In the last century, Hong Kong films were in the most prosperous period, and it can even be said that it was one of the peaks of Chinese-language films, which not only influenced Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and the mainland, but also influenced many overseas Chinese and many countries in Southeast Asia, and was not inferior to American blockbusters at all.
There is one genre that is the most unique in Hong Kong films, that is, gangster films, which can become the most and best area for gangster films in the world, naturally because there is an extremely deep gangster and crime soil and an unregulated creative environment.
However, since the return of Hong Kong, these gangsters, who were once extremely rampant and can be called the emperor of Hong Kong, seem to have been completely sealed in the movie, and have gradually drifted away from the lives of ordinary people in reality.
This is indeed a good thing, but it still makes people curious, why did these gangsters gradually disappear at a very fast speed after Ninety-Seven?
The story of a dragon slayer boy who turns into a dragon
The history of Hong Kong gangsters is actually a very classic story of a dragon slayer boy who eventually turned into a dragon, and this story starts from the Opium War, which is the beginning of modern history, as for the place where the story begins, it is actually not in Hong Kong, but in the mainland.
According to historical records, in July 1842, the predecessor or "parent company" of the Hong Kong Triad was established in the southern part of the mainland - the Southern Triad, and at the beginning of its establishment, Tangkou had been set up in Hong Kong.
The reason why the triad appeared during the Opium War was because the purpose of its establishment was to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, to defeat the invaders, and to overthrow the corrupt and incompetent Qing government.
In the absence of a clear program of action and a theoretical basis, these blind rebels eventually began to oppress the common people in turn and commit all kinds of criminal acts.
The British government in Hong Kong did not care about the lives of the people of Hong Kong, but after all, the actions of the gangs greatly affected their rule, so as early as January 1845, the "Suppression of Triads and Other Secret Societies Ordinance" was enacted to crack down on and ban triads.
Unfortunately, this kind of blow was only superficial to maintain colonial rule, and at the end of the 19th century, the number of triad members increased instead of decreasing, accounting for 1/3 of the total adult Chinese male population in Hong Kong at that time. The 1927 Hong Kong Strike and the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong led to the rapid growth of the triad and became an illegal organization affecting the entire Chinese world and Southeast Asia.
The last development climax was after the victory of the Liberation War, when quite a few remnants of the Kuomintang and ruffians who feared being liquidated, as well as local tyrants and gentry, fled to Hong Kong, and they colluded with the triads as soon as they arrived there.
Hong Kong's most famous gangsters also obstructed the revolution of the Hong Kong left, as well as anti-colonial movements such as the notorious triads such as New Ngee An, 14K, and Wo Shenghe.
The land outside the law has quietly changed
After the British colonial government returned to Hong Kong after World War II, its influence gradually weakened, but after all, Hong Kong has not yet returned, so there is a greater power vacuum in Hong Kong, and the original gangsters have filled this.
First of all, the remnants of the Kuomintang reactionaries established the 14K, which was established after the escape to Hong Kong at No. 14, a spy organization on Baohua West Street in Guangzhou, and its founder was Ge Shaohuang, a special agent of the military command.
They not only carry out all kinds of criminal activities in Hong Kong, such as opening casinos, collecting protection money, extorting money from merchants and assassinating them, but also carry out various riots with the benefit of Taiwan's puppet regime.
For example, in 1956, 14K organized and participated in the Double Ten gang riots, resulting in more than 400 deaths and injuries, and by the sixties and seventies of the last century, the total number of members of 14K had grown to more than 80,000, and began to spread to the Chinese areas in Europe, America and Southeast Asia.
The organization was founded in 1866 as Wan On, and later split in 1919 to form One Eye, and had to be renamed New Ngee Ann in 1947 because it was discovered by the Hong Kong government.
The organizational structure of New Ngee Ann is extremely corporatized, and the members are all coded. The main areas of activity are Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, and a series of criminal activities that can make money such as extorting protection money from colleagues, drug trafficking, usury, opening pornographic establishments, illegally opening casinos, and smuggling.
In addition to the above two organizations, Hong Kong also includes other triad organizations, such as the oldest gangster and Shenghe, as well as other gangs with a similar history to Heshenghe, and Anle (also known as "Shuifang"), Heliqun, Hehetu, Hequnle, Heshengyi, and Shengtang.
However, this is not the whole picture of the most rampant period of Hong Kong's triads, because in addition to the Japanese character system, 14k, and New Ngee An, the triad also includes the Lianzi triad organization, which is also very prosperous, with a total of six organizations, which were originally composed of some small traders who helped each other, but in the end they still went to the evil road of oppressing the people.
In addition, it also includes a series of triad organizations such as the Quanzitou underworld organization, the Tongzitou underworld organization, the Guangzitou underworld organization, and the eastern Guangdong underworld organization, which can be said to be "participating in the grand event" here.
But these gangsters eventually had to compromise like history, and those who did not compromise were swept into the garbage heap by history, and these two paths actually eventually made Hong Kong's gangsters or triads finally disappear after the 97s.
