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In the summer of 2008 Hong Kong became one of the six co-hosting cities of the Beijing Olympics. Amid the Olympics euphoria, it was clear that the international spotlight belonged to Beijing, and the equestrian events held in Hong Kong were the least popular sport in the city. However, Hong Kong was the only Chinese city where visible protests were allowed during the torch relay.

In many ways Hong Kong has benefited from closer ties with the mainland. The growth in Hong Kong’s tourism would have been impossible without the influx of mainland tourists, and the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement signed with the mainland government in 2003 provided favourable business opportunities to Hong Kong’s investors and industries.

But closer ties with the mainland have often been met with uneasy feelings. In September 2008 melamine-tainted milk products imported from the mainland were found in Hong Kong. This scandal once again reminded Hong Kong people that there are good reasons why Hong Kong should never become a Chinese city, at least not now. But might history one day identify an equal and opposite reaction going on, too? Hong Kong’s dazzling success and core values arguably exert ‘soft’ power that influences thinking on the mainland. It might be hard to measure, but in the enclave that sheltered and inspired the fathers of powerful mainland movements (Sun Yat-sen and Zhou Enlai), it should not be dismissed.

Yearnings for democracy and the economy aside, more than 10 years on from the handover, most Hong Kong people are proud to say they are citizens of the SAR as well, crucially, as subjects of China, however confusing and problematic that dual identity might sometimes seem.

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ARTS

Hong Kong’s arts scene is more vibrant than its reputation suggests. There are musical ensembles of all persuasions, an assortment of theatre groups, Chinese and modern dance troupes, and numerous art organisations. A number of new venues have emerged in recent years. Government funds allow organisers to bring in top international performers, and the number of international arts festivals hosted here seems to grow each year. Chinese opera performances can be seen in both formal settings and on the street.

That said, the government could do a lot more to nurture local art, in particular: Chinese opera, which Hong Kong – thanks to historical and cultural reasons – is better positioned than anywhere else to develop; and local literature, which has been marginalised by a cultural policy favouring performance arts, especially those with a higher entertainment value.

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CINEMA

Once the ‘Hollywood of the Far East’, Hong Kong was for decades the third-largest motion-picture industry in the world (after Mumbai and Hollywood) and the second-largest exporter. Now it produces only a few dozen films each year, down from well over 200 in the early ’90s, and up to half of all local films go directly to video format. Yet Hong Kong film continues to play an important role on the world stage as it searches for a new identity in the Greater China market.

Martial Arts

Hong Kong cinema became known to the West when a former child actor appeared as a sinewy hero in a kung fu film. But before Bruce Lee unleashed his high-pitched war cry in The Big Boss (1971), the kung fu genre was alive and kicking. The Wong Fei-hung series, featuring the adventures of a folk hero, has been named by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-running cinema serial dedicated to one man, with roughly a hundred episodes made from 1949 to 1970 alone. The works of the signature directors of the period – Chang Cheh, whose macho aesthetics seduced Quentin Tarantino, and King Hu, who favoured a more refined style of combat – continue to influence films today. The ’70s also saw the start of another trend spearheaded by actor-director-screenwriter Michael Hui, who produced comedies satirising the realities and dreams of Hong Kong people. Games Gamblers Play (1974) was the highest