XIANGGANG CANGSANG, XU PIAN: BAINIAN FENGYUN
{GREAT CHANGES IN HONG KONG, PREFACE: ONE HUNDRED
YEARS OF CONFLICT} {MANDARIN CHINESE} (TV)
Summary
The first of two programs on this tape. The Preface to
a documentary chronicling the debates over the last 150
years about Hong Kong between the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and the People's Republic of China. The
program includes historical footage of key
British/Chinese meetings on Hong Kong and interviews
with senior officials from China, Britain, and Hong
Kong, as well as additional comments from historians
and business leaders. The program opens with footage
featuring British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and
Deng Xiaoping on December 19, 1984, at the signing of
the historic "Joint Declaration" between the two
governments, finalizing an agreement that would return
Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty beginning July 1, 1997.
The program next deals with arguments that Hong Kong
is historically Chinese territory, beginning at an
excavation site. Deng Cong, Director of the Hong Kong
Chinese University Anthropology Studies Center, argues
that artifacts over 6000 years old unearthed in Hong
Kong bear a resemblance to artifacts found in China.
Deng Zhiliang, President of Xinjie Jingtian Town
Affairs, and other local residents testify that their
ancestors settled in the area as early as the Chinese
Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) A brief account of the
origins of the so-called Hong Kong question follows
focusing on the nineteenth-century treaties forced upon
the Chinese by the British in the wake of the Opium Wars
that resulted in the British colonial takeover of Hong
Kong; accounts of Chinese resistance to British rule
through large-scale demonstrations, namely the Xinjie
People's Wuzhuang (Armed Protest) Against the British,
the Hong Kong Sea Merchants Strike, and the Shenggang
Big Strike, include some footage. World War II-era
footage accompanies discussion of the Japanese
occupation of Hong Kong that kept it out of British
hands for three years, and the failure after the war of
both Chiang Kai-shek and the newly established
Communist Party to regain possession. In subsequent
meetings between the Chinese and the British, the
Chinese maintained that Hong Kong was Chinese territory
and not a British colony; clips show the 1954 meeting
between China's Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai and UK
Foreign Minister Anthony Eden in Geneva, as well as the
1974 meeting between China's President Mao Zedong and
UK Prime Minister Edward Heath. After China re-joined
the United Nations in 1970 it managed to revoke the
colonial status of Hong Kong and Macao; then Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Hua speaks of this significant
victory and the program includes footage of Chinese
participation in the UN at the time. Next, the program
emphasizes the cultural and social ties between China
and Hong Kong, showing clips of the following: the 1950
visit by the Beijing Opera Company, the 1970 visit by
the world famous Chinese ping-pong team, as well as the
Chinese exchange of water and food throughout the years.
Renowned Hong Kong businessmen and scholars,
including Huifeng Bank Executive Board Member Zheng
Haiquan and Changjiang Enterprises President Li Jiacheng
as well as Wang Gengwu, the former president of Hong
Kong University, discuss Hong Kong's historical economic
ties to and even dependence on China. The program then
reviews continuing cultural ties between Hong Kong and
China, including the dominance of the Chinese language
in Hong Kong (despite English being its official
language); the well-known Hong Kong actress Shen
Dianxia, pictured with her daughter, discusses the
importance of maintaining the Chinese language. The
program returns to the historical timeline with footage
of the 1979 meeting between China's President Deng
Xiaoping and Hong Kong Governor Murray MacLehose, and
the introduction of the key "One Country with Two
Systems" idea. Footage of Deng Xiaoping's inconclusive
1982 meeting with Margaret Thatcher, where the UK
insisted Hong Kong should become an independent
democratic country and China insisted on its return to
China, is also shown. Next, Hong Kong newspaper
publisher Zhou Nan, 1982 UK Ambassador to China
Anthony Galsworthy, and Chinese Congress Hong
Kong-Macao Affairs Deputy Chair Li Hou, discuss how the
deadlock was finally resolved in a series of 22 meetings
from July to September 1984, with some accompanying
footage of the meetings. Additional footage of the 1984
"Joint Declaration" signing with Thatcher and Deng
Xiaoping follows. The program next covers the long
process of writing the "Jibenfa," the basic law for Hong
Kong that would guarantee the "two systems," that
finally passed in April 1990; this portion includes the
former Hong Kong Congresswoman Fan-Xu Litai's
discussion of how the Jibenfa gives the Hong Kong people
more democratic rights than the British ever did. A
montage of footage from the early 1990's details the
general success of the agreement, noting only minor
setbacks, and highlighting events like the 1991
agreement to build the new Hong Kong International
Airport and meetings between the Chinese government
and high-level Hong Kong officials. Footage from the
early 1990's includes UK Prime Minister John Major and
Jiang Zemin. The preface program ends with footage of a
speech by Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the Hong
Kong transfer ceremony in 1997; Jiang remarks on the
significance of the settlement of the Hong Kong Question
and the implications for future settlement of both the
Macao Question and the Taiwan Question.
This program is in Mandarin Chinese. While the
narration is not subtitled, interviews in various
Chinese dialects (Cantonese, Mandarin, Wu, and Xiang),
English, and Japanese are all subtitled in Simplified
Chinese.)
Cataloging of this program was made possible by Sun TV,
2002.
Details
- NETWORK: CCTV (China)
- DATE: November 30, 1999
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:70827.001
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: China - History -- 19th century; China - History -- 20th century; China - History -- Foreign intervention; Hong Kong; International Collection - China
- SERIES RUN: CCTV (China) - TV series
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Su Daqing … Producer
- Xu Pu … Managing Producer
- Zhou Zhengtian … Director, Writer
- Wu Mingxun … Director, Writer
- Zhang Ou … Director, Writer
- Wang Kanghong … Director, Writer
- Tian Jun … Director, Writer
- Liu Zhouquan … Director , Writer
- Jiang Ruojin … Director , Writer
- Zhou Zhentian … Writing (Misc.), Senior Editor
- Yu Dan … Writing (Misc.), Editor
- Liu Weiguang … Music by
- Guo Rongrong … Music (Misc. Credits), Music Editor
- Central Orchestra … Symphony Orchestra
- Li Yong … Narrator
- Beijing Opera Company
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Deng Cong
- Deng Xiaoping
- Deng Zhiliang
- Anthony Eden
- Fan-Xu Litai
- Anthony Galsworthy
- Edward Heath
- Jiang Zemin
- Li Hou
- Li Jiacheng
- Murray MacLehose
- John Major
- Mao Zedong
- Shen Dianxia
- Margaret Thatcher
- Wang Gengwu
- Wang Hua
- Zheng Haiquan
- Zhou Enlai
- Zhou Nan