Hong Kong History (1950-1990)

50s in Hong Kong
Skills and capital brought by refugees of Mainland China, notably from Shanghai, together with a huge pool of inexpensive labour helped revive the market. Enjoying unprecedented increase, Hong Kong would transform from a territory of entrepot trade to one of sector and production. The early industrial centres, where most of the workers spent the majority of their days, turned out anything that could possibly be generated with small area from buttons, artificial flowers, umbrellas, textile, enamelware, footwear to plastics.

Large squatter camps produced through the land providing residences for the huge and growing number of immigrants. The camps, however, posed a fire and health hazard, leading to disasters like the Shek Kip Mei fire. Governor Alexander Grantham responded with a “multi storey buildings” strategy as a regular. It was the beginning of the high-rise buildings. Conditions in public housing were quite basic with different households sharing communal cooking facilities. As traditional Cantonese opera gave way to giant screen cinemas other features of life would change. The tourism industry would begin to formalise. North Stage was known as “Little Shanghai” (), because in the minds of many, it has become the replacement for the surrendered Shanghai in China.

60s in Hong Kong
The manufacturing business opened a new decade utilizing substantial segments of the inhabitants. The period is considered a turning point for Hong Kong’s market. The building business would also be revamped with new detailed guidelines for the very first time since World War II. The textile industry would be used by it as the basis to boost the economy, while Hong Kong started off with a low GDP.
China’s ethnic revolution would put Hong Kong on a new political phase. Activities like the 1967 riot would fill the streets with homemade bombs and madness. Bomb disposal experts from the authorities as well as the British military defused as many as 8,000 home-made bombs. One in every eight bombs were genuine.

Family values and Chinese custom could be challenged like never before as people spent more time within the factories than in the home. Other features of the period contained water shortages, long working hours coupled with incredibly low wages. Amidst all the struggle, “Made in Hong-kong” went from a label that marked cheap lowgrade products into a label that marked high-quality products.

70s in Hong-kong
The ’70s found the extension of government subsidised training from six years to nine years and the setup of Hong Kong’s country parks system.

The opening of the mainland Chinese marketplace and increasing wages drove many manufacturers north. Hong-kong consolidated its position as a commercial and tourism centre in the SouthEast Asia region. High-life expectancy, literacy, percapita income and other socioeconomic measures attest to Hong Kong’s achievements throughout the past four decades of the twentieth Century. Higher-income also led to the introduction of the leading private housing estates with Taikoo Shing. The time saw a growth in residential high rises, several of the people’s homes became a part of Hong Kong’s skyline and scene.

In 1974, Murray McLehose founded ICAC, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, as a way to fight corruption within the police force. The size of corruption was so widespread that a mass cops petition took place resisting prosecutions. Despite early opposition to the ICAC by the police force, Hong Kong was effective in its anticorruption efforts, finally becoming one of the least tainted societies on the planet.

80s in Hong-kong
In 1982, the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, expected that the increasing receptiveness of the PRC authorities and the economic reform in the mainland would permit the continuation of British rule. The meeting led to the signing of Sino British Joint Declaration along with the proposition of the One country, two systems concept by Deng Xiaoping. Political news dominated the media, while a major upswing was taken by real estate. The economic world would also be rattled by panics, leading to waves of policy adjustments and Black Saturday. Meanwhile Hong-kong was now recognised as among the representatives of the china. At the same time, the warnings of the 1997 handover increased emigration numbers to historic highs. Many would leave Hong-kong for great Britain, the Usa, Canada, Australia, and any other location without communist influence.

Hong Kong’s Cinema would have one overriding run that could place it on the global map. Some of the greatest names contained Jackie Chan and Chow Yunfat. The music world also noticed a fresh group of canto-pop stars like Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung. But everything appeared to get overshadowed by means of an uncertainty of the future.

1990s in Hong Kong and Transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong

The pro democratic bloc criticised it as not democratic enough. Patten was Chairman of the Conservative Party within the UK until he lost his parliamentary seat in the general election earlier that year. Relations with the PRC authorities in Beijing became increasingly strained, as Patten introduced democratic reforms that raised the amount of elected members in the Legislative Council. On 1 July 1997 Hong Kong was handed over to the People’s Republic of China by the Uk. The old Legislative Council, elected under Chris Patten’s reforms, was replaced by the Provisional Legislative Council elected by a selection committee whose members were appointed by the PRC authorities.

Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hong_Kong