In the popular TVB Hong Kong dramas of the 80s, the judges who tried cases always wore white wigs and looked funny. In fact, this is not a Hong Kong tradition, "judges with wigs" is an old tradition left over from the British occupation of Hong Kong, and this custom was originally introduced to Britain by Europe.
The 100 years of being stripped of its real name is the history of Hong Kong's administrative divisions
Hong Kong was first incorporated into China's territory after the unification of the Six Kingdoms by the Qin Dynasty. At that time, Hong Kong and other places were divided into the territory of Guangxi and were under the jurisdiction of Panyu County.
In the Han Dynasty, it was divided into Boluo County, Hainan County, but this Nanhai County was not an abbreviation for Hainan Island, but a subordinate division of Guangzhou. During the Ming Dynasty, the jurisdiction of Hong Kong was renamed Xin'an County. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the New Territories had become Hong Kong's core development area.
After the Qing Dynasty came to power, it sent troops to the New Territories of Hong Kong in 1662 to issue a decree to make the locals leave Long Qing Braids. After the Qing Dynasty implemented the policy of closing the country to the outside world, Guangzhou was the only port open to the outside world, so Hong Kong's harbor was the most potential trade port at that time.
After the Completion of the Industrial Revolution in 1840, the British had already set their sights on hong Kong, a fertile and oily land, and after the First Opium War, the British forcibly occupied Hong Kong Island. In 1842, the Qing government officially ceded Hong Kong Island to the British in the Treaty of Nanking with the British, and Hong Kong began a 155-year wandering road.
Hong Kong, which returned to China in 1997, did not get rid of the old customs left by britain until the 21st century.
The imprints of the turbulent times of the last century have changed the way of life of a generation, and now they no longer have long pigtails, but the British wig hat remains on the heads of Hong Kong judges.
Curiously, why do Judges in the UK have to wear a dummy hood? What is the symbolic meaning of this wig?
The history of wigs – class formation and power turmoil
Westerners seem to have an unknown fanaticism about wigs. Wigs first appeared in ancient Egypt and were an ornament on the heads of local officials in ancient Egypt.
By the time ancient Egyptian politics was at its peak, this simple ornament had been divided into many styles to distinguish the identities and classes of different nobles. The more divided the political class, the higher the fanaticism of wigs.
In ancient Greece, beneath the Mediterranean, wigs became even more bizarre: the ancient Greeks seemed to hate baldness so much that wearing wigs became a symbol of wisdom.
Later, after the Roman Empire unified Europe, the status of the ecclesiastical power gradually increased in Europe. But the Bible says that men should not cover their heads in prayer, or they will humiliate themselves. In order to expand its power and show the authority of the Pope to the commoners, the Church lowered the sins of the gods to the wig, a symbol of political power.
The Church declares that wearing wigs is an act of covering one's head and is blasphemous! Wigs have fallen prey to political forces fighting the papacy, intermittently being trampled for centuries.
By the Renaissance, people were no longer willing to accept the oppression of the papal forces, the mystery of religion was gradually broken, and with the rebellion of the people against the church forces, wigs once again became a powerful weapon in political struggle, and people began to set off a wave of wig wearing.
By the late Renaissance, wig fashion had spread throughout Europe. Elizabeth I, as the Empress of England at the time, actually collected as many as 80 wig sets. The value of the wig was once again increased by the empress, which became a symbol of european medieval aristocratic culture.
But at that time, the British folk had not yet begun to popularize wigs, and heavy wigs were only circulated among the nobility. It wasn't until the time of Charles II that false fevers suddenly burned all over Britain, from the House of Lords to Ireland, and even commoners had one or two wigs. Like the hat salute of the cowboys in the American West, the wig ceremony gradually formed in Britain.
But with the fall of the king and political changes, the enthusiasm for wigs gradually dissipated. Only the old-fashioned nobles and judges of the British House of Lords, the MPs were still loyal to their passion for wigs.
Disappearing tides, remnants of bad habits
While European countries have forgotten the wig trend, Britain, which is far away on a lonely island, has preserved this ritual as a tradition. The reason for this is mainly related to the aristocracy of the upper echelons of England.
The nobles of the British House of Lords have always attached great importance to the purity of aristocratic blood and the elegance of aristocratic etiquette, and their harshness of etiquette has reached an outrageous level.
In order to ensure and highlight their distinctive aristocratic blood and good style, they deliberately retained this tradition when the world no longer used wigs to distinguish classes.
This ancient and ritualistic wig culture is almost a unique expression of class, and the judge with white curly hair looks dignified, calm, old, and wise.
The traditional stereotypical old London magnates have been preserved for generations, and the British judicial system is full of pure-blooded aristocrats, so in the modern British judicial system, the image of judges always wears strange dummies.
Until the British occupied Hong Kong in 1842, they first named Hong Kong's largest port Victoria Harbour, and then cut off the large braids of the Qing Dynasty and put on the white curly hair wig that had been passed down from generation to generation, the older and more honorable.
Later, after the return of Hong Kong in 1997, the government still gave the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region a certain degree of cultural freedom and political autonomy. So the judge's hood was preserved as a special culture.
But after entering the modern era of the 21st century, the free-spirited Britons began to gradually dislike this tradition, wigs are old and dirty, and summers carry not only hot, but also unhygienic.
In 1992, the United Kingdom abolished the practice of wigs worn by judicial officers in the Special Juvenile Court. In 2008, in addition to judges hearing criminal proceedings, other judges and lawyers in the UK abolished the requirement to wear wigs in court.
However, Hong Kong, like Britain, which was far from the European continent, is still lagging behind and following the rules for wearing wigs.
In ancient times, wigs were used as class symbols and were once very popular on the European political scene. In today's Hong Kong, the political drawbacks of "judicial dominance" have once again pushed wigs to the cusp of the storm, and people believe that judicial reform should start from "setting up a sentencing commission" and removing the wig tradition worn by judges and symbolizing the British colonies, to revise the judicial field in Hong Kong.
The white wig is just a meaningless ornament, but under people's over-interpretation, it has become the scepter of political influence again and again, and now it hinders the justice of justice, and its harm is even far greater than the Manchu dreadlock tradition.
Now that Hong Kong has been returning to China for 24 years, when will this hat that originated in Europe but was grabbed by the Tail of the British and brought to the East be taken off?