Everyone loves holidays. A holiday exists to celebrate an event or to remember an incident and it is interesting to know that there are many types of holidays around the world.

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region in China that have declared independence on July 1st 1997 from hundred years of British colonialism, subsequently following law, societal and economic systems of its own based on various influences from UK, China and Japan in World War II. Hong Kong’s Independence Day is unique because, even after more than twenty years of declaration of independence, this holiday is controversial every year as different political groups clash – physically and online – on the significance of the holiday and express their political views on Hong Kong’s relation with China and United Kingdom.

Every year on Hong Kong Independence Day, pro democracy activists march on the streets demanding Beijing officials to stop infringing on freedom of Hong Kong as an independent region, and to deploy fully democratic voting procedure where local Hong Kong residents could choose whom to run as candidate instead of current procedure where Beijing provides pre-selected candidates for Hong Kong residents to choose from. Recently as Mainland China’s censorship power stretched across the border to Hong Kong, pro democracy activists have also joined hands with freedom activists to raise awareness about falling press freedom in Hong Kong.

As reunification of Hong Kong and China in 2047 looms across the horizon, the tensions have been rising, especially around the day of independence, and only time and politics would tell how long this holiday would actually last.

Written by Anonymous