Remembering a Beloved Novelist

Ni was a prolific writer of over 300 novels

Science fiction fans are mourning the loss of novelist Ni Kuang who died on July 3 at the age of 87 of skin cancer.

He was very prolific, writing over 300 novels around the themes of wuxia and science fiction, as well as over 400 film scripts. How he managed to do all that is an amazing feat in itself. 

Ni came to Hong Kong in 1957

Originally from Shanghai in a family of seven children, Ni joined the People's Liberation Army at the age of 16 and was posted in Inner Mongolia in 1951.

But five years later he was convicted to 10 years' imprisonment as a counter-revolutionary when he and other soldiers removed wooden planks from a bridge to burn so that they could stay warm in winter. Ni thought he would receive the death sentence when his dog bit the commanding officer, and it took him six months to flee to Hong Kong via Dalian, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Portuguese colony Macau.

He arrived in Hong Kong in 1957 and started off working as a labourer. He became a writer after Ni won a writing competition in a newspaper.

Some of his best known works include Wisely Series, and Dr Yuen, as well as screenplays for such films as Fist of Fury, One-Armed Swordsman, The Assassin, and Crippled Avengers. 

Ni was a staunch anti-communist and in Britain's impending handover of Hong Kong back to China in 1997, he immigrated to the United States with his wife in 1992, but they returned in 2006 after she could not get used to the lifestyle there.

Nevertheless, Ni was well known for his anti-communist stance, which he would weave into his work.

Many of his novels were adapted for film

One journalist remarked after Ni's passing that in 1989, he said any struggle for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong is dangerous under an authoritarian regime.

Another journalist points out that in Ni's science fiction novel Chase the Dragon, he wrote about the fall of a great city in the east. It was not destroyed by natural disasters, but human's wrongdoings. And he wrote this around the time of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in the early 1980s...

How prescient. 

But perhaps he just knew from his personal experiences what would happen to Hong Kong...

Waving the Patriotic Flag

Flag fanatics decorated Kam Shek House in red flags

In the run up to the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover, someone in two housing estates in Kwun Tong decided to be very patriotic and decorated the entire Lam Shek House and Kam Shek House with alternating Chinese and Hong Kong flags hanging on every level of above the courtyard.

Some flags were found to be desecrated

Of course the Bauhinia flag is markedly smaller than the Chinese one...

Pictures of it went viral on social media and yesterday the police received a report that 12 of the national flags at Lam Shek House were desecrated, some with black stains on the big stars, while one flag at the housing estate and another at Kam Shek House were stolen.

Some uniformed police collected the desecrated flags, putting them in plastic bags for investigation and no one has been arrested yet.

Eventually all the flags were taken down probably as a precaution.

This exercise in extreme patriotism in Hong Kong is a touchy subject to say the least. While residents accept that the city is a part of China, it isn't quite ready for the show of nationalism that mainlanders expect. 

The push for patriotism is overwhelmingly red

And the government's efforts in trying to shove patriotism down residents' throats isn't helpful either, fuelling further frustration. The 2019 protests are still raw in people's minds, and they are still trying to process what has happened in the last three years, particularly after the implementation of the national security law.

Forcing people to celebrate an anniversary that seems bleaker by the day is hardly something worth rejoicing about. And the red flags seem to inflame people even more.

At least all the flags were removed and maybe the mastermind will have learned his/her lesson.

But wait -- the Hong Kong police are adopting the "goose-step" used in China from July 1.

"To promote patriotism and enhance the awareness of national identity, the Hong Kong Police Force will fully adopt Chinese foot drills from July 1," the HKPF said in a statement.

HKPF will debut its goose-stepping style July 1

Last year the People's Liberation Army trained Hong Kong police cadets the goose-step style where soldiers march without bending their knees.

Sounds painful... on the knees!

In the meantime it's been reported the two senior government officials who caught Covid-19 a few days ago have now tested negative.

Eric Chan Kwok-ki and Erick Tsang Kwok-wai have started to test negative, and if they have two more negative tests, then they could possibly attend Friday's ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

The government will have the final say if Chan and Tsang can attend in person. 

And still no word on Xi Jinping coming or not...