Straw man.
No-one is saying that HK should remove all reference to the British. Just those British individuals who showed explicit racism toward HK people.
The etymology of place names is valid. Naming major streets after unapologetic racists not so much. I'm not saying to rename everything - just the most egregious examples.
If you can't see the difference, you need a little help. by the way, you don't need to make up silly stuff. It's easy to find examples all over the world. Many northern Canadian cities have been renamed in Inuktitut to reflect the local population. Frobisher Bay to Iqaluit for example. The same goes in Quebec which I already mentioned. Taiwan long ago shed its Formosa name linked to Portugal. Countless examples in India, let's pick Madras to Chennai for fun... There's a petition with 70 000 + names to entirely drop New Zealand to Aotearoa, both names are currently on the passport. Long ago Mt McKinley in the US was renamed Denali once again honoring local culture and reflecting reality. It's also being done a lot in South Africa, lets take East London to King Phalo Airport. t Bottom line is this: Do names of parks, themes, streets, stadiums, airports etc.. resonate and represent the people and the current reality in whatever place? In many cases like HK, the answer is no or not enough and local or national authorities have taken action. This is not new, not at all original and the countless examples are far more compelling than stupid what ifs that don't apply to the situation. There are plenty of precedents and it seems like a step that HK will and should make eventually just as it has been done in many, many, many other places.
Last edited by DonDiego; 14-11-2022 at 04:11 AM.
That's the problem with 'decolonization' in Hong Kong. It will not be about returning power to the natives, the people of Hong Kong. It is simply a matter of switching to another 'winner'. With no say in the matter and an unfamiliar culture imposed on them, the natives pretty much remain colonial subjects.
This is my main issue as well. People keep telling the Hong Kong people what they should want (including some people in this forum). You can't fix 156 years of a colony imposing things on people by further imposing things on people and rewriting their history books.
Hilarious...faced with the evidence that this process is everywhere and ongoing now switching tack to making assumptions about what will be done, who would actually do it and how before it's even started. Talk about being biased...My view is that the idea is absolutely current and relevant as demonstrated by countless examples and it is certainly not stupid as some of you were hinting. IF indeed it was unduly influenced by the motherland then it's totally arbitrary to say it would be better or worse than it is now BUT if it's done OK with some consultation then it's definitely an improvement. I have done an informal poll with local friends and ALL of them would appreciate seeing some change if it reflected their culture and history though not all at one as it would create some confusion. In any case, there are at least 1 million mainlanders now in HK and it will keep growing and the population of British citizen will keep declining so it is inevitable that it will happen at some point and for better or for worse, it will better represent HK's reality. Plenty of people oppose these changes everywhere because some have attachment to the past but the present catches up and things change. Yugoslavia, the USSR, Czechoslovakia all gone, Stalingrad and Leningrad are no more and all over the Eastern Bloc, changes have been made to reflect the new realities. Bet some of you cheered some of those changes since they suit your bias better...
If the locals are up for it then go for it.. seriously. I'm guessing you're hk local and Junius Ho is hk local and I'm totally not a hk local which makes my opinion on the matter irrelevant. It's not a general opinion on should ex-colonies rename to increase local pride, what have other countries done, is this in line w the trend. This ideally shouldn't be relevant at all. When I don't like doing something, telling me the whole world has already done it and it's standard stuff doesn't work at all, feels even worse when the something is local pride.
So it is less of an opinion and just how I feel abt this specific context. I feel crap as a resident and crap for the hk ppl discussing a possible rename like this BUT if the locals are cool with it..
I just much prefer for what I see as the real HK pride and self esteem in the long term if ppl were talking abt this leisurely and not under possible stress that they first need to express some positive sentiment on the idea, and deciding that dismissing the suggestion completely might not work so let's pre-empt the scenario of having to adopt one or more mainland chinese name that we don't want but can't reject for fear of getting in trouble w nsl by going full fledge HK pride and brand new anti-colonial history and insist on all HK names up front, being the perceived safe and legit reason that they can say to avoid adopting mainland chinese names.