The 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland can't help but think of the "Return" unit in the 2019 movie "My Motherland and Me".
At that time, when watching "My Motherland and Me", I cried several times, some of which were touched and some of which were excited.
There is such a classic clip in the "Return" unit: when the national anthem is played and the five-star red flag is rising, the Hong Kong police officer Lian Jie, played by Hui Yinghong, has continuously ordered a team of Hong Kong police officers to change their hat badges en masse. Then the camera turned, and Hua Ge, played by Ren Dahua, stroked his chest and burst into tears of excitement in the song of "Pearl of the Orient".
This article talks about the Hong Kong story behind this clip.
First, Huiying Red changed hat badge
The scene of Hong Kong police collectively changing their hat badges during the return of Hong Kong has been seen in previous films, such as "Infernal Affairs 2".
Superintendent Wong, played by Wong Qiu-sheng, and Liu Jianming, played by Chan Kwan Hee, both replaced the previous Royal Hong Kong Police insignia with a new police badge at the moment of their return.
At the same time, various police stations in Hong Kong have also taken down the old police badge hanging and replaced it with a new Hong Kong police badge.
The clip of "My Motherland and Me" changing the police badge is more formal and more imposing, especially the Lian Sister played by Hui Yinghong is the police officer who leads the escort handover ceremony, and their change of police badge is more iconic.
Due to the limited close-up shots of the film, many viewers do not know much about the difference between the old and new police badges, and it seems that there is not much difference between them.
In fact, the outline of the old and new police emblems is indeed very close, but the specific details have changed considerably.
The crown on the old police emblem representing the British royal family has become the bauhinia flower of the new police emblem symbolizing the Hong Kong SAR government, the original English "Royal Police" has become the Chinese character "Hong Kong Police", and the central pattern has been replaced by the British ocean sailing ship to five landmark buildings of the SAR: the Police Headquarters Building, the Bank of China Building, the Hong Kong City Hall, HSBC Bank and The Exchange Square.
Second, Ren Dahua's tears
In "My Motherland and Me", Ren Dahua plays a watchmaker, Hua Ge, who was a refugee who was swept to Hong Kong by the flood that year, rescued by the police, and later married Sister Lian, who was a policeman, and settled down in Hong Kong.
In fact, the author believes that in the original script of "The Return", The identity of Hua Ge should be a young man who fled Hong Kong, and there are two evidences, one is that the tube tied to the young Hua Ge and the balloon he held when he was rescued were obviously prepared.
The second is that there is an old newspaper in a conspicuous position in The watch shop of Hua Ge, the content of which is the newspaper reporting "The Tide of Maritime Escape", and the pictures that appear in the newspaper are the young Hua Ge and Lian Jie.
Speculate a little more, this newspaper is most likely Mr. Jin Yong's Ming Pao.
Then, Hua Ge's tears when Hong Kong returned to The Motherland are easy to understand.
As a foreigner, although Hua Ge has lived in Hong Kong for at least thirty years, the feeling of "being a stranger in a foreign country" is difficult to erase, and he also has a sense of belonging, even if he is very well integrated into Hong Kong society, he still has the mood of "what am I", especially when Hong Kong is still a British colony equivalent to a foreign country.
After the return, Hua Ge and Hong Kong returned to the embrace of the motherland together, and the sense of belonging of "I am Chinese" was immediately established, and that feeling made Hua Ge burst into tears in an instant.
The sense of belonging is actually a common problem faced by the immigrant generation.
III. The Pearl of the Orient
At the time of Hong Kong's return, the song of "Pearl of the Orient" was accompanied by fireworks celebrating the return and crowds.
It is estimated that many viewers have heard the chorus version of "Pearl of the Orient" and will think that this song was specially composed by Lo Tai-yok for the return of Hong Kong.
In fact, the Pearl of the Orient was first created in 1986, when the Sino-British Joint Statement had been released, and Lo Tai-yok came to Hong Kong to develop and created the Cantonese version of the Pearl of the Orient.
In 1991, the "Music Factory" co-founded by Luo Dayou and Rolling Stone released the first album "Queen's Road East", and Luo Dayou created a Chinese version of "Pearl of the Orient" to include in this album.
On the eve of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in 1997, "Pearl of the Orient" became an iconic song to celebrate Hong Kong's return to the motherland, and in 2019, the song was selected as "100 Excellent Songs celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China".
To emphasize, the Pearl of the Orient refers to the radio and television tower in Shanghai, and the Pearl of the Orient refers to Hong Kong.
The background of the "Pearl of the Orient" song is the picture of the people celebrating the return of Hong Kong, and here we have to mention a topic other than the movie.
Almost every year on the anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, a photo of the masses celebrating the return of the people will be taken out, and this photo is also collected by foreign museums.
The peculiarity of this photograph is that Huang Xiaoming, who was still a freshman in the 96th grade of the Acting Department of the Beijing Film Academy, was frozen by the photographer as a crowd participating in the celebrations, and since then Huang Xiaoming has been bound to the history of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.
To say more, the smiling girl on Huang Xiaoming's right hand is called Xu Huanxian, and her film and television masterpiece is "Like Rain Like Fog and Like Wind".
Fourth, speculation on Hong Kong's return to the motherland
In the movie "My Motherland and Me", there is a scene between Hua Ge and Lian Jie, Hua Ge gives the watch that his father entrusted him to give to Lian Jie, which is used to give Lian Jie time during the return ceremony of the day, which is very symbolic, and there is a sentence that Hua Ge's father said: There is a loan and a return.
In 1997, when Hong Kong returned to the motherland, in addition to the warm celebrations, there was another view in society: what was forcibly borrowed by others was returned after 99 years, and there seemed to be nothing to celebrate.
In fact, Hong Kong has historically been divided into three places, of which Hong Kong Island was ceded to the British by the Qing government in 1842, the Kowloon Peninsula was ceded in 1860, and the New Territories was leased by the Qing government and the British in 1898 by the "Special Clause for Expanding hong Kong Boundary Sites" until June 30, 1997.
From the perspective of international practice, it was a matter of course for the British government to return the New Territories in 1997, but Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula were ceded to each other and did not need to be returned with the New Territories. If China wants to return to Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, the most effective and direct way in history is to fight another war with the British, and if it wins, it can take back the place it ceded.
However, instead of going to war with Britain, we took Hong Kong Island and Kowloon back directly by not recognizing the unequal treaty or not recognizing the cession, and the British government had to agree. Although there is no war, in fact, behind it is also the strength of the support, is a kind of "force intimidation", that is, "a soldier who yields without fighting".
In this way, the significance of Hong Kong's return to the motherland is extraordinary, we do not even need to fight a war, directly rely on strength to make the "Iron Lady" Thatcher soft, she dared to go to war with Argentina for the Falklands, but did not even have the courage to go to war with the mainland, compared with the late Qing Dynasty when the sun did not set, this historical reversal is not worth celebrating?
Sometimes, you have to understand why The Great Eagle is willing to put down his body to the old beauty as a little brother, and his strength is limited and he can only hold his thighs.
Therefore, we must not only celebrate Hong Kong's return to the motherland every year, but also celebrate it warmly.