Hong Kong remembers bloodiest violence 50 years on
HONG KONG: Hong Kong is unrecognisable now from the city which 50 years ago was the scene of bloody riots, fuelled by resentment of colonial rule and inspired by the Cultural Revolution unfolding in China.
But although memories of the bomb- strewn chaos of 1967 have faded, the city is facing a new era of turbulence as democracy activists take on Beijing and many ordinary residents still struggle to make ends meet.
What started as a labour dispute in an era of poverty and corruption, when many lived and worked in poor conditions, became largescale street battles fomented by the Chinese Communist Party.
The clashes between leftists and police lasted from May to December and left 51 dead, including five police officers.
Images from the time show bloodied residents, including women and children, and large groups of protesters facing off against police.
Luk Tak-shing, now 70, was jailed during the riots and remembers police swooping on the union building where he worked.
He says he was beaten, arrested and imprisoned for unlawful assembly as 40 union workers were rounded up.
Luk had been helping workers organise a strike and he says he saw himself as part of a patriotic movement against colonial power.
“These ethnic hostilities had taken root in my heart from a young age,” said Luk, who attended a communist-run leftist school where he learned about historic injustices and racial inequality.
“The scenes of police beatings infuriated me, even now when I recount them I’m very agitated,” Luk told AFP.
The riots followed the start of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ in China, which saw mass purges of government opponents, and followed similar unrest in Macau, then under Portuguese rule.
They began on May 6 when sacked workers attempted to prevent goods leaving an artificial flower factory and were arrested.
Clashes, strikes and more arrests were followed by bomb attacks across the city by protesters, including on tram stops and residential streets.
Calm was only restored in December, when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the rioting to stop.
Documentary maker Connie Lo, whosefilmabout theriots‘Vanished Archives’ is now showing in Hong Kong, described the scale of the violence as a watershed.
“After experiencing terrorism in the city, people saw the significance of having stability in life,” Lo said.
The violence was never repeated, and the city was eventually handed back to China by Britain in 1997, becoming semi-autonomous. —