Yet, we obviously cannot politically identify with Mainland Chinese Communist figures neither can we fully identify with past democratic and nationalistic Chinese movements, such as the May 4th Movement, for we do not possess their intense patriotism for China. Even its musical form, which imitates both the Chinese national anthem and British patriotic songs in its grandiose blaring trumpets, betrays the overbearing influence of other political bodies on the Hong Kong identity. This absence is expressed by the song’s appeals to vague abstract virtues such as 勇氣 (“courage”) and 智慧 (“wisdom”) over grounded past historical struggles or principles. “Glory to Hong Kong” also speaks to the shakiness of the political identity of ‘Hong Konger’ due to the absence of a political tradition unique to the city. As such, “Glory to Hong Kong” speaks to how ‘Hong Kongers’ are torn between having pride in Hong Kong, yet never truly identifying with Hong Kong as it has really existed throughout history, for the city has never been authentically free. Indeed, it was precisely British colonial institutions that made Hong Kong ripe for its current immense socioeconomic inequality, where mansions and cage homes coincide. In its crescendo of 黎明來到要光復這香港 ('Break now the dawn, restore Hong Kong') the song phrases this tension in its most striking form: the cause of freedom in Hong Kong is expressed simultaneously as an advance towards a new day and a return to the old ways – a combination of nostalgia for colonial-era institutions (such as the rule of law) that are currently under threat, and yet a recognition that the freedom and democracy we so desire was never attained under British rule. To begin, the song represents the tension with relating contemporary Hong Kong to its British colonial past. “Glory to Hong Kong” – a collective anonymous Internet piece born in the turmoil of the 2019-20 protests as Hong Kong’s own ‘national anthem’ – is a song that embodies the sense of alienation all those who politically identify as ‘Hong Konger’ must confront: the struggle in grounding an emancipatory identity of ‘Hong Konger’ upon the city’s unique and contradictory history.

Thomas dgx yhl - “Glory to Hong Kong” Desmund Hui

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