3. Social Unrest
The Chinese Manufacturers Association annual exhibition in 1967 and the 1967 riots are two events indicative of Hong Kong’s social contrasts in the 1960s. The year of 1967 marked the 25th anniversary of the industrial annual exhibition with the government’s support. The manufacturing sector played a fundamental role in Hong Kong’s economic growth. Conversely, a series of uprisings occurred in 1967 due to labour conditions and low wages and continued for a period of 8 months with a sequence of labour strikes and detentions, sometimes culminating in extreme violence and deaths.
The uprisings started with a dispute between workers and managers at an artificial flower factory and, eventually spread to other industrial sectors. Left-wing schools and students joined the demonstrations.
Anti-colonial sentiment began to emerge in Hong Kong influenced by mainland movements of the Cultural Revolution, and in particular, by pro-communist riots that had previously erupted in Macao.
The 1967 riots were a turning point in Hong Kong’s history as they triggered a series of social reforms some of them initiated by the colonial administration in the mid-1960s,[1] and a social consciousness reinforced in the following decades through a growing sense of place.
[1] See Gary Ka-wai Cheung, Hong Kong’s Watershed: The 1967 Riots, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009.
