User:OOM 224/Hong Kong

< User:OOM 224

This is a compendium of information relevant to Hong Kong and its contributions to Star Wars, themed around migration and trade.


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Timeline

–1841

「人類進化之目的為何？即孔子所謂『大道之行也，天下為公』，耶穌所謂『爾旨得成，在地若天』，此人類所希望，化現在之痛苦世界而為極樂之天堂者是也。」
("The purpose of human evolution? It is Confucius's 'All under Heaven, when virtue reigns'; Jesus's 'Your will be done, in Earth, as it is in Heaven'; humanity hopes to transform the present world of suffering into a paradise of bliss.")
—Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in 1919
  • The geology of Hong Kong is formed from volcanic eruptions at the end of the Jurassic and start of the Cretaceous period between the Pacific and Eurasian plates, including a supervolcano with its centre at today's High Island
  • Neolithic people lived in the area of modern-day Hong Kong, with the Yue peoples settling across the wider Lingnan region during the Bronze Age
  • 3rd century BC 秦代嶺南 百家粵人 也稱南越
    • The Yue peoples come under the rule of the First Emperor of Qin following the Spring and Autumn/Warring States period, from which arose influential schools of Chinese philosophy such as Confucianism, based on the teachings of Confucius and Mencius and the concept of the Mandate of Heaven with both the right to rule and the right of rebellion. The Qin Empire was the first state to unite much of what in modern times is known as China, founded on the basis of Legalist rule by law and a centralised administration of hierarchical bureaucracy. The authoritarian Qin Empire was short-lived and fragmented into various kingdoms, including the Southern Yue (Nanyue or Nam Việt) which stretched from present-day Guangzhou (Canton) to Hanoi.
  • Han dynasty 漢代 中原人口向嶺南移民，後有廣東、閩南、潮州、福建、本地、客家等人和語言
    • The Han Empire reconquers former Qin territory in the 2nd century BC, culminating with the large Yue kingdom in the south under Emperor Wu. Han people migrated southward to the Lingnan region, and various philosophies amalgamated into Confucianism as the official system of governance. Han China was comparable with the contemporaneous Roman Republic, which became the Roman Empire where Christianity developed from Judaism.
  • 3rd century to 6th century AD
    • Fall of the Han Empire. Instability across fragmented kingdoms increases immigration from the north to the Lingnan region. Amalgamations of people eventually form ethnic groups and language varieties such as Yue Cantonese and Min, including Taishanese, Punti Cantonese, Tanka, Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew etc.
    • Fall of the Roman Empire in the west, while the eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) remains intact with its capital in Constantinople. Instability across fragmented kingdoms increases immigration from across Europe to the former Roman province of Britain, and feudal kingdoms are established with varying levels of connections to the Catholic Christian Church in Rome.
    • The Eastern Wu establish a salt tax office at Nantou in present-day Shenzhen
    • According to legend, Hong Kong's Buddhist Tsing Shan Monastery on Castle Peak was founded by the monk Pui To in the 5th century.
    • The Sasanian Empire's control over the Silk Road between Europe and China restricts movement. Following the Plague of Justinian, two monks help Justinian I smuggle silkworms out of China and into the Byzantine Empire, establishing the empire's silk monopoly in Europe.
  • Tang dynasty 唐代 有各樣宗教信仰。古時商人自東南亞、印度、波斯、阿拉伯等，在「屯門」關稅。香港沿岸亦有鹽田、石灰窯、採珍珠、拜媽祖天后。
    • The Tang era is often regarded as a golden age for China, with people linked to the Lingnan region often referring to themselves and their culture even today as 唐 (Tang, pronounced "Tong" in Cantonese) people as another way of saying ethnic Chinese or Chinese culture, à la "Han people" or "Hua people."
    • The customs checkpoint of Tuen Mun 屯門 is established in Nantou, across the bay from Pui To's hill, which becomes known as Tuen Mun Hill. Maritime merchants from Southeast Asia, India, and the Arab world passed through Tuen Mun to trade with China.[1] Evidence of salt pans, lime kilns, pearl-diving, and the worship of sea goddess Mazu (Tin Hau) on Hong Kong's coasts date from around this time.
    • Emperor Taizong was open to faiths such as Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity—welcoming a Christian missionary from the Syriac Church of the East in 635, at the same time when Celtic and Roman missionaries were reestablishing Christianity in Britain—and Islam, and tried to reconcile Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism as they spread across China with its myriad of local folk beliefs.
    • Wu Zetian rules as Empress of China. Afterwards, the devastating An Lushan rebellion took place in northern China but not in the south, and ironically, Tang poetry by the masters Li Bai, Du Fu, and Wang Wei around the time of the rebellion were made in Middle Chinese, a historical spoken language, but the poems nevertheless rhyme better in Cantonese than e.g. Mandarin.
    • Scholar-officials Liu Yuxi and Han Yu mention Tuen Mun in their poems. Han Yu is considered the foremost master of classical Chinese prose and a major influence on Neo-Confucianism centuries later. However, Han Yu's anti-Buddhist sentiment inspired the religious persecutions against Buddhism that grew to include Zoroastrianism and Christianity in the 840s, culminating in a massacre of foreign merchants in Canton in 878 during a rebellion that overthrew the Tang dynasty.
  • Southern Han, in the Lingnan region (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period)
    • Lau Cheung controls a prosperous Tuen Mun but directs excessive pearl-diving by thousands of labourers in Tai Po and other coastal parts of Hong Kong for a Persian concubine. The Song dynasty defeat Southern Han's war elephants in Canton in 971 and annexes the region, uniting China again.
  • Song and Yuan dynasties 宋朝/元朝
    Please take the following image selection with their rather taxingly irreverent captions with a pinch of salt.

    Please take the following image selection with their rather taxingly irreverent captions with a pinch of salt.

    • Great Schism in Christianity between the Catholic Church in Rome and the Orthodox Catholic Church in Constantinople in 1054
    • Norman Conquest of England in 1066
    • The Punti clan of Tang (鄧, one of the extant five great clans) establish themselves in modern-day Hong Kong's Kam Tin (錦田, then Sham Tin) area, complete with an imperial academy named Li Ying College in the 1070s
    • The Investiture Controversy between the Church and the state in Europe begins in the 1070s
    • Scholar-official Su Shi writes about China's extensive iron industry in 1078 and makes poems criticising the reformist Wang Anshi faction's policies in the Song court, including the government monopoly over the salt industry (in place since Emperor Wu of Han), which leads to Su Shi's exile in 1080, after which he develops his legendary status as an author and artist.
    • The Jin dynasty defeats the Song dynasty in northern China in 1127, forcing the Song court southwards.
    • In 1163, the Southern Song government considers abandoning Kwun Fu Cheung 官富場, a vast salt pan stretching along the coast of the modern-day Bay of Kowloon in Hong Kong, directly overseen by Song officials and troops but falling short of expectations. Kwun Fu Cheung eventually gave its name to the modern-day Kwun Tong 觀塘. However, salt pans in the region repeatedly attempted to evade taxation.
    • The declining Southern Song government's attempt to re-establish the salt tax in modern-day Hong Kong leads to the Salt Rebellion of 1197 by the local Tanka on Lantau Island, which was brutally quelled.[1] 宋朝香港 力瀛書院 宋金戰爭 蜑家私鹽 1197年 宋官徵稅 鹽民起義
    • Crusaders sack Constantinople in 1204 and partition the Byzantine Empire, with Venice and Genoa overtaking the Byzantine merchants.
    • Neo-Confucianism is developed by Zhu Xi in northern China, aiming to refine Chinese philosophy with Confucianism as a rationalist ethical philosophy by embracing some aspects of other beliefs like Taoism and Buddhism while rejecting mysticism that had accumulated over the centuries.
    • With their empire under Genghis Khan stretching from the Caucasus to Korea, the Mongols conquer the Jin in the north in 1234 and then begin attacking the Southern Song. From 1260, the Mongol Empire fragmented between the Golden Horde that conquered the Kyivan Rus', the Ilkhanate that conquered Persia, the Chagatai Khanate that conquered Central Asia, and Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty that conquered northern China. Due to turmoil from the concurrent crusades, Venetian merchants Niccolò and Maffeo Polo left Constantinople just before its re-capture by the resurgent Byzantine Empire, reaching Crimea and finding themselves in the Mongol Empire; the Polos were invited to Dadu (Beijing), where Kublai Khan tasked them with requesting 100 educated Christians from the Pope to teach his court about Europe in 1266.
    • Hong Kong's oldest (Mazu) Tin Hau Temple is built in 1266 near coastal salt pans, and a Song salt administrator visits the temple in 1274
    • Niccolò, Maffeo, and Marco Polo—without what Kublai Khan asked for—manage to travel the entire length of the Silk Road from Venice to join Kublai Khan's court in Xanadu in 1275
    • The Song court retreats to modern-day Hong Kong in 1278 before their final defeat by the the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty in the sea in 1279, marking the first time all of China is conquered by a foreign-led power.[1] Out of respect for the seven-year-old final emperor of Song, local people carve a memorial upon Sacred Hill that omits the word "emperor" to avoid offending the new Yuan government and name the area Kowloon 九龍, meaning nine dragons—indicating the eight mountains sheltering the peninsula of Kwun Fu Cheung, plus the "dragon" that was the emperor. 百年後 宋皇臺蹟 大元戰勝
    • John of Montecorvino, sent by Pope Nicholas IV following a request from Abaqa Khan of the Ilkhanate to send Catholic missionaries to Kublai Khan, arrives in Dadu in 1294 and begins a successful mission
    • Marco Polo returns to Venice in 1295, and his accounts later inspired other merchants in the Italian city-states
  • Ming dynasty 明朝
    • The Black Death precipitates the fall of the Mongol khanates in the west, and the Han Chinese–led Ming overthrow the Yuan in 1368. The Ming Empire then expelled Christians. The Silk Road declined during this time of unrest, and silks were manufactured directly in the Italian city-states, Lyon, Valencia, Toledo, and the Alpujarras (see Ghorman).
    • The Ming Empire was the world's premier naval power with its treasure voyages led by Admiral Zheng He, a eunuch of the Ming court and a Muslim who also worshipped Mazu. The voyages abruptly ended following Zheng He's death in the 1430s amidst contentions between the eunuch and scholar-official factions.
    • Wang Yangming contributes to Neo-Confucianism by highlighting Mencius' 良知/conscience as the essence of the mind, which is instinctively knowing what is good and what is evil.
    • With land routes to Asia closed off after the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and Roman Catholic monarchs of Spain completing the Reconquista against Muslims and Jews in Iberia in 1492, the so-called Age of Discovery sees western European explorers seeking maritime routes to Asia, with Columbus (inspired by Marco Polo) arriving in the Americas in 1492 and Magellan's crew circumnavigating the Earth in 1522.
    • In 1514, Portuguese maritime traders led by Jorge Álvares set up the first European outpost in China, Tamão, named after 屯門/Tuen Mun, in the modern-day region of Hong Kong. Hong Kong contains large amounts of pottery dating from around this time.
    • Ming forces decided to expel the Portuguese merchants in 1521, defeating them in battle. The Portuguese retreat to Malacca, a strategic point from which Portugal controlled trade between Europe and East Asia, undercutting the Silk Road and Venice's standing as Europe's international trading centre.
    • Following the Reformation beginning in 1517 with Protestants turning away from Catholicism, King Henry VIII of England breaks the Crown away from the Roman Catholic Church and dissolves all the monasteries of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and establishes the dominance of the Crown over the isles—the divine right of kings.
    • In 1557, Portugal secured a lease of neighbouring Macau—named after Mazu—and Spain began colonising the Philippines in 1565. The Portuguese traded between Europe and China and also profited from selling Chinese silk to the Japanese in Nagasaki, while "New Spain," controlled from Mexico City, traded between Southeast Asia and the Americas; imperial China traded in silver in exchange for the sale of luxury goods, and Spanish silver freshly mined and minted in South America was abundant. China and Nagasaki received Portuguese and Spanish Jesuits and Franciscans, who were Roman Catholic.
    • In 1588, Sham Tin leads in relief donations for the drought in present-day Guangdong and therefore receives the name Kam Tin (錦田), which has connotations of being very fine. Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth I's England defeated the Spanish Armada, and the Dutch Republic secured its independence from Spain, marking the Protestant countries' increased power in the European wars of religion.
    • A 1595 Ming map of the province of Guangdong shows Hong Kong and various local place names.
    • Queen Elizabeth I pens a letter to the Wanli Emperor in 1602, attempting to establish a maritime trading route, but the envoys perish at sea
    • King James VI of Scotland succeeds to the English throne and begins ruling as King James VI and I from London in 1603
    • The Japanese warring states period ends in 1603 as the Tokugawa shogunate unites Japan
    • The Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius' Mare Liberum (1609) challenges Portugal's monopoly over maritime trade. Britain began colonising North America and established ties with Japan alongside the Dutch. The Dutch unsuccessfully battled Portugal in Macau, but Japan implemented anti-Catholic and isolationist policies in the 1630s and chose to trade exclusively with the Dutch.
    • Portugal secured its independence from Spain in 1640. 明代鄭和寶船 葡萄牙交鋒 澳門租契 英蘇愛爾蘭聯合
  • Early Qing dynasty
    • The Manchus overthrow the Ming dynasty in 1644, and the Kangxi Emperor's Great Clearance coastal ban evacuates fishing, salt pan, and farming communities in much of the modern Hong Kong region and southern China in an attempt to counter piracy, particularly from Ming loyalists in Taiwan in the 1660s.[1] In Star Wars and History, a 2012 collection of essays commissioned by George Lucas, Michael Laver compared Tatooine and Cloud City, ports in the Star Wars galaxy's political and economic fringe, with southeastern Chinese ports such as 廈門 Amoy (Xiamen) and Canton; far from the imperial capital Peking (Beijing), piracy thrived in southern China during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in the seventeenth century, pirate-admiral Zheng Zhilong (鄭芝龍) and his family competed and collaborated with the collapsing Ming and rising Qing dynasties of China—likened to the fragile Galactic Republic, or Lando Calrissian alternating as a pirate, Cloud City's Baron Administrator, and rebel general in Star Wars.[2] 清代遷界令抗海盜 香港鹽場廢置
    • The Kangxi Emperor lifts the coastal ban after the Qing conquest of Taiwan in 1685, and coastal communities including the Tang clan in Kam Tin develop the Taiping Festival: commemorating those who died in the evacuation, thanking the officials who asked the emperor to lift the ban, and celebrating the people's return to the coast with Taoist rituals, Cantonese opera, wooden puppetry, lion and dragon dances, and communal feasts. The salt pan community on the Kowloon Peninsula never recovered, and farmers eventually moved to the area.
  • Turn of the 17th century
    • Britain overcame its century of warfare and revolutions when England executed Charles I, established and then overthrew its Commonwealth, invited Dutch Protestants to serve as constitutional monarchs under Parliament's Bill of Rights, designated the Protestant Hanoverians as successors to the Crown, and united with Scotland following a failed Scottish attempt to colonise Panama. They formed the Kingdom of Great Britain, where ultimately Parliament is sovereign as the collective representative of the people, and giving rise to advances in philosophy and science with the Scottish Enlightenment.
  • 1729
    • The Yongzheng Emperor bans the recreational smoking of madak, a blend of tobacco and opium popular along the southern China coast
  • 1757
    • The Qianlong Emperor mandates all foreign trade to be done via the Canton System in the port of Canton, along with Macau for residence and trade 中歐貿易一口通商 廣州十三行
    • The British East India Company begins expanding the British Empire into India
  • 1773
    • Tea onloaded at Macau is dumped into Boston Harbor—the Boston Tea Party escalates the American Revolution—enabled by the growth of global commerce and mass consumption with the fledgling Industrial Revolution in Britain as well as the trans-Atlantic slave trade, agitated by taxes imposed by the British Parliament, and inspired by Enlightenment ideals—leading to the independence of the United States of America from Britain
  • 1776
    • Scottish Enlightenment: publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, marking growing awareness of political economy. The notion that trade with minimal barriers, "free trade," would create wealth began to gain traction, particularly among the growing middle-class bourgeoisie making profits as entrepreneurs facilitating commerce and mass production amidst the Industrial Revolution.
  • Turn of the 18th century
    • The French Revolution of 1789 leads to the rise of Emperor Napoleon, who warred against coalitions of European powers and was finally defeated by the army led by the Duke of Wellington in 1815. Britain's Royal Navy ruled the waves, and the British Parliament abolished the slave trade for the most part after decades of campaigning. The East India Company's monopoly on trading opium with China also became very profitable with a surge in opium smoking.
  • 1810
    • Legendary pirate leaders Cheung Po Tsai and Cheng I Sao, whose fleets descended from the Zheng family and plagued the Qing, Portuguese, and British over the South China Sea from their stronghold around the islands of Hong Kong, negotiate a surrender to the Qing
  • 1823
  • 1834
    • The Prussian Lutheran missionary Karl Gützlaff, dismayed by the common Chinese notion that Westerners were barbarians, publishes a Chinese magazine attempting to convince readers of the merits of Western culture. Gützlaff also publishes English journals of his travels, increasing interest in expanding trade with China.
    • The UK Parliament ends the British East India Company's monopoly on trade between India and China, with the Scottish merchants William Jardine and James Matheson taking the opportunity expand their commercial activity around Canton, including the sale of opium made from poppies grown in British-ruled India, and working with Gützlaff as an interpreter. Gützlaff distributed Christian literature and British medicine while Jardine and Matheson sold opium in exchange for tea.
    • Lord Napier suggests to Lord Palmerston, who was serving as foreign secretary under Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, that Britain should seize Canton's neighbouring island of Hong Kong—traders applied the name of a Tanka fishing port in the south called 香港, meaning "fragrant harbour," to the entire island.
    • Inspired by Gützlaff, Scotsman David Livingstone decides to study medicine and theology, eventually joining the London Missionary Society and leading influential expeditions in Africa
    • King William IV removes Lord Melbourne as Prime Minister—the last time a British monarch tried to remove a government against Parliament's wishes
    • The Duke of Wellington, as Sir Robert Peel's foreign secretary, dismisses Matheson's lobbying for war against China
  • 1835
    • Lord Melbourne returns to government
  • 1837
    • King William IV passes away; Queen Victoria accedes to the Crown
  • 1839
    Not-opium being seized and destroyed, sparking the Opium War

    Not-opium being seized and destroyed, sparking the Opium War

    • Upon Jardine's departure from Canton, Qing official Lin Zexu writes an appeal to Britain to stop shipping opium and seizes British opium stocks. Charles Elliot prevented an immediate battle by promising merchants that the British government would compensate for surrendering their opium as Lin dumps the drug into Canton Bay. After several more incidents and lobbying from Jardine and Matheson, Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston pushes for war against China despite opposition from Peel and Gladstone in Parliament.

