On an overcast, chilly May morning, almost a hundred former "zhiqing" - the name for urban educated youth sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution - gathered in a suburb of Hong Kong's North New Territories. From there, they could overlook the Shenzhen River on the border between Hong Kong and the mainland, the grave of numerous bright, young lives who drowned while attempting to flee to Hong Kong over 40 years ago. 

 

Each year, the zhiqing organise a commemoration to remember the dead, many of them friends, relatives and classmates. The zhiqing here today were just a handful of the hundreds of thousands who made the crossing, the last remaining survivors of the treacherous journey.

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"The joss paper has got wet!" a zhiqing shouted, holding an iron basket carrying the incense offerings. 

 

The downpour left them soaked. Raindrops splashed over their jackets and umbrellas, the sound so loud that participants could barely hear each other as they climbed the trail stairs to the pavilion where the commemoration was to be held. They kept plodding up. When winded, they paused for breath. Most were in their 70s, and a group who couldn't walk uphill stayed behind. 

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At the pavilion, a few began lighting the incense sticks around red candles, while others held an umbrella to block the breeze from putting out the low flame. Still and solemn, a thin, grey wisp of smoke twirled skyward, producing a pungent, lingering smell that invited the zhiqing to come forward to the mini altar. They offered their incense sticks, put their palms together, bowed and murmured. In the centre stood a white cloth  hanging from a stick with eight Chinese characters inspired by an ancient poem, saying, "where the souls would rest." 

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Not all of them knew each other, but their collective trauma brought them together. They asked about each other's hometowns, schools and villages. They asked how many times each had tried to flee China and the ways.

 

At lunchtime, I sat at a table with three of them. 

 

"My elder brother was eaten by sharks, in Kat O. Four escaped, including him. Two died," the zhiqing on my right said, holding a bowl of rice and chopsticks.

 

"They were on the Hong Kong side. Just a few metres...Two wore socks, but he didn't. The socks glared. A person's feet without socks look white in seawater. The shark saw that and chased after him." 

 

He added that he lived close to the sea in southern China in his childhood and saw many dead bodies wash ashore every day. 

 

"So many people died," the zhiqing sitting opposite interrupted.  

 

Between 1961 and 1980, the Immigration Department recorded over 421,000 "illegal immigrants" -- the official term for the Chinese refugees who entered Hong Kong without a permit. The Hong Kong government census in 1981 showed that 3 million Hong Kong residents were immigrants from China and less than 60% of the population was native to the city, according to a study by Prof. John P Burns in 1982.  With the first influx dating back to 1949, the year the People’s Republic of China was founded, for years the territory has been a safe haven for mainlanders fleeing persecution, oppressive political policies and famine for the freedom and better living conditions of Hong Kong. 

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Those who arrived in the 1960s and the 1970s, like the zhiqing who make the annual trek to commemorate the dead, are now in their 70s, mostly retired and with children and grandchildren. Many are telling their stories here for the first time, worried that their struggles to survive will soon be lost to history.

 

This project consists of two chapters: 1) The Escape, a detailed explanation of what forced Chinese people to brave the deadly journey to Hong Kong over a century ago. 2) Being Hong Kong, which traces the lives of the Chinese new immigrants as they landed in the flourishing city. 

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