China's first astronaut returned to Earth a national hero and, although Hong Kong is feting Yang Liwei (
Yang will press the flesh and take the stage with local Canto-pop singers as he tours Hong Kong in his first public appearances since he orbited the planet 14 times.
PHOTO: AFP
Beijing hopes Yang's visit will instill Hong Kong with a bit of the patriotism it has lacked since the handover from British sovereignty six years ago, but that may be a bit of a stretch. Many Hong Kongers remain leery of China, and many who watched Yang go into space basically shrugged it off.
"It's nothing new -- America did it years ago," said David Choi, a 51-year-old Hong Kong businessman.
Unlike their adoring counterparts in China who have seen Yang glorified in state-run media, many Hong Kongers don't seem to muster much affection for Yang or his trip to the territory.
"It's just a gimmick," said Fion Ho, 39, an accounting clerk.
"I won't feel anything just because of his visit," said 29-year-old Stanley Tong, who owns a photo processing shop.
China hopes to melt the ice with a people-friendly itinerary that includes meetings with students and an appearance with local pop stars Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒)and Joey Yung. Yang was set to fly in late yesterday and stay through Wednesday.
While local attitudes toward China's regime have softened, Hong Kong people are still coming to terms with their nationalistic sentiments, said Michael DeGolyer, a political scientist who's been conducting polls on the subject.
That's even true of some people who welcome Yang as a hero.
Retiree Joseph Lau called Yang's flight in the Shenzhou 5 space capsule "the pride of all Chinese." But Lau admits he's a little less proud of the country he left in 1937.
"Everything has improved" in China since then, said the 73-year-old former telegraph worker, but he still harbors doubts.
"I didn't have a sense of country before," Lau said. "Now I'm gradually developing it."
Some people attribute a lack of affection for the motherland to Beijing's choice of the man to lead Hong Kong, the unpopular Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
"I've always liked Britain better," said Irene Au, a 21-year-old university student. "The economy was in better shape under the British."
As for Yang's space mission, she said she thought it was "blown out of proportion."
Pro-Beijing figures charge that Tung's government has done too little to encourage patriotism.
"National identity is not an electrical switch you can just turn on, but we're not even laying the groundwork here," said Ma Lik, a delegate to China's National People's Congress and a leader with the territory's top pro-Beijing political party.
Ma called Yang's visit a good start, but he said patriotism should be promoted more systematically from childhood.
Ma believes singing the national anthem and raising the Chinese flag should be mandatory in the territory's schools.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
‘TOXIC CLIMATE’: ‘I don’t really recognize Labour anymore... The idea that you can implement far-right ideas in order to stop the far right is nonsense,’ a protester said Tens of thousands of people on Saturday marched through central London to protest against the far right, weeks ahead of local elections and six months after Britain saw one of its largest far-right demonstrations. Organized by hundreds of civic groups, including trade unions, anti-racism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, Saturday’s Together Alliance event was billed as the biggest in UK history to counter right-wing extremism. A separate pro-Palestinian march had also converged with the main rally. While organizers claimed 500,000 had turned out in total, the police gave a figure of about 50,000. Protesters carrying placards with slogans such as
RSS