British Hong Kong) to humming "people are slaves no more" (lyrics from the Chinese national anthem); from being old migrants to becoming new Hongkongers; and from making money as property agents to gaining power as rural landlords.
This project produced with the support of WYNG Foundation