26th January, 1841 — 26th January, 1978

"[British rule] began with events that […] none of us here would wish or seek to condone, but we might note that most of those who live in Hong Kong now do so because of events in our own century which would today have few defenders. All that is a reminder that sometimes we should remember the past the better to forget it."
―Chris Patten, in 1997[3]
  • January 26, 1841 (HK population: ~7,500)
    • British forces land on a northern part of Hong Kong Island, in its deep port harbour now named Victoria Harbour, and claim possession.[4] 大英帝國領先歐洲 殖民印度鴉片貿易
  • August 29, 1842
  • 1844
  • 1845
    • The potato blight causes the failure of the potato crop in western Europe, exacerbating economic conditions throughout Europe and causing severe famine in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Starvation increased emigration to America and contributed to Irish antagonism towards British rule.
  • 1846
    • Peel sacrifices his government to support Cobden and the Whigs' push for the repeal of the Corn Laws (tariffs) in Parliament. Scotsman James Wilson had founded The Economist magazine to advocate for repeal based on the belief in "free trade."
  • 1847
    • The Christian Bible, translated by European Protestant missionaries into Chinese, is distributed in China—initial printings of the Old Testament, mostly translated by Gützlaff, are adopted by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement
  • 1848
    • The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is published in Europe amidst the continent's wave of (bourgeois) revolutions. Food shortages stemming from the potato blight contributed to the discontent, though revolution did not occur in Britain, which had the Chartist movement instead. According to the Marxist perspective, the new bourgeoisie created constitutional nation-states as they took power from the absolutist feudal ruling class and established conservative protectionism (tariffs) to centralise capital. The subsequent repeal of tariffs and "free trade" means expanding "the freedom of capital to crush the worker" because production becomes more effective through greater division of labour and use of machinery worldwide, which lowers the prices of commodities, including the commodity of labour (wages)—"the cheap prices of [the bourgeoisie's] commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls" because every modern society could only survive competition by adopting the same bourgeois mode of production. As overproduction indicates an economic system that is out-of-control, the result would be the increase of the numbers of the working class and class antagonism in capitalist societies, accelerating inevitable revolutions by the workers of the world.
"When Herr Gützlaff came back […] he heard talk of socialism and asked what it was. When he was told, he exclaimed in alarm: 'Am I nowhere to escape this ruinous doctrine? Precisely the same thing has been preached for some time in China by many people from the mob.' […] it is still amusing to note that the oldest and most unshakeable empire on earth has, within eight years, been brought to the brink of a social revolution by the cotton bales of the English bourgeoisie; in any event, such a revolution cannot help but have the most important consequences for the civilized world. When our European reactionaries, in the course of their imminent flight through Asia, finally arrive at the Great Wall of China, at the gates which lead to the home of primal reaction and primal conservatism, who knows if they will not find written thereon the legend:

République chinoise
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité"
―Marx and Engels, in 1850[5]
  • 1849-1860s (HK population: 120,000)
    • Thousands of Chinese pass through Hong Kong to join the California gold rush, while more migrants displaced by a series of catastrophies like the Taiping Rebellion (20-30 million dead across China), Punti–Hakka Clan Wars (1 million dead in Guangdong), and the bubonic plague (100,000 dead in Guangzhou) arrive in Hong Kong, and the network of overseas Chinese communities grow with Hong Kong and the Shanghai settlements as key nodes.
      A bakery poisoning incident sparked the Second Opium War and Palmerston's UK general election victory

      A bakery poisoning incident sparked the Second Opium War and Palmerston's UK general election victory

    • Marx and Engels comment that Gützlaff, upon returning to Europe and learning of socialism, likened its doctrine to the Taiping Rebellion. Marx and Engels muse that a Chinese republic could be founded along a revolutionary path (from 1789 in France)—ironically, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement was inspired by Gützlaff's translation of the Bible, and Marx considered religion to be the "opium of the people."
    • Gützlaff passes away in Hong Kong after a scandal erupted during his trip in Europe—some of the Chinese missionaries he trained were opium addicts who sold Gützlaff's New Testaments back to Gützlaff's printer who resold them to Gützlaff.
    • Scotsman Robert Fortune helps the East Indian Company establish mass tea production in India with Chinese tea plants and tea makers. James Wilson also founded the Chartered Bank with a branch in Hong Kong (Standard Chartered).
    • The Qing fort in Kowloon briefly falls to rebels during the Taiping Rebellion, while Hong Kong Governor Sir John Bowring establishes a public water supply system, expands education, introduces construction regulations, and even attempts to introduce democratic reforms until the deadly Esing Bakery poisoning incident.
    • A friendly trip to Siam (Thailand) and a minor dispute with Qing authorities shortly afterwards prompts Bowring to escalate it into the Second Opium War. Lord Palmerston invokes patriotism when his government is censured by Parliament in a motion that was led by Cobden and supported by Gladstone and Disraeli, and having secured a favourable peace in the Crimean War against the Russian Empire, Palmerston's Whigs win a significant majority in the subsequent general election and send the Earl of Elgin to China. Bowring's wife dies of complications from the bakery poisoning.
    • British forces defeat the Qing Empire with French, Russian, and American support, facilitated by the chaos of the Taiping Rebellion. In Peking, Elgin destroys the Old Summer Palace, loots the Summer Palace, and forces the Qing court in the Forbidden City to sign the Convention of Peking: the Qing Empire cedes the Kowloon Peninsula to British Hong Kong (except the fort, later known as Kowloon Walled City), cedes Outer Manchuria (and a Korean island) to Russia, opens more ports to foreign trade, and legalizes opium etc.
    • Governor Sir Hercules Robinson resists calls to dedicate Kowloon to armed forces and instead develops it as a residential extension of the city of Hong Kong and also develops Hong Kong's civil service and currency and postal systems.[4] Corporations such as the Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock (a precursor to today's CK Hutchison) are founded in the same period. The Oriental Bank, the Mercantile Bank, the Chartered Bank, and HSBC issued bank notes in the Hong Kong dollar, though Spanish silver and various coins such as Chinese yuan based on Spanish silver were still commonly used.
    • Empress Dowager Cixi takes power over the Qing court, which regains control of China after defeating the Taiping Rebellion
    • Japan, having been forced by the United States to sign unequal treaties ending its isolationism to trade, launches the Meiji Restoration. It centralised various feudal states into one hierarchy of power under a constitutional imperial system, with the Japanese aiming to learn from European and American powers and industrialise.
    • In the course of studying the West, Meiji Japan coins new Han words and give existing Han words new meanings, which are adopted in China—these include 「世界」 (world)、「社會」 (society)、「經濟」 (economy)、「革命」(revolution)、「文明」 (civilisation)、 and 「自由」 (freedom/liberty). See also the Scottish Enlightenment. The first Chinese newspapers were established in Hong Kong around this time.
    • As the gold boom—which brought severe effects on Native Americans, including the Coast Miwok people who lived by the modern-day Skywalker Ranch and inspired the name of the Star Wars Ewoks[6]—subsided and the Civil War raged in America, restrictions are placed on "coolies," a term for Chinese migrant labourers (perhaps the term "toolie" for undocumented migrant labourers in Andor is related?).
    • Large numbers of Chinese also emigrated via Hong Kong to Nanyang/South East Asia. The temporary lodgings for migrant labourers were squalid, and the authorities in Hong Kong banned ships involved in the traffic of coolie labour in 1873. In 1871, submarine electrical telegraph cables connected to Hong Kong, allowing near-instantaneous communication across the continents.
  • 1875
    • The Qing court adopts Xue Fucheng's proposals for Chinese scholars to focus on studying the Western world
  • 1877–1882 (HK population: 160,000)
    Hong Kong's location and harbours made it a critical port for cargo and passenger ships alike.

    Hong Kong's location and harbours made it a critical port for cargo and passenger ships alike.

    • Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy lifts various racial restrictions on buying land and opening businesses in Hong Kong's Central District, grants the right for Chinese immigrants to naturalise as British subjects, grants the opening of Po Leung Kuk, the Society for the Protection of Women and Children in the context of mui tsai domestic servitude which the Supreme Court's Chief Justice declared was no different from slavery, and welcomes Wu Ting-fang—the first ethnic Chinese barrister, having studied English common law and been called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn—as the first ethnic Chinese member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
  • 1884
  • 1885
    • Qing diplomat Xue Fucheng pressures British authorities to enforce the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870, closing Hong Kong and other British ports to French warships attacking China
  • 1888
  • 1892
    • Dr. Sun Yat-sen, born in nearby Heung-san, is one of the first graduates of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, with Governor Sir William Robinson awarding Sun the prize for distinction.
    • The Oriental Bank and Mercantile Bank fail in the lead-up to the Panic of 1893, leaving the Chartered Bank and HSBC as the issuers of Hong Kong bank notes
  • 1894 (HK population: 220,000)
    Not-the-bubonic-plague

    Not-the-bubonic-plague

    • The bubonic plague spreads in Hong Kong. The Chinese population generally preferred traditional Chinese medicine over Western medicine and resisted quarantine interventions, resulting in protests, an exodus of people, and hyperinflation, with the pandemic subsiding in winter. Kitasato Shibasaburō and Alexandre Yersin were able to identify the responsible bacterium, which had also caused the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death.
  • 1895
    • The First Sino-Japanese War, for influence over Korea following a decade of Qing army commander Yuan Shikai's interference, marks the failure of Qing China's Self-Strengthening Movement to industrialise and modernise, especially in comparison to Japan's Meiji Reformation. Japan begins establishing colonial rule over Korea and Taiwan.
  • 1896
    • Wu Ting-fang becomes the Qing ambassador to the United States and other countries in the Americas, giving lecturings in the US about Chinese culture and history to counter anti-Chinese discrimination. He was also an advocate against consuming meat, alcohol, and tobacco, and argued in favour of women's suffrage in the US.
    • Dr. Sun Yat-sen, wanted by Qing authorities for his part in the first failed uprising in Guangzhou and deported from British Hong Kong under Qing pressure, visits his medicine teacher James Cantlie in London and is abducted by the Chinese embassy there. Combined pressure from the British government, press, and police forces the embassy to release Sun, who then writes an account of the events and the generosity of the British people in Kidnapped in London, published in Britain in 1897.[7]
    • In the wake of the bubonic plague, Governor Robinson organises a plebiscite on the structure of the Sanitary Board, and Tung Wah Hospital adopts Western medicine.
    • Hong Kong Eurasian businessman Robert Hotung becomes Head Compradore of Jardine Matheson, through which he made his fortune as the richest man in pre-war Hong Kong
  • March 1898
    • In northeast China, the Qing court cedes German-occupied Tsingtao to Germany and Russian-occupied Port Arthur to the Russian Empire. Russia's railway expansions result in the construction of the city of Harbin, while British attempts to coerce China to reject Russian influence result in Britain gaining Weihaiwei as a leased port.
  • June 9, 1898
    • The Qing court agrees to lease additional territory known as the New Territories to Hong Kong Island and Kowloon to the United Kingdom for 99 years, expiring after June 30, 1997. This follows other concessions obtained by Germany, the Russian Empire, and France in the wake of the Sino-Japanese War.
  • June 11—September 21, 1898
  • 1899
    • Local clans in the New Territories resist British control. Notably, the resistance led by Kam Tin led to its Kat Hing Wai village gates being taken down and moved to Governor Sir Henry Arthur Blake's estate in Ireland. Colonial Secretary James Stewart Lockhart's continuing hardline response culminates in the Six-Day War in Tai Po, though the clans secured continual government recognition of special rights that evolved into the modern Heung Yee Kuk and Small House Policy.[4] 再割讓九龍新界
    • Having met Mariano Ponce of the Philippine Republic in Yokohama, Japan, Dr. Sun Yat-sen helps arrange a shipment of Japanese armaments from Nagasaki to support Philippine resistance against the United States, but it sinks in a typhoon near Shanghai
  • 1900
    • With dissatisfied Chinese in northern China launching the Boxer Rebellion against foreign presence, the Eight-Nation Alliance of Austria-Hungary, the British Empire, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Empire, and the United States invade China and suppress the rebellion.
  • 1901
    • Queen Victoria passes away; King Edward VII accedes to the Crown
  • 1903
    • Wu Ting-fang and fellow Qing minister Shen Jiaben leads reforms of the Qing legal code, making a new commercial code and reforming the criminal code, such as abolishing "death by a thousand cuts" and torture in interrogation, which were praised by Dr. Sun Yat-sen but never truly implemented. Wu had spoken with British envoy Sir Ernest Satow over the legal reforms and took inspiration from Japan's Meiji Constitution, modelled on the Prusso-German and British constitutional systems.
  • 1904-1907 (HK population: 370,000)
    • Construction of the Kowloon–Canton Railway begins under Governor Sir Matthew Nathan, who also pushed for the development of a main thoroughfare in Kowloon later named Nathan Road. Railways were also constructed throughout China with loans from the China Consortium of foreign banks.
    • Japan defeats the Russian Empire for control of Manchuria and Port Arthur
    • Canton-born Zhu Zhixin, having befriended Dr. Sun Yat-sen while studying in Japan, publishes the first Chinese translations of works by Marx and Engels such as The Communist Manifesto
  • 1908
    • Empress Dowager Cixi passes away
  • 1909
    • Governor Sir Frederick Lugard proposes to London that Britain returns Weihaiwei in exchange for keeping the New Territories in perpetuity, but this is rejected.
    • Hormusjee Naorojee Mody, Lugard, and Flora Shaw also push for turning the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, founded in 1887 by the London Missionary Society, into the University of Hong Kong, the city's first university.
    • Qing China holds provincial elections in a late attempt to move towards constitutional monarchy
  • 1910
    • King Edward VII passes away; King George V accedes to the Crown
"If anything were needed to convince me of the generous public spirit which pervades Great Britain, and the love of justice which distinguishes its people, the recent acts of the last few days have conclusively done so. Knowing and feeling more keenly than ever what a constitutional Government and an enlightened people mean, I am prompted still more actively to pursue the cause of advancement, education, and civilisation in my own well-beloved but oppressed country."
―Dr. Sun Yat-sen, writing in 1896 for Kidnapped in London[7]
「革命思想係從香港得來。」
("Hong Kong is the birthplace of the ideas of revolution.")
—Dr. Sun Yat-sen, speaking at the University of Hong Kong in 1923
  • 1911
    • The Wuchang Uprising (Wuhan), sparked by the Qing court's attempts to give the China Consortium of foreign banks further control of the railways to pay back China's debts over the Boxer Rebellion, sparks the Xinhai Revolution, initially suppressed by Yuan Shikai's army.
  • January 1, 1912 (HK population: 456,000)
    • The Republic of China is founded. Provisional President Dr. Sun Yat-sen had partly planned the revolution in Hong Kong and been seeking support for the revolution in Hawaii, London, Japan, Bangkok, the United States, and Malaya as an advocate for Chinese nationalism, collective democratic rights, and concern for people's livelihoods by synthesising Chinese philosophy and governance with Christian morality, Western modernity, and pan-Asianism (Dr. Sun's general philosophy was that Chinese civilisation must follow Japan's example in learning from Europe and America, specifically Britain's constitutional democracy and US President Abraham Lincoln's "government of the people, by the people, for the people," to avert extinction and revive as a great power with the resolve to take on the responsibility of supporting other oppressed peoples like those of Vietnam, Myanmar, and Korea against imperialism and unite the world; to that end, Chinese people must realise that civilisation depends on the quality of 道德/civic virtue, and Chinese civilisation's core civic virtues are 忠孝/loyalty and filial piety, 仁愛/compassionate love, 信義/sincerity, trust, and justice, and 和平/peace—and those traditional virtues should be upheld, where loyalty to the emperor is given up but loyalty to the people is a good that ought to be maintained; no other civilisation promotes filial piety as thoroughly as China; Mohism's compassion is identical to Jesus' compassion, which has been put to practice by Westerners who set up schools and hospitals for educating Chinese people to save Chinese people; Chinese people honour agreements with integrity, trade with trust of the other party's word, and treat the independence of neighbouring nations as a matter of justice; and Chinese people love peace while the imperialist European powers pursue peace only in fear of war—yet Chinese people's public spirit had fallen asleep over the centuries, becoming incapable of national self-rule and also grossly lacking in personal self-discipline, directly to blame for confirming stereotypes of the "Yellow Peril" and fuelling anti-Chinese prejudice).[8] Justice Minister Wu Ting-fang argued for an independent judiciary in the provisional capital of Nanking. 孫中山香港求學籌革命 民國成立
  • 1912–1913
    • Yuan Shikai arranges for the abdication of six-year-old Puyi as emperor, ending over two millennia of dynastic imperial rule in China, in return for replacing Sun Yat-sen as provisional president.
    • Song Jiaoren and Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang (KMT) win the most seats in China's first National Assembly election. Although the newly elected US President Woodrow Wilson withdrew the US from the China Consortium of foreign banks, Yuan's government assassinated Song Jiaoren and bypassed the National Assembly to sign a loan agreement with the remaining banks. Sun Yat-sen attempted a second revolution, but it was quelled by Yuan's army.
  • 1914–1918
    • The First World War—it was not fought in China, but thousands of Chinese labourers supported British and French forces in Europe. German toy production also stalled, allowing Japan's toy industry to expand production. The Great War also weakened the British Empire, ending its century as the dominant superpower.
    • Yuan Shikai declares himself emperor and dies shortly afterward, with much of China marred by competing warlords.
    • The Russian Empire collapses with the February Revolution before Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik communists take power in the October Revolution of 1917
    • Lord Leverhulme (Unilever) purchases the Isle of Lewis from the Mathesons with profits from palm oil in the Belgian Congo, after Leverhulme's pioneering soap industry in England was embroiled in an early example of popular investigative journalism and a libel case with the Daily Mail. Lewis' poor economic performance in the following decades continued to drive emigration, including the mother of future US President Donald Trump in 1930.
    • The UK's Representation of the People Act significantly extends the right to vote in the UK, lifting property restrictions on men and allowing some women to vote
  • 1919
    • The opening of the Bank of East Asia, founded locally by Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong
    • Eighteen-year-old Alfred Edward Pallett founds Cascelloid (eventually Palitoy) in Leicester, making plastic soap containers for the retailer Woolworths[9]
    • A sense of betrayal over the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War but handed over Germany's concessions in China to Japan, and the apparent failure of the Republic transforms the New Culture Movement—encompassing painting styles like the Lingnan School, popular culture and intellectual culture such as La Jeunesse magazine, and switching to a less archaic and more concrete standard of language (while there have long been hundreds of varieties of spoken Chinese like Cantonese that could be written down in a common script that was shared with Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, writing adopting the vernacular as spoken in the Mandarin language from around Peking became the standard over writing in abstract and formal literary Chinese)—into the politically anti-imperialist May Fourth Movement across China that further promoted breaking away from traditions believed to have been holding China back as a sovereign, modern nation.
  • 1921 (HK population: 625,000)
    • President Sun Yat-sen's KMT consolidate control in southern China
    • The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is founded on the basis of Marxist-Leninism
  • 1922
    • UK Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill pledges that mui tsai bondage in Hong Kong would be abolished following years of campaigns in Hong Kong and in the UK by the British press and activists such as Lady Kathleen Simon
    • Ignatius Joseph Law Cho-Yiu (Joe Law, 羅祖耀) is born—his father was the pastor Law Yin Bun of the Chinese Rhenish Church (Lutheran)[10]
    • The Hong Kong seamen's strike. The colonial government creates the Emergency Regulations Ordinance.
    • The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is founded following years of civil war over the former Russian Empire
  • 1923
    • The KMT and CCP form their first united front in southern China with Soviet support
    • Further transfers of mui tsai into Hong Kong are banned by the Legislative Council
  • 1924
    • LT Lam Leung-tim (林亮) is born in Chai Wan on Hong Kong Island—his father moved from nearby Nanhai in 1905 and worked as a chef at the residence of the general manager of American Express[11]
  • 1925
  • 1926
    • Sir Frederick Lugard (former Hong Kong governor) was among the organisers of the League of Nations' Slavery Convention, drawing scrutiny of mui tsai bondage
    • New KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek ousts communists and Soviet advisors from power in Canton before leading his army on the Northern Expedition to defeat the warlords, in the process ending the general strike in Hong Kong
    • Sir Shouson Chow becomes the first Chinese member of the Executive Council (government advisors to the governor) of Hong Kong
    • The Government Vernacular Middle School becomes the first government-run school using Chinese as the main language of instruction
  • 1927
    • Start of the Chinese Civil War between the KMT and CCP, both variously supported by the USSR as Stalin rises to power
  • 1928
    • The UK Parliament finally grants women equal voting rights as men for elections in the UK
    • Chiang Kai-shek's KMT overthrow the warlords in Peking and establish their capital in Nanking. Governor Clementi, representing the UK government, visits Guangdong and recognises the KMT government as the government of China.
  • 1929
    • Under pressure from the UK, the Legislative Council mandates that all mui tsai be registered with the Hong Kong government and be paid wages
    • Drought; water supply is rationed to two hours a day
    • Start of the Great Depression
  • 1930
    • The UK hands over Weihaiwei to the Republic of China
"When mother read to me from the newspapers my father sent from Hong Kong about the Japanese invasion of northeast China [in 1931], I asked how Japan, a smaller country, could attack China, a much bigger country. Then mother said one method they had was to sell toys to get money for guns and bullets. That planted a seed in me to make toys for a greater cause."
―LT Lam, founder of Star Wars toy manufacturer Forward Winsome, in a 2015 interview[11]
  • 1931 (HK population: 840,000)
    • Japan invades Manchuria in northern China; LT Lam learns from his mother that Japan's war effort was partly supported by the nation's toy exports.[11]
  • 1933
    • The opening of the Hang Seng Bank, founded locally by Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong
  • 1935
    • Hong Kong becomes the last economy to abandon the silver standard, following Republican China due to the US' purchases of silver to combat the Great Depression. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the British pound sterling.
  • 1936
    • King George V passes away; King Edward VIII accedes to the Crown before abdicating, with King George VI acceding to the Crown
    • The Sanitary Board is renamed the Urban Council, with further powers on municipal matters under Governor Sir Andrew Caldecott
    • UK MP Edith Picton-Turbervill's report on mui tsai in Hong Kong and Malaya is published. Hong Kong mandated all adopted girls to be registered in 1938 to prevent circumventions of the prohibition of mui tsai bondage.
  • 1937-1940
    • Japan wages war against all of China, capturing Shanghai (except the Shanghai International Settlement) in 1937 and Canton in 1938, leading to increased migration from those two cities in particular to Hong Kong. Governor Sir Geoffry Northcote declared Hong Kong a neutral zone and proposed more social services to accomodate refugees, but the plans were scrapped as the emergency deepened. The war in Europe began in 1939, with Hong Kong detaining "enemy aliens" from Germany. Among the Jewish refugees who came to Hong Kong that year from Shanghai (the Shanghai International Settlement was the only place in the world that unconditionally welcomed Jewish refugees, having received Jews from the Middle East, the Russian Empire/Soviet Union, and increasingly from Europe), those who were German- and Austrian-born were deported from Hong Kong back to Shanghai by the colonial government in 1940. The government also evacuated white British women and children to Australia. Among the people who secured refuge in Hong Kong during this time are Li Ka-shing and Bruce Lee.
  • 1941 (HK population: 1.6 million)
    • April: Japan and the Soviet Union make a non-aggression pact
    • October: British High Commissioner to Canada, Malcolm MacDonald, persuades Mackenzie King's government to send the Canadian Army to bolster Hong Kong's defences[12][13]
    • December 8: Japan attacks the United States and the British Empire, including Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, and Malaya (with much of the Allied forces focusing on defending Singapore). LT Lam was among the students who were readying for the first day of exams.[11] Japan also occupied the Shanghai International Settlement.
    • December 25: Japan takes full control of Hong Kong following the Battle of Hong Kong against Hong Kong, British, Canadian, Chinese, French, and Indian Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh defenders. LT Lam's father was killed on Christmas Eve.[11]
    • December 26: UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses the US Congress, appealing to the values of civic virtue, fortitude, faith, democracy, justice, and peace shared across "the English-speaking world" as they coordinate in war against the Axis powers for "the cause of freedom in every land."
  • 1945 (HK population: ~600,000)
    • Massacres, destitution, starvation, and deportations over three years and eight months of occupation had whittled down the territory's population until Allied forces led by America defeated Japan following the defeat of fascist Italy and Germany in Europe. The United Nations (UN) was founded by the big five Allied powers the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, and the Republic of China.
    • British forces liberated Hong Kong, and victory parades included the flags of both the UK and the ROC.
    • LT Lam returns to Hong Kong after three years in Nanhai and works as a newspaper salesman, managing to build a contract list in Central, including with elites such as Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee.[11]
    • Much of the world economy adopted the Bretton Woods system based on the US dollar and its convertibility to gold, though Portugal and Macau did not, with the enclave becoming the global hub for the illicit gold trade and casino gambling. The Hong Kong dollar was part of the British sterling area but flouted its rules against directly converting with the US dollar, and Communist China bought much of its imports using British sterling supplied from Hong Kong.
    • Hong Kong's democraticisation reforms of Sir Mark Young, succeeded by Sir Alexander Grantham in 1947, fell through as China's Civil War raged on.
  • 1947
    • LT Lam joins industrial materials company Yuen Hing Hong and advises his boss, Norman Young Sze-kuen, to found Winsome Plastic Works at 93 Hennessy Road in Wan Chai as an agent for making simple plastic products like restaurant menu stands[11]
    • Independence of India and Pakistan
  • 1948
    • LT Lam makes his first yellow rubber duck in Hong Kong, around the same time Peter Ganine designed his in America. LT Lam also invests in a factory in Guangzhou, motivated by his ideals for building up China against colonial exploitation like India vis-à-vis Britain🐥[11]
    • Kader (開達實業) is founded in Hong Kong by Ting Hsiung-chao (丁熊照), who had been running a successful business (𣾀明電池廠, founded 1925) making plastic torches for American soldiers in Republican Shanghai.[14][15][16]
    • Start of the Malayan Emergency
  • 1949
    • Mao Zedong establishes the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the CCP win the civil war, with Chiang Kai-shek's KMT-led Republic of China relocating to Taiwan and Hong Kong receiving a continual influx of Chinese refugees/migrants. Among the people who secured refuge in Hong Kong during this time are Charles K. Kao, Tung Chee-hwa, Anson Chan, Joseph Zen, King Hu, John Woo, and Ip Man, many of them arriving from Guangdong and Shanghai.[4] 戰後難民來港
"You can believe in Fung Shui if you want, but ultimately people control their own fate. The most important thing is to improve yourself and give it your best. Then many things previously thought to be impossible will become possible. Broaden your vision, and maintain stability while advancing forward. That is my philosophy."
―Li Ka-shing, business magnate, philanthropist, and Hong Kong post-war success story extraordinaire[17]
  • 1950-1953 (HK population: 2.1 million)
    The Christmas Day fire at the Shek Kip Mei shanty town left over 53,000 migrants homeless

