The top minds in the Chinese construction and architecture industry inspired the audience in Hong Kong with their life stories on the expertise needed to realize their dream of dotting the landscape of the nation with the masterpieces showcased in the exhibition of Chinese architecture achievements. The “woos” and “wows” among the audience, most of which were from university students majoring in construction-related disciplines, indicated that the state is winning the hearts of youths in a city that remains a battlefield of ideologies between China and the hostile anti-China forces in the West.
The city of resilience and resourcefulness should waste no time in joining its booming sister cities in the Greater Bay Area. It needs cultural richness to shape its future of inclusiveness and aesthetic beauty; the people in Hong Kong deserve a livable and lovable city in which to enjoy their lives, rather than being workaholics struggling to purchase unaffordable tiny flats that they call "home"
Evoking a sense of national pride demands concerted efforts, and the conviction of minds takes time. While some naysayers in the city are spawning skepticism to reduce public trust in the central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, the robust economic figures, including its strength in finance, have outperformed most of the world cities in The Economist’s “normalcy index”, a scale that measures how well countries and regions have returned to normal pre-pandemic activity. Hong Kong, with a score of 96 percent, tops 50 leading cities across the world in the race to restore economic vitality to pre-pandemic levels. This remarkable city shows outstanding economic resilience against all odds.
Economic resilience, however, is far from sufficient for the SAR to claim victory in living up to the “one country, two systems” principle. Hong Kong, though it is tagged as a “Chinese society”, has managed to keep aloof from affairs in the motherland for years after returning to China. The halo of a cosmopolitan city, a nexus of the Chinese mainland with the rest of the world, suffocates its residents’ appetite to embrace the development in China, let alone to appreciate the beauty of the Chinese civilization. The concern was voiced clearly by the deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Lu Xinning, at the opening ceremony of the showcase exhibition.
Architecture visualizes culture, and its expertise demonstrates the advance of technology. When the Roman Emperor Hadrian dedicated the Pantheon, with the world’s largest dome structure, to “all gods” in AD 126, he probably did not expect the structure to enjoy an architectural legacy alongside the religious and governmental buildings of Europe for almost 2,000 years. The architecture in China, on the other hand, has been full of wonders and legends throughout history, especially in modern times, when mega construction projects dwarf the rest of the world in scale, creativity, and aesthetic beauty. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, for example, links three glitzy and shiny port cities, and is a cultural icon and a symbol of success in the promising Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Hong Kong cannot afford to indulge itself in narcissist arrogance and end up as an apathetic onlooker sitting on the end of the bridge with arms folded. The city of resilience and resourcefulness should waste no time in joining its booming sister cities in the Greater Bay Area. It needs cultural richness to shape its future of inclusiveness and aesthetic beauty; the people in Hong Kong deserve a livable and lovable city in which to enjoy their lives, rather than being workaholics struggling to purchase unaffordable tiny flats that they call “home”.
A construction buildup in Hong Kong, encouraged by the outreach tours of top engineers of the nation and facilitated by the expertise and technologies of the mainland and abroad, is not only about landmark making, but also about the open-mindedness of appreciating the remarkable achievements of the mainland, the image building of Hong Kong in the post-pandemic age, and the livelihoods that are enjoyable both for residents and tourists, especially the “brothers and sisters” from the mainland.
The author is a current affairs commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.