Qi Ruhong: Hong Kong-Vietnam relations

Qi Ruhong: Hong Kong-Vietnam relations Phoenix City Qi Ruhong July 1st is the day to commemorate the return of Hong Kong to the motherland. This year has been 20 years. As China becomes increasingly powerful, the sea...

Qi Ruhong: Hong Kong-Vietnam Relations Phoenix City Qi Ruhong July 1st is the day to commemorate the return of Hong Kong to the motherland. This year marks the 20th anniversary. As China becomes increasingly prosperous, Chinese people at home and abroad have benefited from it, their relative status has also improved, and the activities of overseas Chinese communities have become more active. As a result, special attention has been paid to this anniversary. Many places have organized symposiums and held celebration dinners, all around this historic topic, to express the proud and proud voices of modern Chinese people and to express their concern for the future of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. The overseas Chinese community in Arizona held a symposium and dinner to celebrate the return of China in the greater Phoenix area on June 17. I also attended the meeting as the vice president of the Vietnam-China Friendship Association and listened to the speeches of two Chinese consuls in Los Angeles, as well as celebrities and scholars from the overseas Chinese community. Some friends here find it strange that I am a Vietnamese Chinese. It seems that Vietnam has no relationship with Hong Kong. How can I be interested in participating in such a meeting? In fact, most of the descendants of Yan and Huang, even if they were born in foreign countries, care about the motherland, and the long-standing cultural customs of their ancestors will never change. Unless they forget their origins, they will not care about the territorial affairs of the motherland. What's more, in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Hong Kong and Vietnam had very close exchanges. If compared with the mainland, the relationship was even more profound. How to say it? Let’s start with the world situation back then! In that era of the Cold War, international barriers were clearly defined. Freedom and communism were fighting each other, vowing to be incompatible and severing contacts. Hong Kong is a British territory and is on the same front as the United States. It is called the free world. The United States holds high the anti-communist banner and supports its allies in the Republic of Vietnam to fight fiercely against communism. It must not have any contact with the Communist Party. Mainland China resolutely overthrows American imperialism, wipes out capitalism, opposes capitalist roaders, and falls under the Iron Curtain. It is this factor that has led to the Chinese people in Hong Kong and Vietnam coming together, having frequent contact and close relations. For Vietnamese people of my age who know so much about Chinese culture, are familiar with Sinology, and inherit the essence of the Chinese nation, it is undeniable that they are influenced by the traditional environment of the huge Chinese city on the Vietnam Embankment. Secondly, they rely on Taiwan and Hong Kong to provide sufficient spiritual food. At that time, the Vietnamese and Chinese compatriots were under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China. Chinese schools were provided with textbooks by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan. Chinese newspapers were all dated in the Republic of China. All cultural books, periodicals, and artworks came from Taiwan. The cultural attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of China in Vietnam provided full assistance to the education of overseas Chinese. In addition, the most influential one is Hong Kong. The folk cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and Vietnam are extensive and far-reaching. This is due to the current situation. Due to Hong Kong's special status, it is still a colony and does not have strict defense and military concerns. Civil society can move freely, and many commercial and academic exchanges are completely unrestricted and can be brought into full play. Moreover, most of the Vietnamese and Chinese compatriots are Cantonese, and they speak the same language as the Hong Kong people. They have a sense of intimacy and easy communication. The Vietnamese Chinese prefer Hong Kong and have frequent exchanges. When I was a child, the ten movie theaters in Vietnam's embankment all screened Hong Kong films, mainly Cantonese films, and only two had Mandarin and Western films. During that period, family ethics films by Pak Yan, Cheung Wo-yau and Ng Chu Fan; romantic films by Lin Feng, Wu Feng and Zhang Yingcai; martial arts films by Kwan Tak Hing, Cao Dahua, Shi Jian, Luo Yanqing and Yu Suqiu; and all song albums by Xin Ma Si Tsang, Tang Biyun, Yam Kim Fai and Pak Suet Sin, were released every day. They were so accustomed to it that they were so familiar to Vietnamese and Chinese audiences that they almost mistakenly thought they were films shot locally! There are also Hong Kong Cantonese opera stars and singers who perform on the Vietnamese stage, and they rotate every year, such as Tan Lanqing, Liang Wuxiang, Poon Yousheng, Hu Ji, Ma Shitsang, Hongxian Nu, Xin Ma Shitsang, Yam Jianhui, Bai Xuexian, Liang Xingbo, Zhang Yueyi, Ho Feifan, Teresa Teng, Guo Shensheng, Lin Dai, Yan Jun, Li Lihua and Pang Yuehua. People from China have the opportunity to enjoy it. On the contrary, mainland compatriots are generally famous but have no chance to watch. As for books, newspapers, and music records, needless to say, they entered southern Vietnam in large numbers in the early days. Regular periodicals such as "Today's World", "Sing Tao Pictorial", "Liangyou Pictorial", "News World", "Contemporary Literature and Art", "Reader's Digest" Pang's novels and more romance works , detective, martial arts, pornographic, there are all kinds of them, the most attractive is Jin Yong's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", the content and plot are wonderful, one week after it was published in the Hong Kong newspaper, it was immediately printed into a booklet and quickly delivered to Vietnam, so that readers can have a sneak peek. The serial detective story of "Female Snitch Huang Ying" also attracted many readers to read it; the sex works of Yang Tiancheng and Xia Fei once fascinated many young people and caused them to have wild imaginations. Literary friends who love writing prefer to submit articles to Hong Kong literary and art publications. The fees calculated in Hong Kong dollars are much higher than in Vietnamese dollars. They rack their brains to get better rewards and become famous overseas. They are very happy. At this point, everyone should understand the close relationship between Hong Kong and Vietnam. It is not only active in literature and drama, but also in other fields. All kinds of commodities, ordinary or expensive, if they are available in Hong Kong, they must be available in Vietnam. Later, with the advent of video tapes, dramas could be watched at home; with the advent of karaoke machines, karaoke singing was available at any time, which had a wider impact on the lives of Vietnamese and Chinese compatriots. It became a social activity to bond friendships, and became a device for families to teach their children to learn Chinese. Because at the beginning of the change of regime in Vietnam in 1975, Chinese education was completely stagnant, and the Chinese language was almost suffocated. Without the introduction of Hong Kong videos and karaoke, Vietnamese Chinese would not be able to accept their ancestral culture, and their image would inevitably change. Just think about it, Hong Kong has such a strong influence on the Chinese people in Vietnam, and the relationship between Hong Kong and Vietnam is indeed close. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Chinese living in Vietnam still maintain their traditional national culture, and most of them owe it to Hong Kong. In this case, it is normal for Vietnamese-Chinese people to care about Hong Kong, but Chinese people in other areas will not pay attention to it, especially compatriots from the mainland, who sometimes feel confused.