    The Christmas Day fire at the Shek Kip Mei shanty town left over 53,000 migrants homeless

    • US and UN embargoes on the PRC during the Korean War force Hong Kong to shift from entrepôt trade to manufacturing,[4] coinciding with the birth of the plastic industry derived from petroleum (oil), overtaking the tin toy industry in democratised Japan
    • Li Ka-shing founds Cheung Kong Industries Ltd. (長江實業, part of Li's CK Hutchison Holdings since 2015) as a manufacturer of plastic flowers
    • King George VI passes away; Queen Elizabeth II accedes to the Crown. LT Lam's first product in his first fully-owned factory in Tai Kok Tsui was a commemorative soap box.
    • The Communists nationalise the Guangzhou factory that LT Lam invested in[11]—China's first five-year plan focused on industrialisation
    • The Shek Kip Mei fire prompts the colonial government to set up Hong Kong's public housing programme
  • 1954
    • The government begins developing Kwun Tong as a satellite town and renames its Chinese name from 官塘 (officials' [salt pan] pond) to 觀塘 (view pond) by popular request.
  • 1956
  • 1957
    • Singaporean diplomat David Marshall, respected for his anti-colonialism in the last years of British rule over Singapore, is invited to China and meets Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. Marshall, a Jew, asks for exit permits to be finally granted to the remaining Jewish people in China. Many of the Jews originated from the collapsing Russian Empire and wanted to leave for third countries such as Israel, but they were treated as Soviet citizens. China subsequently allowed Soviet citizens to acquire exit permits and depart via Hong Kong, where the British authorities distinguished between ethnic Chinese and Russian migrants, with UNHCR and charities such as the World Council of Churches organising onward Russian refugee migration to destinations such as Australia and Brazil.
    • Threatened by the Hungarian Revolution and de-Stalinization in the USSR in 1956, China initiates Anti-Rightist purges
  • 1958
  • 1959
    • Prince Philip visits Hong Kong with HMY Britannia, presenting Hong Kong's dragon-and-lion coat of arms, which are also adopted in the flag of Hong Kong
    • Singapore gains self-governance
  • 1960
  • 1961 (HK population: 3.1 million)
  • 1962
    • Governor Black inaugurates the current Hong Kong City Hall at Edinburgh Place, Central
    • End of the Great Leap Forward. Among the people who secured refuge in Hong Kong during this time is Wong Kar-wai.
    • Summer queues for water, rationed to four hours a day
    • The UK's Commonwealth Immigrants Act restricts the right of abode, particularly for migrants from Hong Kong's New Territories[4]
    • LT Lam becomes the sole proprietor of Forward Winsome[11]
  • 1963
    • Based in Coalville, England, Palitoy's Action Man (G.I. Joe by the Hassenfeld Brothers—Hasbro—in the US) begins to be manufactured in Hong Kong by Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Industries with the shipping agent Symons & Co. Ltd.[19] LT Lam said that he turned down the G.I. Joe contracts, which went to Li Ka-shing instead;[20] LT Lam felt Forward Winsome was not ready for such a large contract, but the event made him friends with Alan G. Hassenfeld.[11] Japan's domination of the toy market with tin toys, having taken over from Germany after the Second World War and bolstered the Japanese economy following the American-led occupation, had been declining with the advent of plastic and labour cost issues.[21]
    • Joe Law, an established plastic toy trading agent, establishes the Vanda Industrial Development Corporation, manufacturing for the American Frank Stanton's Cragstan company at the Vanda Industrial Building in Kwun Tong[10]
    • Summer queues for water, rationed to four hours every four days
    • The Chinese University of Hong Kong is founded—it is Hong Kong's second university, with Chinese as the medium of instruction
  • 1964
    • Sir David Trench succeeds Sir Robin Black as Governor of Hong Kong
    • Summer queues for water, rationed to four hours every four days
  • 1965
  • 1966
  • 1967
    Increasingly crowded, the city struggled with infrastructure, water supply, and public order particularly during the Cultural Revolution in mainland China

    Increasingly crowded, the city struggled with infrastructure, water supply, and public order particularly during the Cultural Revolution in mainland China

    • The British pound sterling, in which Hong Kong kept significant reserves, devaluates against the US dollar, and Hong Kong is the first in the sterling area to be granted exchange guarantees by London
    • China suspends fresh water supply from Guangdong, forcing water rationing to four hours every four days until the typhoon season replenishes local reservoirs
    • The Cultural Revolution inspires protests against the colonial government.[4] LT Lam grants a few workers who asked for half a day off to march in solidarity their leave after telling them to stay away from violence.[11]
    • The demonstrations turn into unpopular riots as bombs left on the streets inflict rising children casualties, with the rioting ending at the urging of Zhou Enlai[4]
    • Governor Trench inaugurates Hong Kong's first major road tunnel, the Lion Rock Tunnel, connecting the New Territories with Kowloon
    • The government begins promoting recreational youth programmes
  • 1968
    • LT Lam's Forward Winsome builds its headquarters, the Eltee Building, in Wan Chai[11]
    • Joe Law's Vanda toy company collapses as Cragstan focuses on PlayTape[10]
  • 1968
    • Forward Winsome set up three factories in Taiwan[11]
  • 1969
    • The Hang Seng Bank publicises the Hang Seng Index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
  • 1970
  • 1971 (HK population: 4 million)
    • Sir Murray MacLehose succeeds Sir David Trench as Governor of Hong Kong, with a mandate for social reforms[4]
    • Philip Haddon-Cave succeeds Sir John Cowperthwaite as Financial Secretary of Hong Kong
    • The government institutes free and compulsory education primary education
    • Joe Law founds Smile Industries (堅達實業)[10]
    • King Hu's 1971 action drama A Touch of Zen (俠女) opens in cinemas (an inspiration for The Acolyte)[23]
    • US President Nixon unilaterally ends the US dollar's convertibility to gold, ending the Bretton Woods systems and the sterling area as the world economy operates on floating exchange rates
    • The United Nations recognise the People's Republic of China as the representatives of China and expels the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek[4]
  • 1972
    Not-the-typhoon-season

    Not-the-typhoon-season

    • The Small House Policy, granting a one-time housebuilding right for adult men descended from the male line of a recognized village's resident in 1898, is made to secure New Territories villagers' support for the New Town projects
    • The Hong Kong Polytechnic is founded
    • SS Seawise University (RMS Queen Elizabeth), in the final stages of being converted into a floating university, sinks in Victoria Harbour in a mysterious fire
    • US-China rapprochement to counterbalance the Soviet Union—US President Nixon visits China
    • Heavy rainfall causes Hong Kong's deadliest landslide disasters
    • Opening of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, the first road tunnel crossing Victoria Harbour, reducing dependency on ferries
    • The United Nations remove Hong Kong and Macau from the list of non-self-governing territories following the PRC's lobbying that the cities are under Chinese sovereignty and foreign administration[1]
  • 1973
  • 1974
    • Chinese is finally recognised as an official language of Hong Kong, alongside English
    • The Carnation Revolution launches Portugal's transition to democracy. The new Portuguese government's proposals to hand over Macau were rejected as Beijing wanted to prioritise the issue of Hong Kong with the UK.
  • April 5, 1975
    • Death of Chiang Kai-shek
  • April 30, 1975
    • Fall of Saigon; beginning of Hong Kong's Vietnamese migration crisis
  • May 4, 1975
    • Hong Kong welcomes Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip—the first visit by a reigning monarch. The Queen inaugurates Hung Hom station, the new southern terminus of the existing Kowloon–Canton Railway to the mainland, beside the Cross-Harbour Tunnel
  • June 5, 1975
    • Egypt reopens the Suez Canal
  • 1976
"To reduce the cost of manufacturing these toys, I traveled to Hong Kong to lay the groundwork for the new Star Wars figures production, engineering, and support capabilities. My focus was to assess our vendor in Hong Kong's capabilities for mold building and tooling. This included examining tooling shops, steel quality, and injection molding and decorating machines."
―Jacob R. Miles III of the US toy company Kenner[24]
「你開咗間舖頭嗰時你有機器、你有人才、有管理技術、有服務嘅經驗，咁嗰客知道咗嚟，未起門前呢，佢嗰邊設計一個item，比如變形金剛咁呢，佢就跟據變形金剛度電影嗰啲人物嗰啲嘢，冚唪唥有藍圖呀有嘢，寄嚟俾你過嚟：「我想做呢幾個item」咁我根據啲藍圖呢，我哋呢就係做手樣，hand sample，照足佢嗰呎吋規格，做咗之後拎去俾佢approve咗，「OK！」，佢哋改正咗之後呢，我哋就跟據嗰啲手樣起模，起咗模之後呢就生產。嗰過程就係咁樣囉。 […] 你好嘅就年年復年年咁俾你，你一年做得啲嘢唔妥嘅時候佢就俾第個㗎啦。」
("When you set up shop, you've got machines, you've got people, got management skills, got service experience, so your client knows that and comes over, and before production starts, they design an item overseas, like for Transformers, they'll follow the Transformers movie's character's stuff and have blueprints and everything for the the whole shebang, and they send it to you and say 'I want these items.' So I follow these blueprints and we make these hand samples, following their exact dimensions, and then we send them over to get approved, 'OK!' after they make their adjustments, and based on these hand samples we make the moulds, and then we start production. That's the process. […] If you're good, then they'll renew the contract each year, and if you've not done very well one year, then they'll just give the contract to someone else.")
—LT Lam[20]
  • January 4, 1977
    • Palitoy (Far East) Limited is incorporated in Hong Kong[25]
  • March 25, 1977
    • The fire at the North Point Power Station causes power cuts across Hong Kong Island. The plant is decommissioned in the following year.
  • April 1977
    • Agreement between Lucasfilm, represented by the creator George Lucas himself and Charles Lippincott, and General Mills to produce Star Wars action figures.[24] General Mills' US toy company was Kenner of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the UK sister company was Palitoy.[26]
      • Kenner executive Bernard "Bernie" Loomis negotiated with Mark Pevers of 20th Century Fox's licensing—Lucas had successfully secured exclusive merchandising rights with the film distributor to fund Lucasfilm—at The Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. That day, Loomis met Lucas' friend Steven Spielberg, who remarked that Star Wars was "toyetic," and Loomis subsequently used the term to refer to any playable figure's quality of being being expressible.[27]
      • Kenner decided that their toys for the The Six Million Dollar Man television series would be made by Palitoy's sister British manufacturer Denys Fisher (also under General Mills)[28]—with Smile Industries making The Six Million Dollar Man's toys in Hong Kong[10]—while Palitoy would produce toys for the Star Wars film, with Loomis persuading Palitoy to take on the Star Wars range for sale directly to retailers. Loomis also negotiated for Palitoy to have access to Kenner's marketing material and data, including their manufacturing sites in Hong Kong.[28]
      • Alongside George Lucas, Loomis reviewed the Star Wars script with other executives and engineers, including Karl Wojahn and Jacob R. Miles III, to discuss how their toys should be made. Kenner's Jacob R. Miles III was focused on developing toyetic X-wing and TIE fighter models, and he later went to Hong Kong to make manufacturing contracts with factories, including in the New Territories,[24] and Bill Pugh of Palitoy also inspected Palitoy's productions in Hong Kong.[28]
        Star Wars action figures were made in Hong Kong

        Star Wars action figures were made in Hong Kong

      • Among the manufacturers was LT Lam's Forward Winsome with its factories in Chai Wan and Taiwan and engineers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic—Forward Winsome's first original equipment manufacturing (OEM) contract was with with Palitoy.[20][29] Additional Hong Kong manufacturers include Kader,[28] Joe Law's Smile Industries,[10] based in Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island,[30] which also manufactured in Macau,[31] and Qualidux Industrial Company Limited (廣達實業).[32]
      • Palitoy's Coalville site made model sets[9] while a nearby warehouse in Ashby-de-la-Zouch was opened for handling Star Wars toys.[19]
      • Among the export markets were the United States, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, West Germany, Italy, Scandinavia,[33] Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore,[34] Mexico, and Brazil.[33]
  • May 2, 1977
  • May 25, 1977
    • Star Wars opens in cinemas in the United States[35]
  • June 24, 1977
    • Hong Kong's first country parks are established—75% of Hong Kong's total land area is open countryside, and 40% is designated country parks/special areas for conservation, mostly established by Governor MacLehose in the late 1970s
  • June-July 1977
  • July 16, 1977
  • October 1977
  • January 25, 1978

1978–1983

"It is not coincidental that it [Hong Kong's economic boom] occurred at a time when the American people were enjoying an unprecedented growth in material prosperity and when American business began turning to the outside world. The government and the people of Hong Kong supplied the legal, political, and social framework for the territory's economic take-off. We Americans supplied, most importantly, the markets, but also the capital, technology, and management skills that provided the added impetus accounting for Hong Kong's dramatic results. To give some idea of the magnitude of growth in U.S.-Hong Kong trade, Hong Kong's total exports to the U.S. in 1982 amounted to HK$36.8 billion, or 1,842 times the 1950 figure. […] The value of these exports has been increasing at a rate of 20%-25% annually over the past several years. Garments (about US$ 2 billion in 1982), electrical machinery, office machines and computers—as well as toys and plastics—have led the way."
―Burton Levin, US Consul General in Hong Kong, speaking in 1983[37]
  • January 26, 1978
    Hong Kong Star Wars poster, 1978

    Hong Kong Star Wars poster, 1978

  • February 4, 1978
    • US President Jimmy Carter and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat watch Star Wars ahead of the Camp David Accords with Israel.[43] Oil prices soon surged again with the Iranian Revolution; despite Hong Kong's dependency on imported raw materials, including oil, and inflation Hong Kong's manufacturing sector remained dominated by the clothing and textiles industry alongside plastics and electronics.[44] According to scholar Karen J. Hall, Hasbro retired the G.I. Joe line in the US partly due to competition from cheaper Star Wars action figures and the increasing price of oil.[45]
  • April 1978
  • May 19, 1978
    • Palitoy (Far East) Limited is renamed G.M. Products (Hong Kong) Limited[25]
      Toy Yodas being packaged in Hong Kong in 1980 for export to the US.

      Toy Yodas being packaged in Hong Kong in 1980 for export to the US.

