whats going on with this fucking thing

Gasp.... has Cokehead already married, bought a dog, had a baby and reduced to holding purses JUST one week into his Chinese experience?!

As Tony Montana would say: "Ju soff, meng."

HONG KONG — For 37 minutes on Sunday night, nobody in Hong Kong will be able to escape the thunderous reminders of China's power.

In the biggest and costliest extravaganza in its history, Hong Kong will launch 31,888 fireworks shells into the air above Victoria Harbour to mark the 10th anniversary of its handover to Chinese control.

The symbolism will be unmistakable. For decades, Hong Kong had been dominated by British colonial governors and by freedom-seeking refugees who fled China's Communist regime. But the noisy fireworks on Sunday will hammer home a new message: Hong Kong is part of China, like it or not, and its people need to be proud of their Chinese rulers.

Almost every moment of the pyrotechnic display will be a dutiful homage to China. Beginning with a scene called "Salute to the Motherland," the $2.2-million gala will reach a climax with a dramatic display of three huge Chinese characters spelling out a phrase meaning "Chinese people."

Just in case any doubts remain afterward, Hong Kong is organizing more than 450 other events to mark the anniversary, including Chinese art exhibits, Chinese ballet dancers, Chinese dinosaurs in the museum, Chinese pandas in the zoo, Chinese pop singers, Chinese military performances, and even a "wonderful decade" essay-writing contest in which students can express their pride in China's takeover of the former British colony.

Hong Kong's politicians and bureaucrats are jostling to proclaim the most lavish praise of "the motherland" — the new politically correct term for China. "It has been 10 years since Hong Kong's reunification with the motherland," Ambrose Lee, the secretary for security, said in a typical speech this month. "Now we live and work in peace and contentment."

Are they 'Chinese'?

Yet despite the $12-million in official spending on the anniversary celebrations, there is one slight problem: the majority of Hong Kong's people still do not see themselves as primarily Chinese. Opinion polls confirm that most of the territory's 7 million residents label themselves "Hong Kongers" or "Hong Kong Chinese" — a unique identity. One recent poll found that 53 per cent saw themselves as Hong Kongers; only 34 per cent defined themselves as Chinese, about 6 percentage points higher than in a similar poll in 1998.

And while government officials are striving to integrate Hong Kong into China, the biggest change of the past decade is the growing political activism of Hong Kong's inhabitants — a new democratic spirit that increasingly sets them apart from the authoritarianism of the mainland.

Such is the push-and-pull of the complex relationship between Hong Kong and China. While the territory's economy has rebounded strongly in recent years, and the worst fears of 1997 have proven exaggerated, the most important issues are the same as always: the yearning for autonomy and the search for an identity that will keep Hong Kong distinct from the dozens of similarly sized Chinese cities on the mainland.

Beijing's original strategy was "one country, two systems," a promise of autonomy to placate the doubters. But it wasn't enough to subdue Hong Kong's political activism.

So China turned to economic levers. Hong Kong had a reputation as a consumer paradise where the gods of materialism were worshipped more than any political or democratic ideals. Beijing's strategy was to capitalize on the booming Chinese economy, to lure Hong Kong into the bosom of the motherland with economic incentives and dreams of profit.

This strategy has had some success. China's economic influence has reinforced its political clout. Its booming market and the influx of mainland tourists have been a big boost to the territory's economy. MORE>>>