Transcend This
5 October 2015
Word has it that Hongkong Post, the government-owned mail service and local courier business, is planning to vandalise parts of HK's historical legacy by covering up royal insignia on the remaining cast-iron colonial post boxes in Hong Kong, in the name of "decolonisation". Now, while Webb-site is no fan of monarchies, this flies in the face of efforts to preserve what is left of HK's history, and if Government continues along these lines, the next stage will involve removing other traces of the colony such as renaming Queen's Road, King's Road, Queensway, Upper and Lower Albert Roads and all the streets named after governors and colonial officials. Perhaps the only reason they haven't tried that already is the cost and confusion involved for businesses having to reprint all their stationery and notify counterparties of their new address.
The newly-reopened Court of Final Appeal building, now back where the Supreme Court used to reside, has another piece of colonial history prominently displayed in the gable above the main entrance. It features the lion, unicorn and coat of arms of the United Kingdom. On either side are the letters "E R", presumably referring to Edward VII, who died in 1910, the year the building was erected.
So will that be covered up too? Perhaps they could cover it with a portrait of our Dear Leader, reminding us, in the words of Zhang Xiaoming, Director of the Central Government's HK Liaison Office, that the Chief Executive "transcends" the judicial, legislative and executive branches of Government. Not if Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma has any say over the matter though.
Update
Apparently Penang, Malaysia, has no hang-ups about preserving the colonial-era post boxes, which are a tourist attraction. There are also several that have seen better days in the old British Mandate of Palestine in Jerusalem and some in Malta and Cyprus.
© Webb-site.com, 2015
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