  • June 1978
  • October 1978
    • 5th: Drunken Master (醉拳) by Yuen Woo-ping opens in cinemas (an inspiration for The Acolyte)[47]
    • Governor MacLehose extends compulsory education for children to nine years, starting September 1980, to address child labour concerns raised over European tariff negotiations with the UK;[48] Forward Winsome has had to end child labour to comply with restrictions attached to its OEM contracts[20]
  • November 27, 1978
  • December 1978
    • PRC's reforms and opening-up under the new Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping[49]
      Hong Kong The Empire Strikes Back (Style A) poster

      Hong Kong The Empire Strikes Back (Style A) poster

  • 1979
    • The United States formally switches recognition of the government of China from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China and continues unofficial relations with Taiwan
    • Hong Kong becomes the leading destination of refugees from Vietnam as its government begins to repress ethnic Chinese Vietnamese in light of China's invasion
    • Hong Kong welcomes Prince Charles on his first visit, ending at a toy car factory in San Po Kong[50]
    • Governor MacLehose visits Deng Xiaoping in Beijing to raise the issue of the New Territories' lease expiring in 1997 and assures the public that further investment in Hong Kong would be safe[4]
    • Margaret Thatcher is succeeds James Callaghan as UK Prime Minister[4]
    • November 8: the Music Office of the Hong Kong Government's Education Department and the Tom Lee Music Foundation jointly present the Second Hong Kong Youth Symphonic Band Festival at the Academic Community Hall (九龍窩打老道大專會堂), including bands from the Philippines and Singapore. The concert included the Star Wars Main Title, and additional performances were slated for numerous other locations across Hong Kong.[51]
    • Symons & Co. Ltd. is dissolved[52]
    • Palitoy manufacturing contractor Forward Winsome begins expanding and relocating production lines from Hong Kong to Guangdong for cheaper production costs[53] by setting up a factory in the nearby city of Dongguan.[11] Other manufacturing firms gradually do likewise[54]
  • 1980
  • 1981 (HK population: ~5.2 million)
    • 39% of Hong Kong's labour force are employed in manufacturing[49]
    • 東方 Oriental Theatre, one of the cinemas that screened The Empire Strikes Back, shuts down—demolished and replaced by an office building
    • The UK's British Nationality Act 1981, effective from January 1, 1983, reclassifies British Crown Colonies, including Hong Kong, as British Dependent Territories, and changes over 2.5 million Hong Kong–born individuals' nationality from "citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies" to "British Dependent Territories citizens."[4]
    • The Christmas/New Year youth riots prompt the government to invest further in youth welfare
  • 1982
    • LT Lam convinces Alan G. Hassenfeld and Hasbro's board of his "Toy City" vision for Nanhai, building the Forward Winsome factories that would produce the Transformers toy figures[11]
    • The District Boards are established, partly directly elected by the public
  • May 1982
    • Sir Edward Youde succeeds Sir Murray MacLehose as Governor of Hong Kong[4]
      Hong Kong The Empire Strikes Back (Style B) poster

      Hong Kong The Empire Strikes Back (Style B) poster

  • June 1982
    • The Falklands War—the UK reclaims the British Overseas Territory from the Argentine invasion
  • September 1982
    • Formal Sino-British negotiations over the future of Hong Kong begin.[4] Margaret Thatcher tried to establish with Deng Xiaoping in Beijing that the treaties pertaining to Hong Kong's status as British sovereign territory remained valid, but Deng insisted that China would take over Hong Kong by 1997 one way or another.
    • Mrs. Thatcher then visits Hong Kong—the first visit by an incumbent UK Prime Minister. She attended the commissioning of the coal-fired Castle Peak Power Station.
  • October 1982
    • Ann Hui's film Boat People, on life in Vietnam as the Communist government take over the country in the late 1970s, is well-received in Hong Kong.[63] The film was the first Hong Kong film to be shot in the People's Republic of China, which had granted permission to make the film shortly after its war against Vietnam in 1979, and was shown in the context of the influx of Vietnamese seeking asylum in British Hong Kong.
  • November 23, 1982
    • G.M. Products (Hong Kong) Limited is named 至美(香港)採辦有限公司 in Chinese[25]
  • December 1982
    • The coal-fired Lamma Power Station is commissioned
    • Baron Kadoorie updates Mrs. Thatcher that his power company CLP's plan to build a nuclear power plant in Shenzhen to supply Hong Kong has been approved by Beijing. Kadoorie also suggests that the UK abrogates the "unequal treaties" pertaining to Hong Kong to give Beijing "face" while maintaining the status quo of British administration so that there could be financial certainty in funding the power plant.[64]
  • 1983
    • Palitoy decides to package figures for the final planned Star Wars film, Episode VI Return of the Jedi, in Coalville rather than Hong Kong. They feature trilingual or "tri-logo" cards bearing English, Spanish, and French text with additional small text in German, Italian, and Dutch) for the European market.[28]
    • Palitoy executives predict that the video market boom would expand at great expense to the toy market[65]
    • Palitoy experiences supply shortages and negative press coverage, further raising Star Wars toy demand in the UK. Palitoy executives give carefully scripted interviews on BBC Newsnight clarifying that the supply issues were not deliberate.[28] Palitoy uses Kenner-branded packaging cards intended for the US market to compensate.[33]
    • Governor Youde inaugurates the Hong Kong Coliseum
    • 《星球大戰：武士復仇》— release of Return of the Jedi, directed by Richard Marquand.[35] Marquand was a theatre director who had learnt about the role of masks in drama in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.[66]
      Hong Kong Return of the Jedi poster

      Hong Kong Return of the Jedi poster

    • Star Wars action figures oversaturate markets in Hong Kong, Japan, West Germany, and Italy; director David Mosses of Kenner's Singapore agent, Playthings, said that "the joke was that some toys went from Hongkong to Germany, and we bought them cheaper than if we had bought straight from Hongkong."[67]
    • The video game crash afflicts General Mills' entertainment subsidiaries;[68] the economic effects of the early 1980s recession prompt General Mills to sell Palitoy[69]
    • The second round of the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong stalls, causing an economic shock. To restore market confidence, Financial Secretary John Bremridge pegs the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar at a linked exchange rate that remains to this day.[49]

1984–1997

"Will Hong Kong continue to succeed? You have succeeded magnificently already often against the odds. You have been an example to the world of what can be achieved by an open-market economy. It is your values—Hong Kong values—that are being copied all around the world. It is Hong Kong that points the way in the region. "Made in Hong Kong" is stamped these days on ideas and values, not just on toys and on textiles so it matters that Hong Kong continues to succeed, it matters to Britain, it matters to China, it matters to the world that Hong Kong succeeds."
―Prime Minister John Major, speaking in 1996[70]
「[希望香港人] 變成所有同志入面最偉大嘅同志。真正做到嘢，真正有建設性，真正用競選唔係鬥爭嘅方式去做嘢，真正將中國傳統啲嘢保留低，同埋加番西方比較好啲嘢，文明化啲嘢，同埋一齊，大家生活比較好啲。」
("[To hope that Hong Kong people] become the greatest of all comrades. They truly do things, truly are constructive, truly work through competition rather than struggle, truly preserve Chinese tradition, while adding the best of the West, of enlightened civilisation, and amalgamate them, so that everyone's livelihoods are better off.")
—Taiwanese Chinese musician 羅大佑 Lo Ta-yu in 1991, on the values of Hong Kong and the value of Hong Kong's orderly system of law to all Chinese people, as expressed in his song 皇后大道東 Queen's Road East[71]
  • 1984
    • The City Polytechnic (City University) is founded
    • Lucasfilm hires the animation studio Nelvana, based in Toronto, Canada, for the television series Ewoks and Droids.[72] Lucasfilm producer Miki Herman had toured Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea to find animation studios, but the company settled on Nelvana since they had a good experience working together on 1979's The Star Wars Holiday Special.[73] (It seems that Ewoks and Droids were not broadcast in Hong Kong, though they seem to have aired in Taiwan.)
    • The UK and PRC sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration, registered at the United Nations in 1985. The Joint Declaration stipulates that the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong will be transferred from the UK to the PRC from June 30, 1997, and Hong Kong's "social and economic systems" shall "remain unchanged" henceforth for 50 years (until 2047), including a "high degree of autonomy," separation of powers, the rule of law, British-style common law and civil service systems, status as a separate customs territory, and eventual universal suffrage under a "one country, two systems" framework.[4]
    • Jardine Matheson announces it would re-domicile in Bermuda.[4]
    • While insecurity continues over Hong Kong's future, the city's toy industry is invigorated by Rice Paddy baby dolls, a riff on the popular Cabbage Patch dolls with ersatz British passports that expire in 1997[74]
      The British and Chinese governments held formal talks on Hong Kong's future between 1982 and 1997

      The British and Chinese governments held formal talks on Hong Kong's future between 1982 and 1997

  • 1985
    • The UK's Hong Kong Act 1985 creates the British National (Overseas) nationality and allows British Dependent Territories citizens to apply for it by 1997 following debate and lobbying from Hong Kong[75]
    • Governor Youde introduces limited democraticisation to the Hong Kong Legislative Council, which finally becomes an (indirectly) elected legislature.[76]
    • Completion of the new HSBC Building, the most expensively built building in the world (after demolishing the previous art deco headquarters), and start of the construction of the Bank of China Tower, becoming the first supertall skyscraper outside the US, the tallest building in Asia, and the only major construction in Hong Kong that bypassed consultation with feng shui masters
  • October 23, 1985
    • G.M. Products (Hong Kong) Limited is renamed Kenner Parker Toys (Hong Kong) Limited[25] as Palitoy's operations in Coalville were suspended[26]
  • 1986
    • Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit Hong Kong with HMY Britannia
    • Governor Youde passes away in Beijing
    • The South China Morning Post is acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (having acquired the Star Wars film distributor 20th Century Fox in the previous year)
  • 1987
    Not-the-Hong Kong Stock Exchange

    Not-the-Hong Kong Stock Exchange

    • The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration sets out Macau's handover to the PRC in 1999 following similar conditions to Hong Kong
    • Sir David Wilson succeeds Sir Edward Youde as Governor of Hong Kong[4]
    • Martial law is lifted in Taiwan, ending the authoritarian period
    • Astor Theatre, one of the cinemas that screened The Empire Strikes Back in Hong Kong, shuts down
    • The Hong Kong Legislative Council is informed that the nuclear power project in Shenzhen is being built with missing steel reinforcing bars on October 9 with allegations of cover-ups. The Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine under Soviet rule had just occurred in 1986.
    • Palitoy is acquired by Tonka days before Black Tuesday on October 19,[68] which also crashes the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
    • The Port of Hong Kong becomes the busiest seaport in the world
  • March 1998
    • Proposals for electoral reform, including direct elections to the Legislative Council, are watered down following opposition from Beijing
  • May 6, 1988
    • Kenner Parker Toys (Hong Kong) Limited is renamed Tonka Kenner Parker Engineering (Hong Kong) Limited[25]
  • June 16, 1988
  • 1989
    Occupation of Raxus
    • Communist Party leaders in Beijing criticise Forward Winsome and Hasbro's Transformers toys for their "violent and ridiculous content" and being a financial burden for Chinese families[11]
    • The protests in Tiananmen Square and over 400 Chinese cities in April and May following the death of Chinese leader Hu Yaobang spark what were then the largest demonstrations in Hong Kong's history, in solidarity with the student-led movement.
      • May 17: Xu Qinxian, commander of the People's Liberation Army's 38th Corps, refuses to support a secret verbal order to implement the impending martial law in Beijing
      • May 18: Mikhail Gorbachev departs Beijing following a summit normalising relations between the PRC and USSR, after their split in 1961
      • May 19: Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, accompanied by Wen Jiabao, appeals to students at Tiananmen Square to end their hunger strike; Deng Xiaoping later replaced Zhao with Jiang Zemin
      • May 20: Chinese leader Li Peng imposes martial law in Beijing
      • May 21: In Hong Kong, an unprecedented 1.5-million-strong march in the midst of Typhoon Brenda ends with the founding of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China
      • May 27: the Concert for Democracy in China is held at the Happy Valley Racecourse, featuring many of Hong Kong's artists to raise funds for the students in Beijing
      • June 2: Lee Cheuk-yan, representing the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, attempts to deliver the donations raised at the concert to Tiananmen Square but is detained by the authorities
      • June 3: the People's Liberation Army begin killing protesters on the streets of Beijing. Future legislator Claudia Mo covered the crackdown in Beijing for Agence France-Presse (AFP).
      • After June 4, Hong Kong business people, celebrities, politicians, triads (crime syndicates), MI6, and the CIA launch Operation Yellowbird to support Chinese dissidents fleeing the Communist Party's crackdown.[4]
      • A report on Chinese students protesting the Chinese government in New York by The New York Times notes that the students had watched Star Wars and Kramer vs. Kramer in Chinese theatres, read Western novels and Reader's Digest, listened to Voice of America broadcasts, and had exposure to American students and teachers in China after the exchange programmes with the US were expanded in 1979, but they did not want American ideals per se but Chinese ideals; the Statue of Liberty was not the model of the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square, and the student movement was a new May Fourth Movement like in 1919 but targeting the Communists denying democracy, freedom of speech and press, and human rights as notionally guaranteed in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China akin to the Constitution of the United States.[77]
      • June 8: Governor Wilson meets Margaret Thatcher and submits a request for all 3.25 million Hong Kong–born British nationals to have the right of abode in the UK
    • Prince Charles and Princess Diana visit Hong Kong with HMY Britannia; among their activities were the openings of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, the Eastern Harbour Crossing, Lam Tin station as part of the eastern cross-harbour extension for the MTR, and the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) in Wan Chai. Governor Wilson also announces Hong Kong's largest-ever infrastructure project, the Airport Core Programme.
      A surge of public transport and infrastructure projects connected various areas of Hong Kong together in the 1980s and 1990s

      A surge of public transport and infrastructure projects connected various areas of Hong Kong together in the 1980s and 1990s

    • The oil-fired Ap Lei Chau Power Station is decommissioned
    • According to an employee, Kenner defaces and disposes of most of its Star Wars metal moulds in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour in around this year, keeping only a few key moulds[78]
    • Revolutions for liberal democracy result in the fall of most communist regimes
  • 1990
    • Beijing promulgates the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution that would implement the policies agreed in the Sino-British Joint Declaration from 1997 onwards
    • Hong Kong's first political party, the United Democrats led by Martin Lee, is founded
    • The UK's British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990 allows 50,000 Hong Kong residents (and their spouses and children) recommended by the Governor of Hong Kong to be registered as British citizens
    • Closure of 麗聲 Royal Theatre, one of the four cinemas that initially showed Star Wars in Hong Kong—redeveloped into a commercial centre
    • John Major succeeds Margaret Thatcher as UK Prime Minister[4]
  • 1991 (HK population: ~5.8 million)
    • Governor Wilson inaugurates the Hong Kong Science Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui
    • Hong Kong leads in relief donations for the eastern China flood, including a charity concert at the Happy Valley Racecourse
    • The Hong Kong Government moves a motion to decriminalise homosexuality in the Legislative Council, allowing the council to discuss it in public and vote in favour of decriminalisation in the contexts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and of the debate on the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was watered down but allowed the courts to produce jurisprudence and case law relating to constitutional review and human rights ahead of 1997, and the registration of LGBTQIA+ civil society groups also surged ahead of 1997.
    • John Major is made to visit Beijing, unhappily, by British diplomat Sir Percy Cradock and Governor Wilson over the Airport Core Programme's costs. The Prime Minister became the first Western leader to visit China after the Tiananmen crackdown.
    • The first Legislative Council election including directly elected seats, with Martin Lee's democrats winning most of the vote
    • The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is founded
    • Dissolution of the Soviet Union
    • Old stocks of Star Wars figures, including mostly "tri-logo" figures and also unqiue packaged prototypes, are removed from Hong Kong warehouses and sold cheaply in Australia[79]
    • The oil-fired Hok Un Power Station is decommissioned
  • 1992
    Surely this picture of isn't a view of Kowloon with an airplane above heading down to Kai Tak Airport!

    Surely this picture of Eriadu isn't a view of Kowloon with an airplane above heading down to Kai Tak Airport!

    • The Friendly Floatees spill: a shipment of rubber ducks from Hong Kong is spilled in the Pacific Ocean 🐥
    • Deng Xiaoping's southern tour to Hong Kong's neighbouring cities in Guangdong reinforces his economic policies across China
    • John Woo's cop-and-kid film Hard Boiled opens in cinemas (an inspiration for The Mandalorian).[80] John Woo's previous A Better Tomorrow trilogy (1986-1989) that defined the "heroic bloodshed" genre expressed Hong Kong's unease towards the handover to China.[63]
    • The oil-fired Penny's Bay Power Station is commissioned
    • John Major appoints Chris Patten to replace Sir David Wilson as the last Governor of Hong Kong[4] and later sacks Sir Percy Cradock
    • The US Congress agrees on treating Hong Kong as a separate territory after 1997[4]
    • Governor Patten inaugurates the Hong Kong Museum of Art at its present site
    • Governor Patten meets Chinese official Lu Ping; Patten distinguishes between the rule of law and China's system of rule by law[76]
    • Taiwan's first full legislative election takes place
  • 1993
    • The European Communities, which include the UK, form the European Union (EU)
    • Emily Lau tables a Legislative Council motion seeking assurances of right of abode in the UK for Hong Kong–born British nationals in case of trouble in Hong Kong, supported by 36 out of 60 total legislators but dismissed by the government
    • Rupert Murdoch sells the South China Morning Post to Robert Kuok and acquires Star TV with the aim of entering China's TV satellite broadcast market[76]
  • 1994
    • Governor Patten pushes through electoral reforms in the Legislative Council[76]
    • The District Boards become fully directly elected
    • Emily Lau leads a delegation of Hong Kong legislators to London to request full British citizenship for Hong Kong–born British nationals
    • The Kowloon Walled City is demolished
    • Hasbro, having acquired both Kenner and Palitoy and retained the Star Wars license for plastic toys, shuts down the Coalville site.[81] As it closed, Palitoy gave many of its products to London's V&A Museum of Childhood, a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum.[82]
    • The Hong Kong Baptist University, the City University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University are granted university status
    • The Democratic Party is founded from a merger of the United Democrats and fellow pro-democracy group Meeting Point
  • 1995
    • Governor Patten calls for all 3.3 million Hong Kong–born British nationals to be granted the right of abode in the UK
    • The newspaper Wah Kiu Yat Po ceases publication
    • Jimmy Lai, the successful founder of the international clothing retailer Giordano, uses his profits to establish the newspaper Apple Daily
    • The Democratic Party wins the popular vote in the Legislative Council election and becomes Hong Kong's largest party, and they elect Andrew Wong as Hong Kong's only Legislative Council President supported by the democrats
    • The Urban Council becomes fully elected, and the Regional Council is similarly largely directly elected
  • 1996
    Plastic toy factories relocated to mainland China, though Hong Kong firms remained in the entrepôt city.

    Plastic toy factories relocated to mainland China, though Hong Kong firms remained in the entrepôt city.

