今天,在大陸和香港,
想表達陷於中共魔掌的人的困境,比喻的確是很好的工具,
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Student
Sadly, unlike people in Gibraltar, the people of Hong Kong were never given the opportunity to decide their own future. Gibraltar was part of Spain before the 18th century, just as Hong Kong was part in China until the mid 19th century. Then Gibraltar was seized by Britain as a colony; the same happened to Hong Kong. Later, in the 20th century, during a period of decolonization, people in Gibraltar were asked in a referendum in 1967 whether they want to return to Spain. 99% voted to remain a British colony. So, even though they remain Spanish ethnically, their citizenship is British. The same option was never given to Hong Kong.
My rewrite
In some primitive societies, where women are viewed as chattels, it’s not uncommon for a newly widowed young woman to be offered as a bride to the brother of her dead husband. The decision is simply made for her by the tribe; whether she wants such an arrangement is irrelevant.
Hong Kong may be an international finance capital with some of the world’s most expensive real estate and more Michelin-starred restaurants than it needs, yet when its post-colony fate was being decided in the mid 1980s, it had as little say as a tribal woman forced to marry her husband’s brother. Britain and China simply conferred among themselves and hammered out a deal – “One Country, Two Systems” – that, some four decades later, turned out to be disastrous for the freedom-loving inhabitants of the city.
It’s a shame for such people that the option granted to Gibraltar was never available to them. Like Hong Kong, Gibraltar used to be part of a larger country (it was an area of Spain in the 18th century); like Hong Kong, Gibraltar was ceded to Britain. Unlike Hong Kong, however, amid the wave of decolonization in the 20th century, the people of Gibraltar was asked in a referendum in 1967 whether they would want to return to Spain. 99% said no. Today, it is still a British territory.
In flocking in vast numbers to reside in the UK after the political turmoils in recent years, Hong Kong people can finally enjoy the security of being British.
Michelle Ng
英國牛津大學畢業,前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家,現在身在楓葉國,心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式: michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站: https://michellengwritings.com
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