Thursday 11 October 2007

Hong Kong


Earlier on this year I went away to Hong Kong and Australia with my parents to meet my brother, who was then living in Australia. I have always enjoyed travelling, but was especially looking forward to seeing Hong Kong due to it's Chinese heritage (despite being more commonly thought of as a British colony). However, when I got to Hong Kong I was a little disappointed, it really was a bustling city and I could barely move in the streets. It was something else, though, I felt as if the whole place really had been entirely Anglicised, and even the Chinese people living in the city (who were in the majority) still dressed in Western clothing labels and supported Britsh Football teams and American Baseball teams!

The pinnacle of these feelings occurred when I sat down to watch the nightly Festival of Lights show, which involves the main corporate buildings on Hong Kong island revealing that they have been equipped with searchlights, neon lights and lasers! The introduction came on in English first, then Mandarin, further showing the extent to which Western culture had infiltrated a country so far in the East. After watching the show, I wrote this poem, which documents how I felt upset that a country once so rich in culture, was now attempting to emulate that of Europe and America, rather than preserving it's own. I even felt angry at England for initially forcing our beliefs upon Hong Kong just because at the time the English were one of the dominant world powers.

I believe that the frustration comes through the poem in the language. I chose to use free verse rather than a set structure to give me a little more freedom to write, partly due to influences from modern British poets I was reading at the time (Hugo William, Simon Armitage). Do not, though, let me give you the impression that I did not like Hong Kong! I was disappointed from one perspective only, and apart from that the city is a vibrant metropolis, and I strongly urge anyone who has an opportunity to visit.

RIWC

P.S. This photo is not taken from Jack Stevens's portfolio, it is instead a photo that I feel perfectly captures the light show and is therefore most appropriate for this poem!

Hong Kong Festival of Lights March 30th 2007

An angry Sun
Crashes into the
Big Blue Drink.

Artificial lights
Turn to fight off
The onset of swollen clouds

As bullets of water
Fly towards city people,
Targeted.

But who are these
People? Faces contrast
With country –

And the landscape
Swells with disgust
Against the abhorrent buildings.

Thousands of miles
East, people who fit
Their culture sit

Around dining room tables,
As tourists observe
The deceased, and the

Reborn. But places
Can never be reborn,
They alter and

Change, without
Hope of redemption.
Of finding

Who they once
Were. Of finding what is now –
Lost.

1 comment:

Featheronawire Sally Bramald said...

What's happened? I was enjoyed your posts.