Hong Kong 1954 - going to the beach

[hkchrism]

Which beaches did you go to Michael? That's one thing you might find hasn't changed all that much (parts of the south side plus much of the outlying islands and the new territories).

[meganstephen83]

keep safe

[sifurick123]

I was born in china in hong kong 1952 . My family blood line consists of three different nationalities . Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese. There is an old saying . when a person moves to a foreign country the  first two thing he tries is the food and the women . I not quite sure in what order.

[bensontam]

you must be a wealthy guy back then. Only wealthy person in Hong Kong owns a car, especially in 1950s.

[MichaelRogge]

@bensontam Not that wealthy! I bought the Oldsmobile Convertible second-hand.

[dawnnadir]

These Chinese girls are hot! Do you still keep in touch with them?

[MichaelRogge]

@dawnnadir If they are still alive, they are old women now - around 75 years old! Alas, I have not heard of any of the staff members of our bank in the early fifties and wonder if any of them are still alive. Some of them emigrated to the USA. The Dutch colleagues seen in the clip have died many years ago!

[swithlanduk]

Michael I love this clip with the three HK girls in the back of the car. In that respect, things have not changed too much !! I bet you has a wild time back then. Do you remember the FCC up on Conduit Road back in the 50's, where they filmed Love is a many spledored thing ? Charles

[MichaelRogge]

@swithlanduk Sorry, I was not that kind of a wild guy, appearances notwithstanding! One of the few times I visited the FCC in 1949 I was given a lift home by the reporter Han Suyin was in love with in his MG!

[MyLalinea]

yes johnchannetshow you are right.

[Bouncybon]

@dragondescent I worked for 12 years in HK and I realize you must be much younger than me. I have many Chinese friends and i know from experience that they had nothing much against the British. Don't spoil my memories of very happy years.

[MrWearetheworld0]

@Bouncybon Yes, think about those yummy opium, we all love British. You guys really know act. Mr. gentleman.

[Bouncybon]

@MrWearetheworld0 The Chinese Communist party will always push the Opium Wars as the most shameful proof of the wickedness of the British. No-one living today had any part in that episode.

Many people living today (including British, American, German, French, Scandinavian, Canadian etc. etc.) helped the amazing Cantonese to build one of the greatest cities of the world - Hong Kong.

If HK had not been developed between 1945 and 1997, China would have taken MUCH longer to modernise and get rich.

[MrWearetheworld0]

@Bouncybon Nothing against any race, one should never forget the definition and purpose of " Colony". People in general at those days are living in poor condition. Those who build this great city are 97% Chinese citizens, not so called 3% foreigners come for the wealth. HK remain one of the most important colony for British since it's the last and the only one with positive income till very end. The communist China (in those day) need to maintain HK as only free port to the world.

[Bouncybon]

@MrWearetheworld0 That's all true. But new thinking is needed on this subject. After the Japanese occupation of HK in World War II, the British were welcomed back - to administer the city in a new period of extraordinary growth.

I went to work in Hong Kong because it was such an interesting place - more wonderful than London. I was well-paid, but nothing special. I stayed because it was so much fun.

Of course, the CCP can never admit that Britain did anything good for China.

[MrWearetheworld0]

@Bouncybon It isn't a new thinking, it's thousands of year old. Japan used this thinking to free Asia from European Colonization, US + allies liberated Iraq for a better world.

HK is a great city with partnership of British in certain way.

But not sure is CCP always push Opium Wars against British, nor never admit Britain did anything good for China. Being anti-colonialism or imperialism has nothing to do with communist. Same as those Britons don't want being the 51st State of US is communist.

[Bouncybon]

@dragondescent Britain never introduced democracy in HK because China would not have allowed it. Instead we administered Hong Kong with careful attention to the wishes of local people. Also, the HK Civil Service, although developed on a UK model was brilliantly run by the people of Hong Kong themselves.

[fiberjen]

beautiful clips, thanks Michael!!!

[kludge11]

Hahaha, all these people are dead already. Never seen dead people swimming!

[WorldWormStudios]

Nice foley!

[andrewcklam]

@dragondescent Take a look on the LegCo 1996, where everyone sitting there were voted by all peoples of the colony; but what happens a year after? Don't you remember that the "Beijing" authority appointed all 60 members of the legislature where NO ONE is popularly elected?

HK is never so "democratic" after the British left, that is why people here missing the British, especially the last governor, Chris Patten

[andrewcklam]

@dragondescent It was changed when the autocratic "Beijing" authority frequently addresses "opinions" on affairs which they claimed before 1997 should be decided locally. HK is now more likely to be a colony than anytime before 1997.

If the success of HK is solely brought by Chinese, then why not Shanghai, even the Portuguese Macau?

[andrewcklam]

@dragondescent There may have no democracy during the colonial era, but everyone in HK cannot deny that being a colony, the sky was blue and the air was fresh, the whole society always move forward even when facing challenges.

It was changed when the Five-starred Blood-shed flag being raised in the territory, when government officials make deals privately with the local monopolies for their own goodness.

[rhkap]

@dragondescent BUT THE THING IS, THE LONDON GOVERNMENT IS DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED.

[ALReppin]

Who is the person behind the camera?

[MichaelRogge]

Me: Michael Rogge

[28enero1991]

Those people are all dead

[MichaelRogge]

Regrettably: yes. I get very few responses of survivors. I was lucky enough to reach 80. Most people in HK smoked, but I didn't, nor did I drink much except for soft drinks.

[givemeusernameplease]

I was born in this year.

[chinovince]

wonderful, 1954, I was born yet, but the small boat is very impressive, I remember that and love that. The old time seemed to be simple but happy.