    • Taiwan's first direct presidential election takes place
    • US company Galoob's engineering staff, based in Hong Kong via the subsidiary Galco International Toys N.V., sculpt models for Micro Machines toys for the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire multimedia project.[83] Most of Galoob's manufacturing was done in mainland China.[84]
    • The Los Angeles Times reports on an example of China's toy export trade—Mattel Barbie dolls assembled in Guangdong, with the labour of second-born or third-born young women from families in the rural inland provinces exempt from the one-child policy, use plastic pellets that were made in Taiwan from Saudi Arabian oil, with the management of shipping, banking, and insurance done via Hong Kong which is also the site of re-export—highlighting that calculations of the US' trade deficit with China may not be accounting for Hong Kong as an entrepôt of toys, and "Mattel's profit alone is three times what China gains from each Barbie."[85]
    • The gas-fired Black Point Power Station is commissioned
  • 1997
    • Hasbro's limited edition release of Star Wars action figures commemorating the handover—Princess Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and C-3PO in Commemorative Edition I and Boba Fett, Darth Vader, and a stormtrooper in Commemorative Edition II—distributed by Hasbro Hong Kong Ltd., Kwun Tong, Kowloon, and made in China. The packaging features Hong Kong's nighttime skyline, Hong Kong's four flags, a Kenner logo, and text in both English and Chinese. The English text: "Like a distant and brilliant star, Hong Kong bursts into a new era with the 1997 handover to China. Unknown territory and an uncharted future bringing new adventures and a galaxy of opportunities for its inhabitants. Adventures that will travel as far as the imagination can take them, protected and watched over by its ever present guardians." The Chinese text expresses likewise, but for the handover it uses the phrase 回歸, meaning "return."[86]
  • January 22, 1997
    • Tonka Kenner Parker Engineering (Hong Kong) Limited is dissolved[25]
  • January—March 1997
    • The Special Edition release of the Star Wars original trilogy[35]
    • Death of Deng Xiaoping
    • The UK's British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1997 offers a pathway to citizenship for ethnic minorities (non-Chinese) in Hong Kong who would be effectively stateless under China's ethnic policies following over a decade of lobbying from Hong Kong[75]
  • May 1997
    • Tony Blair succeeds John Major as UK Prime Minister
    • The Open University of Hong Kong (Metropolitan) is granted university status, the first for a private university
    • Closure of 百樂 Park Theatre, one of the four cinemas that initially showed Star Wars in Hong Kong—redeveloped into a commercial centre
"As Hong Kong has risen from the ashes of war, a most dramatic transformation has taken place. Millions of destitute immigrants have been absorbed, and Hong Kong has created one of the most successful societies on Earth."
―Queen Elizabeth II, in a message delivered by Prince Charles on 30th June, 1997[3]
"Now, Hong Kong people are to run Hong Kong. That is the promise—and that is the unshakable destiny."
―Governor Chris Patten, 30th June, 1997[3]
  • July 1, 1997 (HK population: ~6.5 million)
    Brian Blessed, of Boss Nass (centre) fame, jointly MC'd the Hong Kong handover ceremony

    Brian Blessed, of Boss Nass (centre) fame, jointly MC'd the Hong Kong handover ceremony

    • Handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China and the founding of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (HKSAR). Hong Kong's economy was 11% the size of the UK's and 18% of the PRC's. The Legislative Council is dissolved and replaced by Beijing's provisional Legislative Council. Prince Charles and Chris Patten depart aboard HMY Britannia following the ceremony at the HKCEC (presented by Frances Yip and Brian Blessed), marking the end of the British Empire.[4]
    • 1997 Asian financial crisis
  • December 1997
    • Galoob sees sales boosted by the Special Edition release and has high hopes for the upcoming prequel trilogy[87]

1998–2018

"The truth is Hong Kong is more than ready for democracy; it is China that is not ready for a democratically governed Hong Kong it fears it cannot totally control."
―Anson Chan, Chief Secretary from 1993 to 2001, in September 2014[88]
  • 1998
  • 1999
    • 凱聲 Empress Theatre, one of the cinemas that screened The Empire Strikes Back, shuts down
    • KFC advert[90]
    • 《星球大戰前傳：魅影危機》 — Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace
      • Among the ILM visual effects artists who worked on the film is Ellen Poon, who grew up in Hong Kong and eventually became the first woman serving as a VFX Supervisor at ILM and an executive committee member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences[91]
      • Unlike the previous Star Wars films, the prequel trilogy is distributed in mainland China by 20th Century Fox—an editorial on TheForce.net suggests that this is thanks to Murdoch's attempts to curry favour with the government[92]
      • The Guardian reports on June 3 that according to Screen International, pirated copies of The Phantom Menace are being sold on the streets of Hong Kong and Moscow[93]
    • The Lingnan University is granted university status
    • The PRC vetoes Pope John Paul II's plan to visit Hong Kong, given that the Holy See has diplomatic relations with Taiwan
    • Handover of Macau from Portugal to the PRC, establishing the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China
    • The democratically elected Urban Council and Regional Council are dissolved, with their cultural services and facility maintenance functions replaced by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department under the SAR government. The District Boards are renamed District Councils, and unelected chairmen from the Heung Yee Kuk are reintroduced to them.
  • 2000
  • 2001 (HK population: ~6.7 million)
    • The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization (Hong Kong has been a member since the WTO's founding in 1995)[1]
  • 2002 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 18th)
  • 2003 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 56th)
  • 2004 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 34th)
    • Closure of 京都 Imperial Cinema, one of the four cinemas that initially showed Star Wars in Hong Kong—eventually converted into a church and restaurant
    • The DPP maintain power in Taiwan in a tightly contested election
    • Legislative Council election. Left-wing pro-democracy activist Leung Kwok-hung wins a seat, defeating Andrew Wong.
  • March 2005 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 39th)
    • Tung Chee-hwa announces his resignation as Chief Executive, having been embroiled in controversies following his Article 23 campaign
  • May 18, 2005
  • May 20, 2005
    • Legislator Ronny Tong's opinion column on Apple Daily highlights Revenge of the Sith's charity premiere and Darth Vader's turn away from the light, comparing the turmoil in Star Wars with the Hong Kong SAR government and its dysfunctional Executive Council following the Article 23 campaign[97]
  • June 21, 2005
    • Donald Tsang succeeds Tung Chee-hwa as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR following Tung's resignation
  • September 12, 2005
    • Hong Kong Disneyland opens on reclaimed land at Lantau Island following negotiations between Disney and the HKSAR government (in which Disney executive Wing Tao Chao played a key role)[98]
  • December 2005
    • Electoral reform controversies, with the Legislative Council vetoing the government's proposals following public pressure on the pro-democrats
    • Hong Kong hosts the WTO conference, which draws anti-WTO protests largely made up of farmers from South Korea, who face the Hong Kong Police Force in clashes between Lockhart Road and the Convention and Exhibition Centre involving allegations of serious human rights violations. NGOs and Bishop Joseph Zen are among the critics of the heavy-handed treatment, though the protests' goal fails to resonate with the capitalistic culture of Hong Kong.[63]
    • The Hong Kong Shue Yan University is granted university status
  • 2006 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 58th)
    • The Hong Kong branch of the 501st Legion charity group is founded by local Star Wars fans[99]
    • Protests against the demolition of the Star Ferry Pier at Edinburgh Place
    • The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum is opened at the the Kom Tong Hall after the Latter-day Saints agree to sell the hall to the government instead of demolishing it (vacant plots on Hong Kong Island fetch higher prices)
    • 紐約 New York Cinema, one of the cinemas that screened The Empire Strikes Back in Hong Kong, is shut down—redeveloped into a restaurant
    • Members of the local 501st Legion cosplay as Star Wars characters during the Christmas season
  • 2007 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 61st)
    • Incumbent Donald Tsang wins the 796-member Election Committee's selection for Chief Executive, defeating Alan Leong in Hong Kong's first contested Chief Executive election
    • Protests against the demolition of Queen's Pier
    • Beijing decides that universal suffrage, promised in the Basic Law under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, may be implemented in Hong Kong from 2017
    • Members of the local 501st Legion cosplay as Darth Vader, stormtroopers, and clone troopers on an open-top bus in Mong Kok to raise funds for the Caring for Children Foundation in Hong Kong, offering photo opportunities for a donation of $20 HKD. They then travel to Diamond Hill's Plaza Hollywood shopping mall (Wharf) for its Star Wars exhibit, lasting from December 22 to January 1 for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, throughout which they served in charity parades too.[62]
    • Plaza Hollywood's "Star Wars Expo" comprises eight sets of 1:1 models transported by air from France (including Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Yoda, R2-D2, stormtroopers, and a podracer) shown in Asia for the first time alongside small models of vehicles like the Slave I and vintage 3.5 inch figures from 1977–1997, mostly by Hasbro, including a 1977 set of twelve figures "Made in Hong Kong," with the toys made from 1980s being "Made in China." It also includes a young Obi-Wan Kenobi figure hand-made by a local member of the 501st Legion, a replica Hong Kong poster of The Empire Strikes Back from 1980, half-price ($108 HKD) 1:32 models of Anakin's podracer by AMT, and a mini podracer set up for children to play in (provided their guardians had spent $200 in one day in Plaza Hollywood).[62]
    • TVB Pearl airs the Star Wars films every Saturday from 21:30 over the Christmas season beginning in December 22 as well as the documentary Star Wars: Feel the Force on December 21.[62]
  • 2008 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 51st)
  • 2009 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 48th)
    • The Leisure and Cultural Services Department organises January concerts by the Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra that includes music from Star Wars at the Tuen Mun Town Hall, the Yuen Long Theatre, and the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium[100]
      New republic defense council
    • Publication of The Essential Atlas, which mentions corporate interests being granted representation in the Galactic Republic Senate as "functional constituencies" leading up to the decline of the Republic's democracy with the Trade Federation's Invasion of Naboo in The Phantom Menace and the Separatist Crisis in Attack of the Clones. Functional constituencies were introduced to Hong Kong's Legislative Council by the colonial government in 1985 as part of a limited democratisation reform, allowing some seats to be elected by a limited number of eligible voters of some professional interest groups. Governor Patten's push to remove "rotten borough constituencies" and establish a fully elected legislature in 1995 included 20 geographical constituencies elected by universal suffrage, 30 functional constituencies, and 10 Election Committee constituencies elected by District Board members. The functional constituencies included over one million eligible voters. Corporate voting in the functional constituencies was restored after the handover, reducing eligible voters to under 140,000 in 1998.[76]
    • Hong Kong journalists reporting on the unrest in Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region PRC, are assaulted and detained by Chinese authorities
    • Protests against the planned high-speed rail link to mainland China begin, lasting until 2010
  • 2010 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 34th)
    • Electoral reform controversies over the implementation of universal suffrage, with the Legislative Council approving the government's proposals amidst disagreements among the democrats. Leung Kwok-hung leads the pro-democracy legislators' practice of filibustering in the next decade of the Legislative Council.
    • Lucasfilm threatens and then backs down on legal action against the Hong Kong company Wicked Lasers over their laser products' resemblance to Star Wars lightsabers[101]
    • Hong Kong International Airport overtakes Memphis International Airport as the world's busiest airport by cargo traffic
    • 影都 Century Theatre, one of the cinemas that screened The Empire Strikes Back, shuts down
  • 2011 (HK population: ~7 million; World Press Freedom Index ranking: 54th)
  • 2012 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 54th)
  • 2013 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 58th)
  • 2014 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 61st)
    • Hong Kong toy company Hot Toys of Kwun Tong acquires the manufacturing license for Star Wars collectible products[109]
    • The Hong Kong Museum of History and the Hong Kong Drama/Theatre and Education Forum organise a drama performance touring primary schools about hand-made wooden puppet theatre. The story involves a child asking a puppet master of the traditional art form for a performance about the Transformers and Star Wars.[110]
  • January 2014
    • Lucasfilm opens their "Sandcrawler" visual effects and animation hub in Singapore. The South China Morning Post opines that Singapore's success shows the increasing challenge to Hong Kong's competitiveness and that the government should invest in the creative industries with the proposed innovation and technology bureau.[111]
  • March 2014
    • Following a couple years maintaining a personal museum in Mong Kok, filmmaker Oxide Pang's exhibition showcasing Hong Kong's toy-manufacturing heritage, including for Star Wars, is hosted in Lok Fu's shopping mall (Link) in Kowloon[112]
    • The Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan, with the slogan "Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow Taiwan"
  • September–December 2014
    GhormanMassacre-AndorS2
    • The Occupy Movement/Umbrella Revolution, sparked by Beijing's decision setting conditions for "universal suffrage." Writing for TIME magazine, former Chief Secretary Anson Chan (1993–2001) compares the Hong Kong Police Force to Star Wars stormtroopers for "indiscriminately" attacking peaceful young protesters in the first few days of the movement for genuine universal suffrage. She claimed that Hong Kong's tradition of peaceful protest dated back to 1989, when Hong Kong people supported the student protesters in Tiananmen Square, yet the police and the governments of Hong Kong and China have routinely failed to honor their responsibilities, opting to "rule by law" rather than uphold the rule of law as stipulated by the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the local constitution.[88] The protest movement begins to find splinters between tendencies towards traditional calls for democracy across China borne of Hong Kong's reaction to the Tiananmen protests and massacre in 1989 and a more radical, localist wing that emerged in the 2010s.[1][48]
    • October 2014
      • 《星球大戰：反抗軍起義》 — the television series Star Wars Rebels airs on the TV channel Disney XD
    • November 2014
      • The Rebel Legion fan group's Hong Kong Outpost cosplay as Star Wars characters to cheer children at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Sham Shui Po. They host a Star Wars quiz with toy prizes donated by the official manufacturer.[113]
      • Carrie Fisher, who played Leia Organa, visits Hong Kong and attends The Hub charity ball as its guest of honour at the Grand Hyatt in Wan Chai raising money to support children across Asia, including for children living in Sham Shui Po. Fisher had been invited by her producer friend Charles Wessler. They purchased artwork on Hollywood Road and later visited orphanages in Myanmar.[114]
「與香港人一樣，香港迪士尼樂園擁有靈活頭腦、有無限創意以及敏銳的潮流觸覺，一直源源不絕地為大家送上新潮和有趣的娛樂體驗。 […] 今年暑假，香港迪士尼樂園將再次為大家送上新意思，推出以電影《星球大戰》為主題的項目。《星球大戰》這套劃時代的科幻電影相信無須我多作介紹。一九七七年《星球大戰》首次上映時，我自己在波士頓也有買票入場觀賞，至今仍非常難忘。香港迪士尼樂園將電影中最震撼的星空戰鬥體驗在「明日世界」（Tomorrowland）呈現給各位追求新鮮刺激的大朋友、小朋友，令我及一眾「星戰迷」有機會夢想成真。大家可以坐上全新的「星戰極速穿梭」，感受一下X-wing戰機和鈦戰機的激戰。如果大家不喜歡太刺激的話，也可以考慮到Command Post跟R2-D2和Chewbacca聊聊天，來一張Selfie（自拍）。不過千萬不要被Chewbacca的怪叫聲嚇倒，他很可能只是想提一提大家，迪士尼樂園是不能使用「自拍棍」拍照的。最後，我希望大家在這個暑假一齊來感受一下香港迪士尼樂園精彩的節目。祝大家有奇妙的一天！」
("Like Hong Kong people, Hong Kong Disneyland is a place of innovation, creativity, and perceptivity to the zeitgeist, constantly giving everyone new and interesting entertainment experiences. […] This summer, Hong Kong Disneyland is giving everyone a new adventure with their Star Wars–themed programme. I believe the pioneering sci-fi/fantasy films of Star Wars need no introduction from me. I got tickets to see Star Wars myself in Boston when it premiered in 1977, and it is unforgettable to this day. Hong Kong Disneyland will bring the movies' stunning space battles to Tomorrowland for all the adult children and little children who seek thrill and novelty, giving Star Wars fans like myself the chance to fulfill our dreams. Everyone can ride the new Hyperspace Mountain to feel the clash of X-wings and TIE fighters. For those who would prefer less excitement, you can consider going to the Command Post for a chat and a selfie with R2-D2 and Chewbacca. But don't be frightened by Chewbacca's roar—he probably just wants to remind everyone that selfie sticks aren't allowed in Disneyland. Lastly, I hope everyone can enjoy the festivities in Hong Kong Disneyland this summer. May everyone have a magical day!")
—Financial Secretary John Tsang's speech at the opening ceremony of Star Wars: Tomorrowland Takeover at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2016[115]
  • March-June 2015 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 70th)
  • May 2015
    • The "Made in China 2025" industrial policy shifts China from predominantly manufacturing cheap low-tech goods such as plastic toys to advanced technology like AI, electric vehicles, and energy infrastructure. Persistently weak domestic demand and consumption leads to overproduction, with Chinese manufacturers exporting to markets worldwide, with other countries consequently developing economic and political dependencies.
  • June 2015
    • 18th: LT Lam's son, Jeffrey, unwittingly leads some fellow pro-Beijing legislators to walk out of the Legislative Council, resulting in the legislature formally vetoing the government's electoral reform proposals[11]
    • 21st: The TIME magazine cover features Taiwan's DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen with the words "She could lead the only Chinese democracy." While the cover is retained in Hong Kong, state media in mainland China censors the words and derogatively compares her picture to a picture of Master Yoda.[117]
  • July 8, 2015
    • Author and eventual Lucasfilm Creative Consultant Charles Soule has his first Star Wars work, the Lando comic, published. Soule had previously called Hong Kong home.
  • July 24, 2015—July 28, 2015
  • July 27, 2015
    • Hong Kong Disneyland hosts a Star Wars fan parade that includes the local 501st Legion and Rebel Legion fan groups[121][122]
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
    • The Shenzhen-based Chinese tech giant Tencent secures rights from Disney and 20th Century Fox to distribute the Star Wars saga by George Lucas as video on demand in mainland China.[125] Tencent later includes a statue of their mascot dressed as R2-D2 for the company's 18th anniversary in the their Shenzhen office in 2016.[126]
  • October 23, 2015—January 1, 2016
    Not quite Times Square, Causeway Bay

    Not quite Times Square, Causeway Bay

    • The Times Square shopping mall in Causeway Bay (Wharf) hosts a multi-phase exhibition of Star Wars paraphernalia and Jedi Training Academy courses from Hong Kong Disneyland,[127] and an advertisement video starring Aarif Lee (李治廷) as a Jedi leading younglings against Darth Vader in Times Square is broadcast on local television. The mall's atrium also features a meters-tall Battle of Hoth and Poe Dameron's X-wing display in a LEGO style, Hot Toys' 1/6 scale model of the Millennium Falcon, and a LEGO diorama of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance.[128] Local media report that netizens from Singapore wish that a similar exhibit could be held in their city while netizens from Australia say that they ought to visit Hong Kong for the event.[129] The state abductions relating to Causeway Bay Books, including of UK and Swedish EU nationals, two blocks away happen in the same time period.
  • November 2015
    • Star Wars' Hong Kong "Join the Force" promotion video features actor Louis Koo, inviting fans to submit a video of their skills with a lightsaber to win prizes from Hot Toys and labels under i.t: 5cm, AAPE by A Bathing Ape, CHOCOOLATE, fingercroxx, Musium Div., and izzue.[130][131]
  • December 2015
    • 2nd: Hong Kong artist Tik Ka posts a series of Chinese New Year picture–style illustrations of Star Wars characters on Facebook, titled Star Wars in Chinese Style. A Stand News report on the 3rd features the art and concerns that it could not be printed for sale due to copyright uncertainty, with Hong Kong's copyright bill then proceeding through the Legislative Council, which had been dubbed the "Article 23 of the internet." The bill was successfully being filibustered by pro-democracy legislators, and the government was forced to shelve the bill in 2016—it was passed in 2022.[132]
    • 16th-17th: The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra play music composed by John Williams in two sold-out concerts that include pieces from Star Wars, conducted by Guy Noble at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre[133]
    • 17th:《星球大戰：原力覺醒》 — Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens opens in cinemas in Hong Kong, one day ahead of the US release and weeks ahead of mainland China.[134] Visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett once lived in Hong Kong. While the Hong Kong poster of The Force Awakens retained the original US poster design,[135] the mainland China release in January 2016 is accused of racism in the poster design, which significantly diminishes John Boyega's Finn and entirely removes Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron as well as Chewbacca and Maz Kanata.[136]
    • 18th: the ToySoul toy fair in Kowloon Bay sells the limited edition Imperial shock trooper sixth scale figure by Hot Toys and Playstation[134]
    • 22nd: charity screening of The Force Awakens by the Rebel Legion fan group and Make-A-Wish Foundation at the MCL JP Cinema in Causeway Bay[137]
    • 24th: The Rebel Legion fan group cosplay as Star Wars characters to bring Christmas cheer to children in hospitals[138]
    • 29th: press media report that The Force Awakens was outperformed by Ten Years (十年), a local film speculating about the state of Hong Kong in 2025 with fears of Article 23 national security law, destruction of local culture, mainlandization with the imposition of Mandarin over Cantonese, the UK's failure to stand up to violations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, violent crackdown of protest, and normalisation of Cultural Revolution–style persecution of anything local, at Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon[139] It won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film in 2016.
  • January 2016 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 69th)
    • Tik Ka's illustrations of Star Wars characters are exhibited as 中式沙鍋 "Chinese Star Pot" (中式 means Chinese-style; 沙鍋 is a pseudo-English Cantonese pronounciation of Star Wars, and, translated literally, the words mean "Sand Pot") at l'après-midi gallery in Kwun Tong, the China Exchange in London, and the Wrong Gallery Taipei in Taiwan, under the theme of East-meets-West, "made in Hong Kong." Styled as Chinese New Year pictures, the illustrations are playfully paired with Chinese four-word idioms and additionally printed as mock red packets.[140]
    • 5th—24th: the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Design Gallery at the HKCEC exhibits Hong Kong toys, including Star Wars figures, from LT Lam and Oxide Pang[141]
    • 16th: landslide victory for the DPP in Taiwan, with Tsai Ing-wen elected president, in the context of the Sunflower Student Movement, the KMT's increasing engagement with Beijing, and the state of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong
    • 24th: the Leisure and Cultural Services Department organises a free youth concert at Sha Tin Town Hall Plaza that includes music from Star Wars[142]
    • 28th: StarWars.com interviews architect Barrie Ho about his Star Wars design collection, TATOOINE, in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong Island[143]
  • February 5, 2016
    • Lawyer Kevin Yam's opinion column on Apple Daily compares the months-long university governance controversy to Star Wars—the selection for pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Hong Kong in 2015 included a unanimous recommendation from the selection committee for Professor Johannes Chan SC (Hon). Pro-Beijing papers launched a smear campaign against Prof. Chan as he is outspoken on legal issues and headed HKU's faculty of law, which included Associate Professor Benny Tai, a leading pro-democracy activist of the 2014 Occupy Movement. The HKU Council's repeated delays and ultimate rejection of Prof. Chan's appointment escalated into further criticism of Chief Executive CY Leung, who was chancellor of all publicly funded universities ex officio, allegations and leaks in the press, campus protests and physical scuffles, statements and votes from alumni outraged at the condemnation of students by deans and Vice Chancellor Peter Mathieson (now principal of the University of Edinburgh), court proceedings, and online arguments in Taiwan over détente with mainland China under the KMT. With public criticism focused on Arthur Li as the new chairman of the HKU Council, Kevin Yam's article recounts the dynamics between Darth Vader as a public enforcer and Palpatine as a seemingly kindly politician who actually twists the Republic's laws and orchestrates his rise to power in Star Wars to point out that the typically brash Li is the Darth Vader to CY Leung as Palpatine.[144]
  • February 8, 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
    • The South China Morning Post is acquired by China's Alibaba and the HK Magazine archives are closed
  • June 10, 2016
    An entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland's Tomorrowland during the Star Wars&ndash;themed event

