83-year-old Li Yi: I don’t have long to live, but I believe Hong Kong young people have wisdom beyond imagination 1/6
BeWaterLi Yi is 83 years old. According to him, he takes several medicines a day, for diabetes, for whatever ... and sleeping pills. He often said that he couldn't sleep well since he was young, but he still wrote five newspaper columns a week and did "one-minute reading" for RTHK. Li Yi reads all kinds of news online, and he is no less enthusiastic than younger people. There is a Thai helper who cooks and serves him. Other than that, his home is only a house full of books.
Li Yi's family is all in foreign countries and his late wife was buried in Canada, but he is still struggling in Hong Kong alone. Li Yi said that at this stage, he probably should be with family and write his own autobiography. "Of course I can still write if I leave Hong Kong." However, Li Yi cannot not let go of Hong Kong and leave. He states that ever since Hong Kong’s future problems in 1981, he has been "love Hong Kong" and since then "the feelings for China have been very weak."
Decades of pessimism and proactivity
Li Yi often said that he was pessimistic but proactive. His pessimism started in the 1980s. He never believed in "one country, two systems" and kept talking and writing about it, but at that time Hong Kong society was not ready.
"Many people did not believe it at the time, but they did not take any actions. People indeed did not believe it at the time, but they thought, what could they do? Everyone thought that China was an irresistible force, and Britain has given up on us. Who could save you? It means you are going to marry an ugly and old man, your parents have decided for you. If you refuse, they will starve you. So you go ahead to see if your husband will change slowly after marriage, will you adapt to your new life. Many people emigrated after the confirmation of the Sino-British negotiations was settled. "
"The Chinese have the charged acter of a refugee. They escape when something happens. They do not resist when there is oppression. When there is disaster they do not tackle it. No one said that we had to fight here, or the fight would be successful. At that time there was a country selling her passports, the Kingdom of Tonga. I bet you do not know where it is. It is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. At that time, South America, Europe, and Singapore all came to sell passports. Of course, Singapore’s passports should be more expensive than Kingdom of Tonga’s.”
After the immigration wave, of course, 4 June, the pessimism of Hong Kong reached its peak. "At that time, we talked about the Basic Law, which was called basic bored. When we talked about stuffiness, many people felt that the Basic Law could not guarantee anything, and Hong Kong was about to die."
In fact, Hong Kong has been "dead" for more than 30 years.
"That's why the cover of Fortune said that Hong Kong was dead ... In the 1980s, China started to liberalize under Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. A lot of information came out. Corruption was there, but it was not so obvious then. I was not optimistic, but many people thought that China was okay, because the situation was better than what we heard in the Cultural Revolution... But the 4 June 1989 brought a new turning point, the kind of sadness made Hong Kong people want to strike for democracy; Hong Kong people felt that they want to save Hong Kong. If There is democracy in China, then Hong Kong has democracy. Originally, one country, two systems could not be believed, but if you can win Chinese democracy, you should not say that this idea is ridiculous, there was no way out under the circumstances, this set also has a certain degree of rationality. Of course, I have always been very skeptical of this. But you cannot help but support Hong Kong’s democratic movement, no matter what slogan you use. The power of democracy is more than the power of dictatorship, the power of democracy is better and there is no other choice.
Of course, this thing changed in year 2003, 04 & 05. "
Of course, this thing changed in year 2003, 04 & 05. "
In 2003, China's SARS infected Hong Kong, and after the economic collapse, China opened free travel, and a large number of Chinese came to Hong Kong to travel.
To be continued
Source: Stand News, (25-Feb)