Changing holidays in Hong Kong

Our Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin, in the fifth of a series of letters, examines what the new list of Hong Kong public holidays means for the colony.

Dear readers,

Hong Kong has been given a pointed reminder that in 368 days from today it will cease to be part of the fast dwindling British Empire and will revert to the Chinese Motherland.

The Hong Kong government has issued the list of public holidays for 1997. They perfectly illustrates that after 155 years of British rule Hong Kong will undergo the potentially traumatic transition from being subject to British sovereignty to being subject to China's ultimate control.

The list shows that the transfer of sovereignty has been made into a five-day handover celebration.

But the British are putting a positive spin on their 1997 departure. A handover first scheduled in 1898, long before the British even dreamed of ever leaving even India.

June 30, 1997, will not be called "The End of British Rule Day" or anything so crass. Not done, old chap, after all.

Instead, with some devious sleight-of-hand, June 30, 1997, becomes "The Monday following the Birthday of the Queen".

The legerdemain need arises because normally Hong Kong celebrates the Queen's birthday, as do Britain's remaining far- flung colonies, with a day off in the middle of June.

But in 1997, that birthday has been discreetly moved from the second Saturday in June to the fourth Saturday in June, in order "to facilitate community participation in the events surrounding the Transition".

Playing around with the Queen's birthday is a serious matter, so today's announcement reassures concerned Hong Kongers that "the change of date will be published in the Gazette". One wonders: When the Chinese start making changes, will these be published in the Gazette, too?

This does not mean that July 1 becomes "Retrocession To China Day". Unfortunately, because there is no longer a formal Emperor of China, the British were unable to bring a Chinese monarchical birthday forward to meet the Queen's.

China's de facto Emperor, Deng Xiaoping, were he consulted, may not agree to move his birthday up from August.

So, instead, July 1 becomes plain "Hong Kong returning to China, SAR Establishment Day".

China agreed in 1984, in view of the territory's unique position, to make Hong Kong an autonomous Special Administrative Region (SAR) within China.

This promise is tactfully underlined with July 2, 1997, becoming another holiday, "The Day following SAR Establishment Day", making the whole handover holiday, together with one Sunday, a five-day bash.

The five days may be necessary because the handover ceremonies are one more item on the ever-lengthening list of disagreements between Britain and China on the transfer of sovereignty.

The respective positions of Hong Kong's two colonial powers have been so inflexible until now that it is freely speculated that there won't be a joint handover ceremony at all.

There are some other noteworthy changes in the holidays scheduled for the Hong Kong SAR once the handover is accomplished.

Until now, Hong Kong has reserved a Saturday and a Monday towards the end of August as Liberation Day, marking the moment, in 1945, when Rear Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt and a hefty Royal Navy flotilla reached Hong Kong. They beat the forces of then nationalist Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek to take the surrender of the Japanese, who had ousted the British in 1941.

Next year, however, Chiang's and communist leader Mao Zedong's separate wartime achievements will be reinstated, as Hong Kong celebrates "Sino-Japanese War Victory Day" slightly earlier on Aug. 18. Hong Kong's separation from the motherland will naturally cease to be construed as a liberation.

Even more important, Hong Kong will celebrate China's "National Day" on Oct. 1, the day which marks the moment in 1949 when Mao instituted the People's Republic of China in Tiananmen Square.

A mere single holiday does not sit well with the tendency for Hong Kong, in some ways, to become more Chinese than China. So in the list of holidays just issued, British sovereignty has been used to give Hong Kong a second holiday, "The Day Following National Day" on Oct. 2 -- an extra luxury which evidently is not enjoyed in the People's Republic itself.

The Chinese communists, profoundly suspicious of every British move as the agreed handover approaches, will probably be incapable of seeing it that way, but the British have tried to make Hong Kong feel good about China's takeover.

The colony has only six holidays to look forward to in the last six months of 1996. In the first six months of Chinese rule in 1997 will have nine.

Those drawing up the list have also been mindful of China's potentially endless list of sensitivities. No doubt wary lest the holiday be seen as a subtle reminder of the 1989-1901 Boxer Rebellion, Dec. 26, finally ceases to be Boxing Day. Instead, it will be forever known as "The First Weekday after Christmas Day".