[fgah]

Unless your were born or living at the upper echelon of the Hong Kong society then, I bet you would wish you were never born.

Live is not so simple and peaceful as you thought. Indeed it was like a hell.The majority were in a bitter sea except those colonial masters,Caucasians and Chinese cronies of the colonial structure,specially those Chinese elites who even more vicious in exploiting their poor fellow compatriots.

[garyp2727]

Well, given that people were still pouring over the borders from the mainland, it obviously wasn't that bad, or the worst of the two places..

[fgah]

Actually,there werent much of a major population spill-over until 1957; Those who spilled over to Hong Kong were previous government remnants and some number of elites of ationalist China ,who were smart enough to comprehend the hidden brutality of rotten Chinese

[fgah]

Communists and its citizens.Indeed , the majority were naively quite happy with the regime at the initial stage of CPP takeover. Believe,or not the quality of life in major Chinese Cities then like Beijing, Shanghai and even KwangChow between 1949 and 1955 was marginally better than in Hong Kong.

[garyp2727]

Not true. In 1941 HK's population was about 650,000. It was about 2.25 million by 1954, when the HK Refugee Survey mission found that 285,000 claimed political refugee status. They were just 53% of those who had arrived since 1949. There were almost 500,000 in all. About 30% of all people in HK at the time were essentially "refugees".

[garyp2727]

Between 1949 and 1962, a million people had crossed the border. The school population alone had gone from 143,000 to 658,000. Yeah, people chose this hell on Earth, as you like to picture it, over their homeland.

[Bouncybon]

They must have been very hard, very difficult years. But after the end of WWII in the east, the British returned to administer HK again. It was not so much colonial as 'post-colonial'. HK benefitted from the democratic tradition of UK citizens who worked there. Sure, there was no democracy. But the British governed in a way that reflected their own democracy back home. They also developed a civil service that HK people operated brilliantly. By 1997 it was one of the world's greatest cities.

[twinturbine]

fgah: Deiu neih lo mo! Sei ah-Chan! LAIR!

[fgah]

Fuck you CCP Ching Dog

[rhkap]

I can't think of any reason to disagree with you.

[tsaishing]

Haha... love the dubbed audio, brilliant. Could this have been Repulse Bay, judging by the dstant landscape?

[MichaelRogge]

No, it was near Clear Water Bay in the N.T.

[tsaishing]

Ah yes, of course, looking out from the larger of two bays at Clearwater Bay. We used to go there quite often over the weekends since the late 50s.

[Rainbow76]

I totally agreed !!!

[ltlwatcher]

Rich gweilo.

[kalasie7]

Fun!

[MichaelRogge]

If you have seen my other 200 video clips you will know that I have taken a variety of subjects all thru the last sixty years.

[canman5060]

Michael,

They are ALL GREAT video clips. Bring back a lot of memory from ny childhood years in Hong Kong. I cry watching many of those.

[HumanStrategy]

Sorry, I don't speak or read gibberish.^^

[HumanStrategy]

"Nobody can change by gone day. You'd better not speak or wirte in English as is part of their culture."

Now, if only I could actually understand what you're trying to say. Your English is less than average and your grammar is way off.

Try again, please.

[schutzstaffel0000]

All the beautiful day has gone. All HK beach has been polluted, just like mainland China nowadays.

[raymond08586]

@schutzstaffel0000 I disagree. I was at Repuls Bay a couple years ago at thought it was beautiful, could have been Hawaii with the tropical foliage and nice beaches.

[MrWearetheworld0]

@schutzstaffel0000 Agree, the problem of so called civilization. We in US facing the same problem but just in different scale. I missed them too.

[5gatorbait]

Hi Michael. I am trying to locate Otto Ionker. My mother dated him years ago and could possibly be one of the ladies in that video. I can't really tell-its not that good of a picture. If you could help me locate him (if that's him in the video) I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Michele

[MichaelRogge]

Sorry, but Otto Ionker is not in that picture.

They are Hans Wynia, Enno Develing, Roberto Silva and other Portugese bank staff.The first two have already died long ago. With the others I have lost touch unfortunately.

[hudsonch]

Hi Michael, I got a question. Hong Kong followed Britain's practice that cars should have steering wheels on the right side. However, those cars shown on the videos had steering wheels on the left side. Well, may be in the 1950s, they were more lax about the rules. I'm in USA, but I come from Hong Kong. It's amazing to watch the videos that were made long before I was born! Thanks Mike

[eithony]

i hope they all will contact you. maybe youtube can help you.

it is hard for you not smoking and drinking, many people were smoking then.

[MichaelRogge]

They were typists in the office. I returned to HK thirty years later and failed to trace any of the fifty employees. Some of the Half Chinese/Portugese clerks emigrated to the USA and did well in American banks. I wish any one of them could contact me! The Dutch boys seen have all died as did most of the people I knew in the Far East and seen in my video clips, alas (I was one of the people who did not smoke nor drink!).

[yue2007]

Hi Michael, it's very interesting to see old HK clips from the 50s and 60s! I know two Dutch guys - Otto Ionker (who was the MD of Singer in the 60s) and Joop Litmaah (he's still in HK). BTW, I am Chinese. Do you know them?

[MichaelRogge]

I'm sorry, but I do not know them. I suppose you mean Otto Jonker with a J . I left HK in 1955,returning for a short visit in 1960 and 1989

[yue2007]

No, I mean with an "I". He was born in Indonesia but he's Dutch.

[eithony]

did these hong kong girls on the beach are your colleagues then? they now may be grandmothers and have many grandchildren. are they still in hong kong?