    An entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland's Tomorrowland during the Star Wars–themed event

  • June 11, 2016—August 31, 2016[145]
    • Star Wars: Tomorrowland Takeover, sponsored by multinational bank Standard Chartered
      • Among the Star Wars–themed food on offer are several Chinese dishes: Millennium Falcon fried rice combo, Yoda wonton noodle soup combo, chilled sesame sweet soup with almond panna cotta, Imperial Bun, and Star Wars baked Yunnan ham and nuts puff
  • June 14, 2016
  • June 16, 2016
  • June 23, 2016
    • The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union in the "Brexit referendum"
  • June 25
    • Chief Executive CY Leung launches an anti–drug abuse campaign titled 2016原力起動 同行抗毒 (translated roughly: 2016 The Force Rouses, Fight Drugs Together—the official title is "Power Your Life, Fight Drugs Together"). Leung says the campaign is a response to the UN's World Drug Day and says that 原力, the Force in Star Wars, is the source of a Jedi's power, similar to the Chinese concepts of 道 (the Tao) or 氣 (qi). He adds that the protagonist of The Force Awakens realises that the Force has always been within her, and in that vein, the collective will of society would contribute to resisting drug abuse.[147]
  • July 2016
    • Among the publications at the Hong Kong Book Fair, including Star Wars books, is local artist Ah To's comic book, evading censorship to debut at the fair. One page features a Cantonese tongue-twister based on the Star Wars Main Title.[148]
  • August 18, 2016
    • LEGO opens its first official Hong Kong store in Langham Place, Mong Kok (Champion). Run by Kidsland Holdings, the LEGO store's manager expresses liking for the Star Wars decor in particular and says that they took advantage of Hong Kong's retail slump that year—due to a drop in mainland tourists and poor local demand—to open with lower rents and cheaper labour costs.[149]
  • September and October 2016
  • November 2016
    • LEGO opens its factory in China, near Shanghai
    • Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Red House in Tuen Mun is sold to a controversial private owner
  • December 2016
    Hong Kong Rogue One poster

    Hong Kong Rogue One poster

    • 13th: Apple Daily publishes an interview with Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen, who played Chirrut Îmwe, in which he says he was initially hesitant to accept director Gareth Edwards' invitation to fly to London to act in Star Wars but was convinced by his children to do so. Yen added that he made the suggestion to have Chirrut Îmwe be blind and for the character to have a walking stick doubling as a staff to fight stormtroopers, joking that he should collect copyright dues for those ideas.[150]
    • 15th: 《俠盜一號：星球大戰外傳》 — Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in cinemas in Hong Kong, one day ahead of the US release and weeks ahead of mainland China. Gabby Wong also played Wona Goban.
    • 18th: the Hong Kong Police Force organises a children's sports event titled 滅罪星球大戰競技日 (translated roughly: Star Wars Stop Crime Competition Day)[151]
    • Hasbro's Corporate Social Responsibility Report for the year states that the majority of Hasbro's third-party vendors are in China, but the company has begun diversifying suppliers in 2015 with Vietnam, India, and Indonesia.[152]
  • December 30, 2016—January 31, 2017 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 70th)
    • Hong Kong artist Tik Ka's exhibition at Wrong Gallery Taipei in Taiwan includes Star Wars characters as Chinese ink paintings[153]
  • March 2, 2017—May 15, 2017
    • The Hong Kong Museum of History's special exhibition "The Legend of Hong Kong Toys" details the city's history of toy manufacturing. Nearly a hundred life-sized First Order stormtrooper figures were stationed outside to promote the exhibition.[154]
  • March 26, 2017
  • May 4, 2017
    • The Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF partners with Disney for the city's first "Star Wars Run" raising funds for children worldwide.[155] The run was led by members of the local 501st Legion at the Disneyland Resort.[99]
  • June 29–July 1
    • Xi Jinping visits Hong Kong and personally inaugurates Carrie Lam as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR
  • July 8, 2017
    • LEGO opens its second official Hong Kong store, located in Times Square, Causeway Bay. The shop's entrance is guarded by a life-scale Darth Vader built from 40,000+ LEGO pieces.[156]
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 17, 2017—January 3, 2018
    A Christmas fit for The Last Jedi at apm

    A Christmas fit for The Last Jedi at apm

  • December 14, 2017
  • December 31
    • The Music Office commemorate their 40th anniversary with concerts in Sha Tin Town Hall. Conducted by James Leung, the alumni of the Hong Kong Youth Symphonic Band started the last concert on the night of Hogmanay with[161] the Star Wars Medley composed by John Williams and arranged by James Burden.[162]
  • January 30, 2018 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 70th)
    • Benny Tai writes an opinion column for Apple Daily comparing Star Wars with Hong Kong's democracy movement. Tai opined that The Last Jedi shows the First Order whittling down but failing to fully eliminate the Resistance—with Vice Admiral Holdo sacrificing herself and the Resistance's flagship so that surviving freedom fighters may leave on small lifeboats and, with the further sacrifice of Luke Skywalker, inspire other individuals (like the "Broom Boy" Temiri Blagg) across the galaxy to continue the fight—at a time when Hong Kong's freedoms have been severely assaulted. Tai believed that the democracy movement has been transforming into the same "lifeboat" strategy, and while some would disperse across every corner of society, some would openly sacrifice themselves to shield the "lifeboats" and provide hope, so the main issue would be to figure out how to effectively coordinate action across society, relying on ordinary people with their brooms and a mind for resistance. Tai mentioned that he initiated "Project Storm" following the Chief Executive election in 2017 as a plan for pro-democracy candidates to win the "Episode 9" of the 2019 District Council elections to therefore increase democrats on the Election Committee for future Chief Executive elections and the "Episode 10" of the 2020 Legislative Council election.[163]
  • February–March 2018
    • The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra perform the score of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope in accompaniment to the film's screening at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre[164]
    • The Korean film 1987: When the Day Comes by Jang Joon-hwan on the successful 1987 Democracy Movement, released as 逆權公民 meaning "the power-overturning citizen," is well-received in Hong Kong[63]
  • April 2018
    • 21st: the Leisure and Cultural Services Department organises a youth concert at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium that includes music from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story[165]
    • 29th: a toy fair in Hong Kong features a collector's efforts to bring Hong Kong–made Star Wars figures back to the city; a local manufacturer had been contacted for any remaining artifacts, but they replied that the toys had been discarded and the moulds had been returned to Kenner[166]
  • May 2018
    • UNICEF Hong Kong partners with Force for Change, the 501st Legion fan group, and local companies for a "Star Wars Dress Up Day" on May 4—Star Wars Day—with Star Wars merchandise in conjunction with marketing for:[155]
    • Apple Daily publishes its brief interview with Alden Ehrenreich, who plays a young Han Solo, asking him in Los Angeles about support from Harrison Ford and if he has time for dating—Ehrenreich replies that Ford is both an idol and a great motivator, as Ford had told him he had watched Solo twice, and the actor jokes that he is dating Chewbacca, but he would definitely spend time with family and friends.[167]
    • 《韓索羅：星球大戰外傳》 — Solo: A Star Wars Story, premiering one day ahead of both the US and mainland China
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
    • The local 501st Legion attends the World Blood Donor Day event at the Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre—they campaign with a blood donation centre and give blood every year[99]
      Samos
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
    • Apple Daily reports that the papier-mâché offering shop 寶華紮作 (Bo Wah Paper Craft), founded in 1963 and located in Sham Shui Po, not only makes Taoist paper art for funerary rites but also traditional lanterns for Mid-Autumn Festival, and even lanterns in the design of Star Wars helmets. The traditional practice is in decline, but the paper master has been trying to carry on the tradition passed down from his recently retired father.[171] Next Plus, of Apple Daily's parent company, has also reported on the shop in 2015.[172]
    • Cardinal Joseph Zen criticises the Vatican's agreement with China on the appointment of bishops
  • October 2018
    • 7th: Release of Star Wars Resistance 《星球大戰：抵抗勢力》 on the Disney Channel and Disney XD, with the protagonist Kazuda Xiono's father, Hamato Xiono, being voiced by the Hong Kong–born American actor Tzi Ma
    • 15th: Leicester and Coalville in England host an exhibition of Palitoy's Star Wars products,[9] and a local legend of a "Palitoy Pit" of Star Wars figures and prototypes that had been abandoned near Coalville is reported on BBC Radio Leicester[173]
      Imperial Plaza Andor
    • 24th: Xi Jinping opens the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge as part of Hong Kong's integration with the so-called Greater Bay Area comprising Guangdong's new megacities and Macao, a month after the opening of the high-speed rail link to Shenzhen, as part of the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation"
    • 28th: the 501st Legion attends the 哈囉Woof Guide Dog Walk & Carnival organised by the Hong Kong Guide Dogs Association, supported by the local toy brand B.Duck, and sponsored by the Centaline Charity Fund[99]
    • 30th: the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong is granted university status
  • November 2018
    • Hong Kong's tenth annual Pride Parade—to date, it was Hong Kong's last
    • An article by Indesign Media Asia Pacific features the Hong Kong–based Alexander Wong Architects' Star X cinema complex partly inspired by Star Wars in Ürümqi, Xinjiang[174]
    • The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's annual free outdoor concert at the Central Harbourfront includes the Star Wars Main Title, conducted by the orchestra's musical director Jaap van Zweden and sponsored by Swire[175]
  • December

2019–

"Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. […] The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. […] The day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try."
―Nemik in The Trail of Political Consciousness, from Star Wars: Andor[177]
  • 2019 (HK population: 7.5 million; HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 73rd)
    • With China's Yoozoo Games having agreed with Disney to develop the video game Star Wars: Galactic Conflict by December 2018,[178] the Taiwanese company Gravity establishes a subsidiary named Gamesword in Hong Kong as the video game's distributor outside mainland China amidst US President Donald Trump's trade war with China[179]
  • March-April 2019
    • Japanese artist 武藤隆輔 and local toy brand TOYZEROPLUS exhibit modern ukiyo-e art in Tai Hang, including Star Wars and other popular culture characters in ukiyo-e style[180]
  • May 2019
    • LEGO's Asia-Pacific exhibition celebrating the 20th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars is ran by Kidsland Holdings and hosted at the lobby of Langham Place[181]
  • June 2019
    Keysax at Rix Road riot
    • Hong Kong commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, with Lee Cheuk-yan relating it to the controversial bill allowing for extradition to China that was proposed by the Hong Kong government in February, asserting that the rule of law would become "the rule by fear" if the extradition bill passes.
    • Start of the pro-democracy protests with the one-million-strong march against the extradition bill on June 9. Media commentators question the appropriateness of the Hong Kong Police Force's debut of paramilitary "Star Wars gear" on June 12, marking the first use of tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds, and kettling by police and the first death connected to the protests. It was followed by the two-million-plus-one-strong march on June 16 for "Five Demands, Not One Less."[182]
    • The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum's permanent exhibition, on the republican revolution, was temporarily shut due to "sensitivities."
    • Artwork of the protest movement feature reframed Hollywood popular culture imagery, including Star Wars, but also local imagery.[183] Some artwork were used specifically to communicate planned events such as a rally at a specific place and time, and protesters organising themselves as the "publicity group" shared designs online via social media and forums such as LIHKG, crowdsourcing opinions for the best posters and then distributing them both digitally and in print on Lennon Walls.
  • July 2019
    • Protesters briefly occupy the Legislative Council building, demanding the withdrawal of the bill for extradition to mainland China, the retraction of the government's characterisation of protesters as "rioters" (which carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison), the release and exoneration of arrested protesters, the establishment of an independent inquiry into police conduct, and genuine universal suffrage. A piece of graffiti stated "It was you who taught me peaceful marches did not work."
    • The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra perform the scores of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back (sponsored by American Express) in accompaniment to the films' screenings at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, conducted by Benjamin Northey[184]
    • Protesters at the PRC Liaison Office in Hong Kong chant "liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times," first coined by Edward Leung in 2016
    • 721 Yuen Long mob attack
    • 良知/conscience becomes a popular phrase among protesters
  • August 2019
    • 1st: the People's Liberation Army hold public drills in Shenzhen
    • 4th: the Music Office organise a concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, including the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra performing music from The Empire Strikes Back, composed by John Williams and arranged by John Whitney[185]
    • 6th: laser pointers (and occasionally toy lightsabers) become a staple of the protests following the arrest of a university student union president, who was carrying laser pointers, for "possession of offensive weapons."[186] Posters in the style of Star Wars were distributed within an hour of the arrest, as reported by The National.[187]
    • 7th: protesters organise an impromptu Space Museum "laser show," complete with Star Wars music, as reported by The Guardian.[188] The crowd played the Star Wars Main Title and the 1983 Cantopop song 激光中 by Roman Tam and danced to the music, and they also watched projections of shadow puppetry referring to police brutality and the 721 Yuen Long mob attack. Tang (2023) notes that the spontaneous performance was a collective act of trying to "reclaim the public as a form of resistance" that "re-defined the laser pointer as a playful, ordinary object, as opposed to the police's injunction against the laser pointer as an "offensive weapon."
    • 8th: a British Consulate-General officer is abducted by the Chinese state in Hong Kong's high-speed rail link station for interrogational torture and forced confession in Shenzhen, televised on CGTN in November
    • As featured on CNN and Reuters, the August 11 rally in Sham Shui Po was advertised via a poster in the style of The Last Jedi, with imagery of Hong Kong protesters including goggles, face masks, yellow hard hats, and laser pointers,[189] and a poster in the style of the lightsaber-and-hands poster for Return of the Jedi[190][191] A protester holding a toy lightsaber coordinated others in setting up the barricades in Sham Shui Po.[192]
    • 12th-14th: protesters occupy the Hong Kong International Airport
    • 16th: Li Ka-shing places minimalist front-page ads on Hong Kong newspapers, warning about unintended consequences and asking for an end to violence in the name of love; urging for people to have love for freedom as with loving China, love for empathy as with loving Hong Kong, love for the rule of law as with self-love; and using an idiom referring to a Tang prince's poem pleading Empress Wu Zetian not to keep harming her children for political power, having used the same idiom in 2016 when asked to predict the 2017 Chief Executive election
    • 18th: the People's Armed Police hold public drills in Shenzhen
    • Among the posters advertising the 1.7 million-strong march on the 18th was one in an anime style featuring various popular culture references, including to Star Wars[186]
    • 25th: first use of live ammunition (no casualties) and water cannons
    • 29th: the People's Liberation Army conducts its "routine rotation" of its troops in Hong Kong in the early hours, with the US military expressing concerns. The 2015 Ukrainian documentary film Winter on Fire on the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests and the Revolution of Dignity is screened across communities in Hong Kong. Further community film screenings include the Korean films The Attorney, A Taxi Driver, and 1987: When the Day Comes on the democracy movement in South Korea.[63]
    • 31st: the 831 Prince Edward station attack, and the first use of water cannons containing toxic irritants
  • September 2019
    • The Chief Executive formally withdraws the extradition bill
    • As featured in TIME, the September 15 march at Causeway Bay was advertised via a poster in the style of Tom Jung's A New Hope poster, featuring imagery of Hong Kong and its unrest, including gas masks and yellow hard hats worn by protesters and their laser pointers and barricades, as well as tear gas canisters and riot police gear, with the slogans "Five Demands, Not One Less" and "liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times."[193] A protester waved a toy lightsaber and the flag of the United States atop a tram stop at Des Voeux Road.
    • The Taiwanese film Detention by John Hsu on the White Terror under KMT authoritarianism is well-received in Hong Kong[63]
  • October 2019
    • Disney and Lucasfilm announce their collaboration with China's Tencent and its subsidiary China Literature, which had raised $1.1 billion USD in its Hong Kong IPO in 2017, for the Chinese web-novel The Vow of Silver Dawn[194][195] (mainland Chinese companies IPOs are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a separate customs territory, to raise foreign capital without fully exposing China's economy)[1]
    • In defiance of the face mask ban enacted via the colonial-era Emergency Regulations Ordinance on 5th October, Halloween is celebrated by masked demonstrators, including some with toy lightsabers and some in stormtrooper masks
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
    • In six months, 16,000 canisters of tear gas, 10,000 rubber bullets, and 4,000 bean bag and sponge rounds have been fired by the police alongside the use of water cannons, pepper spray, and batons—The Lancet warned of long-term health consequences for the entirety of Hong Kong
    • 《星球大戰：天行者崛起》 — Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker opens in Hong Kong cinemas one day ahead of both the US and mainland China
    • Benny Tai—on bail pending appeal since August over his conviction in April for "public nuisance" in 2014—writes an opinion piece on Apple Daily following up on his previous piece on The Last Jedi, this time focusing on "the lesson of Star Wars" as a timeless story of light versus darkness. Tai highlights that the rallying of countless small ships of the Citizens' Fleet—"It's not a navy, sir, it's just… people"—ultimately overcoming the Goliath of the authoritarian power's armada in The Rise of Skywalker is remarkably similar to the concurrent fight for democracy in Hong Kong, with citizens securing an early victory in the District Council election, and the power of the empire's sole dedication to the Emperor is its very weakness because everything unravels once the Emperor collapses, cutting off the serpent's head. Tai's cautionary note was that the greatest lesson is that a warrior must never behave the same way as the demon they are confronting, lest the warrior becomes a demon and renders their past battles for justice meaningless—each person makes their choice between either mingling with evil or standing with justice based on their 良知/conscience without their path being pre-determined by their blood or past experiences, as had happened and will continue to happen in Hong Kong. Tai added that most of the time, the struggle would seem impossible, yet staying optimistic, though seemingly naïve, is necessary to at least lessen one's own and others' pain; persisting with gritted teeth through hurdle after hurdle gives everyone strength until each person's light defeats the darkest night, so hope remains for the future of Hong Kong.[196]
    • A project documenting Palitoy's history is launched; among its achievements is the television documentary Toy Empire: The British Force Behind Star Wars Toys[9]
  • January 2020 (HK population: 7.52 million; HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 80th)
    • The DPP and Tsai Ing-wen are re-elected in Taiwan given the situation in Hong Kong, reversing their poor performance in 2018's local elections
    • The longitudinal cohort study of Hong Kong adults by Ni et al. (2020) finds that 32% report PTSD symptoms in late 2019. Over 10% also have probable depression, compared to 6.5% in 2017 and 1.9% in 2009. These are associated with using social media to follow the unrest.
    • The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra performs the score of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi in accompaniment to the film's screening at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, conducted by Benjamin Northey[197]
    • The UK formally withdraws from the European Union
  • February 2020
    • The protests fade with the COVID-19 outbreak, originating from Wuhan and quickly spreading worldwide. Several deaths had been recorded in connection with the protests since June.
    • Joshua Wong, a leading pro-democracy activist in the protests against "Moral and National Education" and in the 2014 Umbrella Revolution, has his book Unfree Speech published, which compares the city's Police Force to Star Wars stormtroopers "terrorising" citizens[198]
    • Public broadcaster RTHK's Hong Kong Stories docuseries includes an episode on local 501st Legion charity workers
    • The UK revokes CGTN's broadcast license after complaints about its forced confessions, and China bans the BBC World Service from its last receivers in internationally-owned hotels in mainland China
  • June-July, 2020
    Not-the-British-Parliament