First of all, the changes in the general environment, as mentioned earlier, Hong Kong gangs can be so rampant, because it has been in a state of power vacuum since it was ceded to Hong Kong by the Qing government as a lease, Hong Kong colonists disdained to take care of it, the Japanese government did not take care of it, and then after the end of World War II, no one took care of it for a long time, only the degree of absence was different.
But for human society, it is impossible for there to be a vacuum of power for a long time, as long as the vacuum is in a period of time, there will be a new power organization to fill it, and this organization is not necessarily the government, but it may also be the underworld, which is the case in Mexico.
97 is a special point in time, when Hong Kong learned that it was going to return to the embrace of the motherland in more than ten years, some people were happy and some were worried, and the gangsters basically belonged to the latter.
They understand what the Communist Party means, and they also know how powerful the mobilization and organizational ability is needed to defeat the extremely vicious Kuomintang, and the reason why they are able to run rampant and hegemonic in Hong Kong is because they are not easy to manage and no one wants to manage them, but New China is different, so the changes in the external environment have forced the Hong Kong gangsters to find a way out in advance.
The dedication and repetition of the Hong Kong police
In the movie "Crazy Boy", they also discussed where the future of the entire community should go after the return of Hong Kong in '97? Some of the more intelligent underworld organizations have chosen a track for themselves in advance, such as Hong Xing's prototype Xin Yi'an.
In reality, their leaders are also hereditary, although this may make many so-called meritorious bosses dissatisfied, but the advantage is that there is less stability and infighting, and more importantly, there is a clearer representation. It is precisely because of this that before the return, some leaders persuaded the bigwigs of this faction, to be precise, to persuade them, so that they could understand that they could become Buddhas by putting down the butcher's knife.
As a result, many bigwigs in New Ngee An began to wash their hands and wash their hands, either engaging in legal industries and using the original bloody accumulation to make investments, or taking the money they earned and their younger brothers to the mainland to seek opportunities.
Similarly, there are Shuifang and Hetao, some of the more powerful bigwigs in these organizations were recruited to participate in the construction of Hong Kong and the mainland, and some fled abroad and fled to the gangster strongholds that they had operated in the Chinese areas of Europe and the United States for many years.
And rampant gangsters like 14k and Heshenghe are targeted by the Hong Kong police, especially when Hong Kong's economy is relatively sluggish, in order to prevent gangs from disrupting the market and affecting the order of Hong Kong, the police began to carry out vigorous sweeps, working day and night.
In the past, this was unthinkable, because the Hong Kong police before the return to the motherland were also an important condition for the gangsters to commit crimes, otherwise there would not have been 6,000~8,000 cases of the nature of the underworld every year, and even vicious cases, but after the return to the motherland, the Hong Kong police became qualified people's policemen after accepting the reorganization, restructuring, and rectification of the mainland.
For this reason, they have also set up a special anti-triad agency, even if their gangsters are very low-key and act with their tails between their legs, these police agencies dedicated to fighting triads will take the initiative to attack, so that they have nowhere to hide.
In its heyday, there were 100~150 pornographic stalls on this small street, and even attracted some women from the mainland and Taiwan to prostitute here, making it a scar that is difficult to show in Hong Kong.
In addition to focusing on cracking down on gangsters, the Hong Kong police have also shown a strong awakening to crack down on gangsters, promulgated a number of laws and regulations, and implemented the idea of using heavy codes in troubled times, and in the 1994 "Organized and Severely Punished Crimes Ordinance", there are also provisions that force witnesses to testify, compulsory possession of goods to hand over goods, and even prison sentences and fines for witnesses who refuse to testify.
This may be barbaric in the so-called Western legal concept, but it has to be recognized as very effective, and the witnesses who testify will be given adequate protection, and even financial funds will be allocated to help them change their status and send them abroad, or move to the mainland, to avoid retaliation.
More importantly, in the past, gangsters would flee to the mainland, but now there is often close intelligence sharing between the mainland and Hong Kong, and those who flee to the mainland will only be caught faster by our people's police.
In addition, Zhang Ziqiang was killed as an example, which made the Hong Kong gangs have to speed up their transformation, and those who are unwilling to wash their hands of life and death are finally uprooted one by one or go abroad to find another way.
Many people who watch Hong Kong movies will miss the old Hong Kong, but they seem to forget that if a local gang becomes a local emperor, it is more terrible than being invaded and colonized, because the order formed by the gang is not a healthy order, if it is not for the return of Hong Kong, if it is not for the efforts and dedication of the Hong Kong police, I don't know how many people will be bullied or die at the hands of the Hong Kong gangsters.
Resources:
[1] Qiu Geping, Geographical Factors and the Transfer and Spread of Underworld in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, 2011-9
[2] Kong Pingping, The History of the Triad in Hong Kong and Macao, and the Analysis of the Current Situation of Penetration into the Mainland, 2002-3
[3] Liu Wei, Hong Kong's Crackdown on Triad Crime and Its Enlightenment, 2002
[4] Ten Years of Social Security - The Underworld: Sunset West Mountain, 2007