Hong Kong + China

Today during lunch, the topic of the recent protests in Hong Kong came up. Those of us were in the room were asked about our thoughts and I was forced to admit that I did not know too much about what was going on in Hong Kong. I blame a portion of this on the news cycle here in the States and how it is very American-centric, but also I know that much of the blame rests on my shoulders and comes down to my own inattention. Today in talking to those who came from Hong Kong here, it was fascinating to hear their thoughts on what was happening with the extradition bill, but also to hear about the history of Hong Kong and the process for handing it off to China. It brought up several questions for me about how the hand-off process will happen when it is due. With the amount of protests over this one bill, I cannot imagine it will go well. I would be very much interested to learn more about the ways that Hong Kong and China are similar, and the ways that they differ. I feel like I know the basics, but I don’t know much beyond that and I think it would be very interesting to look at the cultures and find the point at which they diverged, in what ways they diverged, and if there will ever be a possibility of them coming back together to help the hand-off process go more smoothly.