    Not-the-British-Parliament

    • The Chinese government enacts its national security law in Hong Kong. The United Kingdom declares it a "clear breach" of the Sino-British Joint Declaration that undermines the "one country, two systems" framework.
      • The UK, Australia, Canada, and other countries therefore extend visa and citizenship routes to Hong Kongers, including for British Nationals (Overseas).
      • China and the Hong Kong SAR, where dual citizens have already not been entitled to foreign consular protection, withdraw recognition of British National (Overseas) passports.
      • British multinational banks HSBC and Standard Chartered publicly support the national security law. They later freeze the assets of Hong Kongers arrested under the national security law as well as the mandatory pension savings of emigrating Hong Kongers holding British National (Overseas) passports who wish to withdraw their finances from Hong Kong.
    • RTHK axes the satirical current affairs programme Headliner
    • French street artist Invader, whose artwork, Stand News noted, was cleared by government authorities in 2014, returns to the city with exhibits at the "Over the Influence" gallery in Central, Hong Kong Island—among the pieces is Princess Leia in ceramic tiles[199]
    • The United States requires all imported goods from Hong Kong to be labelled "Made in China" instead of "Made in Hong Kong"
    • Hong Kong authorities disqualify several pro-democracy candidates from the upcoming Legislative Council election and postpone it via the colonial-era Emergency Regulations Ordinance, citing COVID-19
  • August 2020
    • Hong Kong police crack down on pro-democracy media outlet Apple Daily and make the first arrests under the new national security law, including of founder Jimmy Lai
    • The US sanctions certain Hong Kong and Chinese officials, including Carrie Lam and John Lee
  • October 2020
    • The Hong Kong Museum of History's permanent exhibition, The Hong Kong Story, is shut for "renovation"
    • The Atlantic reports on Hong Kong pro-democracy supporters of US President Trump, including on the YouTuber "Stormtrooper"[200]
  • November 2020
    • Beijing directly introduces criteria for disqualification from the Legislative Council. Remaining pro-democracy members resign en masse and the United Kingdom formally declares another breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
    • Star Wars imagery also feature in the rubber duck artwork of the pro-democracy protests in Thailand, part of the pan-Asian Milk Tea Alliance with Hong Kong and Taiwan 🐥[201]
  • November 21, 2020
    • The Hong Kong Harmonica Association presents a concert in Hong Kong City Hall that includes the Star Wars Main Title, played by Perfect Fourth in an arrangement by Cy Leo[202]
  • November 27, 2020
  • January 6, 2021 (HK population: 7.47 million; HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 80th)
    • Simultaneous arrests and re-arrests of pro-democracy politicians and activists for organising the 2020 election primaries in their plan to win a majority in the Legislative Council, alongside raids of Apple Daily, Stand News, and Hong Kong Inmedia. The Hong Kong 47 include the previously mentioned Benny Tai, Joshua Wong, Leung Kwok-hung, Claudia Mo etc.
  • February 2021
    • Apple Daily reports that a toy shop in Tai Yuen Street, Wan Chai is famous locally for selling new Star Wars goods ahead of any other retailer, sometimes selling out within hours[204]
    • Amidst an exodus of companies and a wave of emigration, Hong Kong suffers a record low budget deficit after reporting budget surpluses from 2005-2020
  • March 2021
    FuelPurityConceptArt
    • Beijing overhauls Hong Kong's electoral system. The United Kingdom declares a third breach of the Joint Declaration and announces that China is considered to be in "a state of ongoing non-compliance" with internationally-binding treaty. British nationals relocating from Hong Kong to the UK are further barred by local authorities and certain multinational British banks from withdrawing their pension funds early on the basis of holding British National (Overseas) passports.
    • Opening of the Hot Toys Echo Base store at Fashion Walk (Hang Lung) in Causeway Bay
  • May 2021
    • The last of Kwun Tong's old town square is forcefully evacuated and demolished, marking the end of the Kwun Tong gentrification scheme
    • A probably unlicensed MiLK magazine issue celebrating 50 years of Lucasfilm includes exclusive interviews with the local 501st Legion, Louis Koo, collectors, and Hot Toys.[205]
    • RTHK takes down its archives following government criticism surrounding its Hong Kong Connection current affairs documentary programme
    • In an interview with Stand News, Taiwan-based Hong Kong author Chan Wai (陳慧) said that her understanding of the concept of "return" is a process of self-realisation, of coming back to one's collective identity as a Hong Konger with a majesty like the Star Wars Main Title; the meaning of fiction is to respond to reality, and creation is an act of healing. The diaspora of Hong Kong always take their own parts of Hong Kong with them on their own paths, and even though reality is painful, there is a responsibility especially for those who can speak freely to strive for normality and articulate the truth in an abnormal world.[48]
  • June 2021
    • 4th: Heavy police presence ensures that Victoria Park is empty on June 4 for the first time in 32 years
    • On the same day, former President of the Supreme Court of the UK Baroness Hale announces she would not renew her tenure as a non-permanent judge sitting on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal
    • 12th: Ching Koi's opinion column on Apple Daily compares Star Wars with Hong Kong, musing that the authorities might ban further Star Wars stories, which are inherently about democracy and rebellion against dictatorship. Ching Koi highlights that The Rise of Skywalker shows the importance of passing on the baton, or the fire of rebellion, to a new generation, and the author laments that the authorities' old men were strangling the youth of Hong Kong, and even candles and electric candles indoors may no longer be lit. However, the author notes that a rare student protest had taken place in Nanjing, and young people in Hong Kong have been resilient and started taking television, music, and YouTube by storm. Ching Koi ends with a request for each person who has stayed to keep working hard in whatever position they find themselves in, as every story would have its echoes for the future, and "the Force is strong with you." Apple Daily also published an English translation on the 15th.[206][207]
    • 17th: Apple Daily is raided by police again, and remaining staff members who have not been arrested shut down Apple Daily on the 24th.
  • July 2021
    • Remaining pro-democracy members of the District Councils resign en masse
    • RTHK axes the public debate event City Forum, held weekly since 1980, and the English-language current affairs programme The Pulse
  • August 2021
    • School libraries consider removing George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm; they were the 10th and 13th most most borrowed book from Hong Kong's public libraries in 2020. Scholar Helena Wu suggests that psychological proximity is a double-edged sword because "one still has to borrow other forms or agencies to articulate trauma responses and, at best, to seek resonance and consonance if healing is ever possible."[63]
  • August 30, 2021
    • The Hong Kong Sinfonietta's movie music concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre includes the Star Wars Main Title and The Imperial March, conducted by Ken Lam[208]
  • September 2021
    • Liberal Studies is replaced by "Citizenship and Social Development" in Hong Kong's DSE programme for secondary school students
  • September 17th and 18th, 2021
    • The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's concerts conducted by David Greilsammer at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium include The Imperial March from Star Wars[209]
  • October 1, 2021
    • Disney shuts down TV channels in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong as the company pivots to streaming[210]
  • November 16, 2021
    • The streaming platform Disney+ is finally launched in Hong Kong, albeit with a missing Simpsons episode that references the Tiananmen Massacre. Disney+ remains unavailable in mainland China.
  • December 2021
  • February 2022 (HK population: 7.4 million; HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 148th)
    • Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, having began waging war since 2014 following the Revolution of Dignity
  • March 2022
    Concept art for Daiyu in Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was based on Hong Kong

    Concept art for Daiyu in Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was based on Hong Kong

    • A resolution asking Disney to report that it was not sourcing materials from companies or regions sanctioned by the US for human rights violations, such as forced labour in Xinjiang, is rejected at Disney's annual shareholder meeting. Forbes notes that although Disney had just suspended all business in Russia upon its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, American companies remain in Xinjiang despite accounts of slave labour and accusations of genocide there.[211]
    • Beijing says that "one country, two systems" could be extended until 2097 rather than expire in 2047
  • April 2022
    • UK Supreme Court judges sitting on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal as non-permanent judges resign, but other retired British judges remain
  • May 2022
    • The city-world of Daiyu features in Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. Writer Joby Harold based Daiyu on Hong Kong's urban nightscape,[212] and director Deborah Chow took inspiration from Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai and similar works by other directors.[213] Composer Natalie Holt incorporated various styles of music, including music from Hong Kong, to match each world's character.[214]
      Daiyu in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Neon signs in Hong Kong began rapidly disappearing around the same time.

      Daiyu in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Neon signs in Hong Kong began rapidly disappearing around the same time.

  • July 2022
    • Xi Jinping personally inaugurates John Lee as Carrie Lam's successor as Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR
    • The "Morfing" episode of the documentary series Light & Magic includes the Hong Kong–born Ellen Poon
  • August 2022
    • Former President of the Supreme Court of the UK Baron Neuberger maintains his tenure as a judge sitting on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal but resigns as Chair of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom convened by the UK and Canada—Neuberger had been criticised for his involvement in upholding Jimmy Lai's conviction for attending a peaceful protest that was unauthorised by the police in 2019
  • September 2022
    • Queen Elizabeth II passes away; King Charles III accedes to the Crown
    • The BBC World Service cuts 20% of its staffing, and BBC Chinese cancels its weekly programme
    • Reports surface of unofficial Chinese police service stations operating in the UK
  • October 2022
    • Chief Executive John Lee says Hong Kong will "laugh off" US and European sanctions, greenlighting Russian activities
    • A Hong Konger is briefly dragged into the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester and attacked
    • 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party—former Chinese leader Hu Jintao is removed from the congress, Li Keqiang steps down, and Xi Jinping continues as CCP general secretary for an unprecedented third term
  • November 2022
    BloyArrival-Messenger
    • White Paper Protests across China, sparked by a deadly fire in Ürümqi that raised questions about the "zero-COVID" policy in mainland China, eventually including calls for an end to one-party rule
    • Hong Kong's Museum of Coastal Defence, closed for renovations since 2018, reopens with significant historical revisions, removing some exhibits on the British colonial period and instead emphasising China's invasion by Japan and the contributions of the Chinese Communist Party
    • The United Kingdom allows independent British National (Overseas) route applications to BN(O) children born on or after 1st July 1997
  • December 2022
    • Opening of the Hot Toys Rebel Base store at Ocean Terminal Harbour City
    • Hasbro reports that Forward Winsome and Herald Metal and Plastic Works are among the Hong Kong companies still manufacturing for it with factories in Guangdong,[215] though the process of restructuring supply chains away from China have been underway since 2019 to avoid the increasing US tariffs.[216]
    • Green Bean Media, formed by exiled journalists, is ranked as a trending creator on YouTube Hong Kong
  • January 2023 (HK population: 7.3 million; HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 140th)
    • A Jawa action figure made in Hong Kong in 1977/8 is sold for £21,000 GBP[217][218]
  • February 2023
    • 1st: UBtech Robotics (which had produced First Order stormtrooper robots in 2017) has its IPO listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with self-produced core components despite, UBtech notes, potential disruption from US chip export restrictions under US President Joe Biden and Western sanctions over sales to Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.[219] According to UBTech's filings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the portion of UBTech's sales to Russia that is online has, since January 2023, been substantially conducted through a PRC company using the Chinese renminbi (RMB)—presumably China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, circumventing Western sanctions that have removed Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system.[220] Among the companies UBtech works with are BYD, DeepSeek, Dongfeng Motor, and Huawei, with the company signing a funding deal of US$1 billion with the Hong Kong–based Infini Capital in September 2025 to build a superfactory headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. Hong Kong facilitates sanction-evasion by Russia, Iran, and North Korea of advanced components such as semiconductors and oil and gas.[221]
      I, robot

      I, robot

    • 9th-12th: The Hong Kong Sinfonietta's concert for babies includes John Williams' Star Wars "Princess Leia's Theme"[222]
    • 15th: The official Star Wars channel launches on the Chinese-owned TikTok,[223] the social media platform that popularised short-form video doomscrolling out of the COVID-19 pandemic. TikTok has been blocked in Hong Kong since July 2020, with the mainland Chinese version Douyin being available instead. As "spiritual opium," TikTok has been blamed for, among other things, driving addiction, ignorance, and chronic instability among young people by exploiting culture wars and political polarisation, leading to sociopolitical fracturing in Western countries.
    • 25th-26th: Conducted by Benjamin Northey and sponsored by Swire, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's "Celebrating John Williams" concerts include his Star Wars pieces[224]
    • 28th: Donnie Yen tells GQ magazine that he pointed out his Rogue One character Chirrut Îmwe seemed to be a stereotypical Chinese typecasting of a martial arts master who does not smile and made the suggestions to have the character be blind and make jokes. He also says the 2019 unrest in Hong Kong was not a "protest" but a "riot" and adds that "I don't want to get political."[225]
  • March 2023
    • 4th: Donnie Yen joins the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, replacing Jackie Chan
    • 9th: Li Keqiang warns in his parting speech that "while people work, heaven watches. Heaven has eyes."
    • 13th: the UK government's Integrated Review Refresh describes an "epoch-defining and systemic challenge posed by China under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) across almost every aspect of national life and government policy" alongside state threats by Russia
  • June 2023
    • Two giant Rubber Ducks by Florentijn Hofman visit Victoria Harbour for "double luck," but one was briefly deflated due to the summer heat 🐥
    • The UK government addresses unofficial Chinese police service stations that operated in the UK
  • July 2023
    • Hong Kong national security police begin issuing bounties for activists living overseas, including the aforementioned Kevin Yam
    • The UK Parliament passes the National Security Act 2023
  • August 2023
    • A sociology research article reports that educators now tasked with delivering "national security education" in Hong Kong attempt to resist the curriculum, with an example of a teacher likening her predicament to being the architect of the Death Star (Galen Erso) in Rogue One, overseeing its flawed design while working under the Empire (Lui, 2023)
  • December 2023
    • Palitoy's chief designer for Star Wars, Bob Brechin, publishes his book "My Palitoy Story" documenting the history of the toy company[33]
    • The government proposes to vacate the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, replace it with the Hong Kong Science Museum, and use the Science Museum space to promote the Chinese Communist Party.
    • The Science Museum's special exhibition "Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination," part of the worldwide tour by London's Science Museum, includes a replica of Darth Vader's helmet from the first Star Wars film.[226]
    • LT Lam says the "mission" of his yellow rubber ducks is to urge people to respect each other and find ways to live in peace rather than blaming each other 🐥
  • January 2024 (HK population: 7.5 million; HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 135th)
    • The DPP maintains power in Taiwan in a competitive three-way election, with Lai Ching-te succeeding Tsai Ing-wen as president
    • The Saint Francis University is granted university status
    • Conducted by Ray Chan and presented by Alasdair Malloy, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta perform at the Hong Kong City Hall, including John Williams' Star Wars Main Title as arranged by Malloy[227]
  • February 2024
    • Beijing says that "one country, two systems," rather than expire in 2047, would be kept permanently
  • March 2024
    • The Home Affairs Department's "Day x Night Vibes @ 18 Districts" event,[228] intended to bolster the local economy as part of the government's "Night Vibes" campaign launched in September 2023,[229] is themed upon lightsabers in Sham Shui Po district (光劍攻殼@深水埗) and features sales of electronics, having been organised by the Youth Council and sponsored by local government, the Federation of HK Guangxi Community Organisations, and supported by the Hong Kong Computer Industry Association.[228] The event features a demonstration by the Fencing Association of Hong Kong, China, which practices lightsaber duelling according to the standards of the French Fencing Federation (which has recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport since 2019).[230] (Copyright license status unknown?)
      A lightsaber event

      A lightsaber event

    • Article 23 implementation passes unanimously
  • April 2024
    • Ocean Terminal (Harbour City) receives Xue Long 2, the first China-made polar research ship, which follows the Xue Long, which in 2012 became the first Chinese ship to reach Europe via the much shorter (compared to via the Suez Canal) Arctic "Polar Silk Road" as part of the Belt and Road Initiative
  • April 27, 2024—June 2, 2024
  • June 4, 2024—July 16, 2024
  • June 26, 2024
    • During the trial of Benny Tai, a government-appointed national security judge characterises the candidates of the 2020 pro-democracy election primaries as "stormtroopers" for planning to vote down the government budget by winning a majority in the Legislative Council and that the court intends to find their "Darth Vader." Tai later pleaded guilty and was given a 10-year sentence as the "mastermind" of the primaries.[232]
  • January 2025 (HK World Press Freedom Index ranking: 140th)
    • Conducted by Vivian Ip and presented by Alasdair Malloy, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta perform at the Hong Kong City Hall, including John Williams' Star Wars "The Imperial March," "Rey's Theme," and "Duel of the Fates"[233][234]
  • March 2025
    • Closure of the Sunbeam Theatre, one of the last venues dedicated to Cantonese opera. Its closing performance was Li Kui Ming's hit opera Trump on Show.
    • CK Hutchison plans to sell key ports following President Trump's demand for the US to "take back" control of the Panama Canal, which links shipping between Asia and the American east coast, but Beijing does not approve
    • Ex-Philippine president Duterte is arrested in Manila upon his return from Hong Kong and sent to the Hague
    • Opening of the Hot Toys Power Gate store at the Kai Tak Mall, over the former airport
    • Voice of America suspends operations
  • April 9, 2025
    • LEGO opens its second Asian factory in Vietnam, rather than China
  • April 18, 2025
  • April 19, 2025
    • Local independent media outlet Channel C reports on the Thrawn adaptation.[236]
  • April 20, 2025
    • The Malaysian shadow puppet group Fusion Wayang Kulit are featured at Celebration Japan—shadow puppetry is also performed in Hong Kong
  • April 22, 2025
    • Channel C last updates its website and halts operations (following the arrest of 6 people on April 16, including Channel C's parent company director). Another local independent media outlet, 100Most, reports on the Thrawn adaptation.[237]
    • Andor Season 2 premieres on Disney+, with the final episodes releasing on May 13 (see Democracy#The_Revolution_Starts_Now)
      Coruscant in Andor was designed partly based on 3D street maps of Hong Kong

