1990s in Hong Kong
The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration paved the way for a series of changes that would facilitate the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, citizens feared the Chinese government would not keep its promise of autonomy after the handover in Hong Kong.
The pro-Beijing bloc welcomed the Basic Law, calling it the most democratic legal system to ever exist in the PRC.
Patten emphasised the increase in democracy in Hong Kong through a series of measures that affected the election processes of both legislators and municipal officials.
At midnight on 1 July 1997, the handover ceremony was held at the new wing of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre at Wan Chai North.
Participated guests in the ceremony included The Prince of Wales (now Charles III), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, CCP General Secretary and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Chinese Premier Li Peng, the last Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten appointed by the United Kingdom, and Tung Chee Hwa, the first chief executive of Hong Kong elected from a Beijing-controlled election.
Chinese communists portrayed the return of Hong Kong as key moment in the PRC's rise to great power status.
Throughout the 90s in Hong Kong, there was a Mass Migration Wave due to the concern about the handover from the British government to the People's Republic of China in 1997.
In exchange, the Chinese government had agreed to keep the existing governmental structure of Hong Kong using the ‘One country, two systems’ method.
[7] This caused a surge of Philippines workers going to Hong Kong in search of higher salaries under the "maid to order" services.
The foreign workers essentially run all home affairs from cooking, ironing, cleaning and caring for the young and old in the household.
His early career was not successful; he was booed during his first public performance and his first three albums had poor sales, leading to him being terminated by Polydor Records.
Since then, he released more than 40 albums with multiple platinum-selling records and performed 33 consecutive sold-out shows at the Hong Kong Coliseum in the early 90s.
[9] Andy Lau started his career in 1981 by participating in TVB’s artist training programme and published one of his most famous albums, “Would It Be Possible” that won him Top 10 Gold Song Award from RTHK in 1990.
He then published his first Mandapop album in Taiwan, "Loving You Endlessly" in the same year and had sales of more than 1 million copies around Asia.
[10] Another significant achievement was his 1993 album, “Summer Love” that won him the Most Popular Male Singer Award in the TVB's Jade Solid Gold in 1993.
The show was broadcast in Hong Kong in 1999 by ATV's Home Channel and became popular among overseas Chinese worldwide.
Many entertainment companies in Japan expanded their business in Hong Kong which mainly targeted the middle class and teenagers obsessed with Japanese culture, cuisine and lifestyle, resulting in Hong Kong becoming one of the major places for Japanese culture exports.
Successful marketing approach and promotional effect by the agents are two of the main factors contributing to the massive popularity of Japanese culture in Hong Kong during the 1990s.
The British brought different cultures into Hong Kong including eating habits, architecture, governmental system and education.
An iconic director was Wong Kar-wai, he had contributed a large proportion to the success of the Hong Kong film industry.
A popular culture of “mo lei tau” was invented by him which is some nonsensical humour and most of the 1990s Hong Kong movie consisted of such elements.
[14] Apart from the contribution to music industry, Leslie Cheung had also starred in many different movies in the 90s collaborated with famous directors and actors such as Wong Kar-wai and Stephen Chow.
In 1997, a large-scale financial crisis occurred in Asia in which Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand suffered the most impacts.
However, minimal loss had been made for Hong Kong due to a solid and well organised bank system, effective liquidation law and good regulatory infrastructure.
[15] Therefore, the fluctuation of Hong Kong Dollar and Hang Seng Index has been minimised despite the attack held by an American billionaire investor George Soros.
This showed that a transition in Hong Kong's economic system was happening throughout the 1990s and lower reliance on the manufacturing sector.
In 1998, the real estate bubble burst due to the government's housing policy, though the Asian financial crisis also had some influence.
[17] These factors combined to begin the most severe recession in Hong Kong since 1967, which was a year of ambitious government projects that used up fiscal reserves on infrastructure and structural deficit.