      Coruscant in Andor was designed partly based on 3D street maps of Hong Kong

      • Variety (in an interview conducted ahead of Season 2's premiere and published on May 13) asks showrunner Tony Gilroy about motifs of unrest across Andor, noting how the series "summons images of Ukraine, Gaza, Kabul and Hong Kong" of current affairs "alongside references to the French Revolution, Oliver Cromwell and Nazi propaganda" in past history—Gilroy said that he was writing about all revolutions and insurrections and how he felt that people, including himself, often have a narcissistic and individualistic belief that they are living in a unique time of history despite that not being "the pattern of history." Nevertheless, seeing audiences draw current real-world parallels to the series, such as a sense of authoritarianism threatening democracies like the United States, is a reflection on "if people find history knocking at their door, there's probably all kinds of places they can look for references."[238]
      • Coruscant's cityscapes in Andor were directly inspired by urban patterns in 3D street maps of cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, and New York.[239]
  • April 28–May 25, 2025
    • Langham Place Hot Toys Star Wars exhibit and shop
  • May 2025
    • The UK and Mauritius' governments sign an agreement to hand over sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius (while leasing the US-UK military base of Diego Garcia to the UK for 99 years) without meaningfully involving the Chagossian people, who were displaced from the islands in the 1960s and 1970s
  • June 1, 2025
    • Closure of 海運 Ocean Theatre (Grand Ocean Cinema), the last of the four cinemas that initially showed Star Wars in Hong Kong
  • July 1, 2025
  • July 20, 2025
    • A Labubu doll placed at the grave of Karl Marx in London with a letter reflecting on "socialism with Chinese characteristics" dated to Marx's 207th birthday becomes a viral meme online. Made by the Chinese company Pop Mart and becoming popular worldwide since 2024, Labubus were designed by the Hong Kong–Dutch artist Kasing Lung and inspired by Hong Kong's role as a toy manufacturer and then an intermediary with international firms after the factories moved to Guangzhou.[240]
  • September 2025
    Triumph of the Will

    Triumph of the Will

    • 3rd: Xi Jinping hosts the Victory Day Parade for the 80th Anniversary of the "Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War" with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, who are waging war in Ukraine and framing it as a denazification campaign against Europe, at Tiananmen Square.
    • 8th: According to the Financial Times, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has outperformed global markets throughout 2025 by reinventing the city from a window for foreign capital into China to a gateway for Chinese capital to the rest of the world, while the local retail and hospitality sector continues suffering from competition with deflationary Shenzhen. Also, WIRED reports the leak that mainland China's Great Firewall internet censorship and surveillance technology has been exported to Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and war-torn Myanmar.
    • 9th: the UK Parliament debates the indefinite leave to remain (ILR) immigration status/right of abode, a prerequisite to becoming a naturalized British citizen, a necessary step to moving £3-4 billion GBP of savings in the Hong Kong pension fund to the UK, and part of the bespoke humanitarian route extended to British Nationals (Overseas) and their dependents, which already costs several thousand pounds to apply in addition to a thousand pounds of health surcharge per year per person, in light of the government's plan to extend the ILR qualifying period from five years to ten years.[241]
    • 10th: A Hong Kong government bill is voted down by the opposition-free Legislative Council for the first and only time—a proposal to recognise same-sex partnerships, as mandated by the courts to comply with the Bill of Rights. "Separation of powers" returns to legislators' lexicon as Beijing says the legislative veto proves that it is not a "rubber stamp," and Executive Council member Ronny Tong says there are likely no consequences for "theoretically" violating the Bill of Rights just as the lack of a domestic security law until 2024 was theoretically in breach of Article 23.
    • 13th: Hong Kong–born Elim Chan conducts the BBC's Last Night of the Proms 2025 in London. She highlights the importance of the BBC to people worldwide.
    • 16th: Beijing approves the sale of TikTok's US app to American investors while preserving the Chinese algorithm in a deal with President Trump, whose government has not been enforcing the ban on TikTok despite the law passed by Congress. Also, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery file a copyright infringement lawsuit in California against the Shanghai-based MiniMax—among the first batch of China's AI companies seeking international expansion by raising funds via Hong Kong—for its text-to-image and text-to-video generative AI services and using characters such as Darth Vader to market its Hailuo (海螺) AI generative tool[242] (see also Artificial intelligence#Audio and imagery)
    • 17th: the Hong Kong government's "Night Vibes" campaign disappears from the annual policy address[229]
    • 22nd: Reform UK promise to replace ILR with visas that need to be re-applied every five years should they win the next UK election,[243] with no exceptions for Ukrainians or Hong Kongers,[244] before saying they would be exempt on the 24th.
  • October 2025
    • Hong Kong plans to install 60,000 real-time AI facial recognition surveillance cameras
    • Christian church leaders across cities in mainland China are arrested
    • RTHK forces YouTube and university libraries to remove archives of RTHK programmes
    • The UK Parliament's China spy case collapses
    • The UK's MI5 warns of a new era of state threats by China, Russia, and Iran alongside terrorism and AI
    • Chinese hackers allegedly access UK visa records
    • The No Kings protests in the United States are held, with the organisers urging Americans protesting Trump's abuses of power to wear yellow, jointly inspired by Hong Kong's peaceful resistance using yellow umbrellas starting from the Occupy Movement/Umbrella Revolution, South Korea's Yellow Ribbon Campaign for accountability and reform following the Sewol ferry tragedy, and Ukraine's Yellow Ribbon resistance movement against Russia's occupation. Star Wars creators such as Tony Gilroy and Pedro Pascal joined the protests.
    • Older loyalists are withdrawn from the next "patriots-only" election of the Legislative Council. This occurs in the backdrop of Gen Z protests outwith Hong Kong—across Asia, Africa, and South America, reminiscent of the Milk Tea Alliance phenomenon.
    • The CCP discuss China's 15th five-year plan, focusing on self-reliance and combating "involution" (excessive internal competition contributing to overproduction) amidst persistently weak domestic demand and price wars over export-dumping with the West
    • Hong Kong urged to embrace Xinjiang work ethic; regarding the trade war with the US, China will "fight to the end." While a 2024 survey of secondary school students found that over 25% have moderate to severe levels of depression, young people have been turning to AI chatbots for counselling despite a plethora of dangers of AI dependency.
    • Diplomatic row between the PRC and the new Japanese government over a potential invasion of Taiwan, with the Chinese foreign ministry declaring that those who oppose "the Chinese people's bottomline" will "have their heads split open and be covered in blood in front of the Great Steel Wall that over 1.4 billion Chinese people built with their own flesh and blood." Japan had raised concerns over the South China Sea, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, while the new leader of Taiwan's main opposition party, the KMT, favours "reconciliation" with the PRC. Pressed on the future of Taiwan if it "reunites" with mainland China, the KMT chair says Taiwan would not become a "second Hong Kong" under a similar "one country, two systems" framework, but Taiwan could become a "second Ukraine" under the present DPP government, adding the Kremlin's talking points that Putin is not a dictator because he was democratically elected and that NATO enlargement was to blame for the war.
  • November
    • LT Lam, founder of Star Wars action figure manufacturer Forward Winsome, passes away 🐥
    • UK government ministers answer concerns in Parliament and affirm their commitments to Hong Kongers and their repatriation to the UK (Nov 5, Lords; Nov 17, Commons), retaining the existing 5-year BN(O) route to settlement, while setting out changes to wider immigration policy. However, the government has not addressed whether BN(O) applicants for settlement would face the increased income and English language level requirements, meaning those who fall short would have to renew temporary visas if they do not wish to return to Hong Kong with increased fees and continue to be denied access to pension savings frozen by British banks in Hong Kong and also locked out of home fee status for university tuition. Legally recognised refugees, including Hong Kongers granted political asylum outwith the BN(O) pathway, may face a 20-year wait for settlement.
    • The US Congress' US-China commission notes that Chinese oil purchases make up most of the income for the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, with Hong Kong cover companies processing the oil shadow fleet's revenues, facilitating the smuggling of military/dual-use technologies such as US-made drone components to Russian and Iranian forces, supplying or even running North Korea's shadow fleet of military equipment[245]
    • Tai Po fire—firefighters and volunteers rally in disaster relief efforts. In three days, an academic who appeared on international media reports apologised for misleadingly blaming the traditional craft of bamboo scaffolding (which the government intends to replace with mainland Chinese contractors' metal scaffolding), volunteers were ordered to vacate their supply station, and national security police arrested individuals calling for accountability into corporate malpractice and government neglect around the renovation works, such as the use of flammable plastic netting and polystyrene.
  • December
    • 4th: the United States' National Security Strategy marks a shift of focus to dominance over the Western Hemisphere, leaving Europe to fend off Russia and China, while changing the wording the US "opposes" to the US "does not support" "any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait"
    • 7th: Legislative Council election
    • 9th: the 34th edition of Kam Tin's decennial Taiping thanksgiving festival in 2025 features the Guinness World Record for the largest temporary bamboo structure
    • 10th: asked about wanted letters of Hong Kong exiles being sent to their neighbours now including sexually explicit deepfake images, China's embassy in London says "it is legitimate and reasonable to pursue wanted fugitives"
    • 14th: the Democratic Party of Hong Kong formally disbands, following every other major pro-democracy party
    • 15th: under the CCP's national security law, the court trial of Jimmy Lai—a 78-year-old British citizen and Roman Catholic who ran Hong Kong's Apple Daily and had endured detention largely in solitary confinement for five years, denied choice of lawyer, consular access, Mass, and Holy Communion contrary to international law with deteriorating health—concludes with a guilty verdict for collusion with foreign forces and sedition. While Hong Kong groups urge further action from the UK government and the Roman Catholic Church, the UK, US, and EU condemned the conviction, with President Trump raising the issue with Xi Jinping and Pope Leo XIV coincidentally leading a Jubilee Mass for prisoners.
    • 17th: the tenth year anniversary of Ten Years, the now-banned film that out-sold The Force Awakens in a cinema in 2015, about Hong Kong's fears for its future in ten years' time
  • January 2026
    • UK government expected to approve China's mega-embassy in London following months of campaigns against it
    • Jimmy Lai expected to be sentenced, facing potentially life in prison

Wiki articles

Made in Hong Kong

"I bring a message of hope, though it is difficult to hear. But listen, please. Even I am familiar with despair. I know it. That feeling when everything is too much, when the pressure of looking for anything inside of tomorrow is overwhelming. It hurts. I know it, too. In times like that just remember who you are&mdash;who you want to be. Who you can be. Focus on that. Fight with me, if that is who you can be. But if you cannot, you do not have to fight. I won't ask that of you. There are people already fighting for you. For all of us. All I am asking of you today is that you live. Live today, and try to find hope tomorrow."&mdash;Tessa Gratton's

"I bring a message of hope, though it is difficult to hear. But listen, please. Even I am familiar with despair. I know it. That feeling when everything is too much, when the pressure of looking for anything inside of tomorrow is overwhelming. It hurts. I know it, too. In times like that just remember who you are—who you want to be. Who you can be. Focus on that. Fight with me, if that is who you can be. But if you cannot, you do not have to fight. I won't ask that of you. There are people already fighting for you. For all of us. All I am asking of you today is that you live. Live today, and try to find hope tomorrow."—Tessa Gratton's Temptation of the Force. 外貌早改變，處境都變，情懷未變。

People

Also mentioned in

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Ho-fung Hung. City on the Edge: Hong Kong Under Chinese Rule, Cambridge University Press, 2022. ISBN 9781108840330.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Star Wars and History
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 YouTube BBC coverage of Hong Kong handover, 1997. on the Ben Critchley YouTube channel (February 28, 2024) (backup link)
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 4.26 4.27 4.28 John M. Carroll. A Concise History of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-962-209-878-7.
  5. ↑ Premium-Era-real Reviews from Neue Rheinische Zeitung Revue by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on Marxists Internet Archive (January 31, 1850) (backup link archived on October 9, 2021)
  6. ↑ SWInsider "Stewards of the Forest Moon" — Star Wars Insider 212
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kidnapped in London
  8. ↑ 三民主義/民族主義第六講
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Premium-Era-real A History of Palitoy by Brechin, Bob, and Warburton, Stuart on Coalville Heritage (backup link archived on February 23, 2024)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Premium-Era-real Joe Law (羅祖耀, 1922-2015) – HK Plastic and Toy Industry Pioneer on The Industrial History of Hong Kong Group (backup link archived on June 5, 2023)
  11. ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 11.16 11.17 11.18 Premium-Era-real Hong Kong toy tycoon’s success story begins with the yellow rubber duck by Oliver Chou on South China Morning Post (October 30, 2015) (backup link archived on October 31, 2015)
  12. ↑ Clyde Sanger. Malcolm MacDonald: Bringing an End to Empire, Liverpool University Press, 1996. ISBN 9780853239000.
  13. ↑ Carl Vincent. No Reason Why: The Canadian Hong Kong Tragedy, Canada's Wings, 1981. ISBN 9780920002124.
  14. ↑ Premium-Era-real 玩具工業先行者 on The Hong Kong Jockey Club Project Grant: Heritage x Arts x Design x Walk + Plus Hulu Culture (backup link archived on June 16, 2025)
  15. ↑ Premium-Era-real Printing Blocks, Battleships & Batteries – how a fearless Chinese brand beat its biggest American competitor, just to eventually be crushed by a White Elephant… on Little Museum Of Foreign Brand Advertising In The R.O.C. (backup link archived on June 21, 2025)
  16. ↑ Premium-Era-real Kader Industrial Company Ltd on The Industrial History of Hong Kong Group (backup link archived on September 9, 2025)
  17. ↑ Premium-Era-real Create a New Legend (Yazhou zhoukan) on Li Ka Shing Foundation (June 21, 1999) (backup link archived on May 16, 2025)
  18. ↑ Premium-Era-real THE REAL LESSON OF HONG KONG by Milton Friedman on Hoover Institution (December 31, 1997) (backup link archived on November 28, 2021)
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Premium-Era-real Diamond Jubilee brochure (1979) on Mr Palitoy's Cardback Guide (backup link archived on May 14, 2024)
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Premium-Era-real The beginning of OEＭbusiness in the 1970s (English (text), Hong Kong Cantonese (audio)) on 香港記憶 Hong Kong Memory (backup link archived on May 1, 2024)
  21. ↑ Premium-Era-real Japanese Tin Toys: A Craze That Rebuilt Post-War Japan on The Journal of Antiques and Collectivles (backup link archived on March 20, 2025)
  22. ↑ StarWars.com "Lost / Found" Trivia Gallery | The Acolyte on StarWars.com (backup link) (Slide 1)
  23. ↑ Premium-Era-real The Acolyte: How Star Wars Is About to Venture Back in Time by Anthony Breznican on Vanity Fair (May 22, 2022) (backup link archived on May 24, 2022)
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Premium-Era-real A Lifetime of Making Toys, Games, and Play (PDF) on The Strong National Museum of Play (backup link archived on June 27, 2022)
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 Premium-Era-real TONKA KENNER PARKER ENGINEERING (HONG KONG) LIMITED on Hong Kong Corporation Search (backup link archived on February 22, 2024)
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Toy Empire: The British Force Behind Star Wars Toys
  27. ↑ RebelscumLogo An Interview with Bernard Loomis, former president of Kenner by D. Martin Myatt on Rebelscum.com (backup link)
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 Stevens, Craig. The Star Wars Phenomenon in Britain, McFarland, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4766-6608-2.
  29. ↑ Premium-Era-real The beginning of OEMbusiness in the 1970s on 香港記憶 Hong Kong Memory (backup link archived on January 28, 2024)
  30. ↑ Premium-Era-real Company Profile on Qualidux Industrial Company Limited (backup link archived on June 25, 2022)
  31. ↑ Premium-Era-real 2-1B Bagged Production Sample on The Star Wars Collectors Archive (backup link archived on March 30, 2024)
  32. ↑ Premium-Era-real Honorary Chairman on The Hong Kong Shippers' Council (backup link archived on April 23, 2024)
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 Premium-Era-real My Palitoy Story by Bob Brechin on Kickstarter (backup link archived on June 3, 2023)
  34. ↑ Premium-Era-real Toltoys Company History – Bringing Star Wars to NZ on Star Wars New Zealand (backup link archived on August 19, 2022)
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 Star Wars Year By Year: A Visual History, New Edition
  36. ↑ Premium-Era-real HONG KONG: EMPHASIS ON QUALITY RATHER THAN QUANTITY AT ANNUAL READY-TO-WEAR FASHION FESTIVAL. (1978) by Reuters on British Pathé (January 25, 1978) (backup link)
  37. ↑ Premium-Era-real Laux, David N.: Files on Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (backup link archived on February 12, 2025)
  38. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong Star Wars Style "C" Ocean Theatre Flyer by Ocean Theatre on StarWarsMoviePoster.com (screenshot captured on November 28, 2024)
  39. ↑ Globe 戲院誌 Talk Cinema — 三集星戰　三間戲院 on WordPress (backup link)
  40. ↑ Premium-Era-real star-wars-hong-kong_poster_1978.jpg on Gwulo: Old Hong Kong (backup link archived on January 27, 2023)
  41. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars 星球大戰首映報紙大廣告 on Carousell (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  42. ↑ Premium-Era-real Charles Lippincott, Who Hyped ‘Star Wars,’ Is Dead at 80 by Daniel E. Slotnik on The New York Times (June 3, 2020) (backup link archived on November 25, 2023)
  43. ↑ Premium-Era-real February 4, 1978 on The daily diary of President Jimmy Carter (backup link archived on November 14, 2024)
  44. ↑ D.K. Newbigging. "Chairman's Statement". Annual Report 1980, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, 1981-03-06, pp. 5-14. English and Hong Kong written Chinese. (web archive)
  45. ↑ Premium-Era-real A Soldier's Body: GI Joe, Hasbro's Great American Hero, and the Symptoms of Empire (PDF) by Karen J. Hall on ResearchGate, via The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 38, No. 1 (2004) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
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  47. ↑ StarWars.com The Acolyte's Manny Jacinto Unmasked on StarWars.com (backup link)
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 Premium-Era-real 【記香港．專訪】時代的說書人　陳慧：說香港是福地，未免太輕佻 (Hong Kong written Chinese, Cantonese, and English) by Stand News on 聞庫 (May 21, 2021) (backup link) (original link on censored news site Stand News irretrievable)
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 49.2 49.3 Premium-Era-real Economic History of Hong Kong by Catherine Schenk on Economic History Association (March 16, 2008) (backup link archived on March 5, 2014)
  50. ↑ Premium-Era-real Prince Charles’ four days in Hong Kong: when the British royal visited the city in 1979 on South China Morning Post (backup link archived on March 3, 2022)
  51. ↑ Government Information Services Press Release (print, in Chinese) for 1979-11-04
  52. ↑ Premium-Era-real SYMONS & COMPANY, LIMITED on Webb-site.com (backup link archived on February 13, 2025)
  53. ↑ 戚小彬. 香港玩具人：林亮, Joint Publishing (Hong Kong), 2017. Hong Kong written Chinese. ISBN 9620442059.
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  55. ↑ ?. "HK plans to make video tapes of films". 'New Nation', 1980-02-07, p. 19. (web archive)
  56. ↑ Premium-Era-real China's secret plan to use the force of 'Star Wars' by Agence France-Presse on Radio France Internationale (January 20, 2016) (backup link)
  57. ↑ YouTube ‘The Force’ was with China, Already in the 1980s on the official Radio Free Asia YouTube channel (January 22, 2016) (backup link)
  58. ↑ Premium-Era-real Chinese Star Wars Comic (Part 1 of 6) by Nick Stember on Nick Stember blog (May 27, 2014) (backup link archived on May 29, 2014)
  59. ↑ Premium-Era-real STAR WARS LIANHUANHUA by Craig Spivey on Generation Skywalker (February 29, 2020) (backup link archived on April 6, 2025)
  60. ↑ Premium-Era-real 80 年湖南人民出版社的《星球大战》中译本小说 on 博海拾贝 (October 20, 2022) (backup link archived on October 25, 2022)
  61. ↑ Premium-Era-real 1980年星球大戰:帝國反擊戰 (Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back)電影報紙廣告兩張 on Carousell (content obsolete and backup link not available)
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  64. ↑ Premium-Era-real PREM-19-1532 on Margaret Thatcher Foundation
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  67. ↑ Seah, Richard. "Unworldly playthings bring $1m sales a year". The Business Times, 1983-07-04, p. 1. (web archive)
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  85. ↑ Premium-Era-real Barbie and the World Economy by Rone Tempest on the Los Angeles Times (September 22, 1996) (backup link archived on November 25, 2024)
  86. ↑ Amazon-Favicon Star Wars - 1997 Limited Hong Kong Commemorative Edition I - Heroes Edition on Amazon.com (backup link)
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  90. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEviVGUBtwk
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  100. ↑ Premium-Era-real 泛亞交響樂團演繹奧斯卡經典金曲 on HKSAR Government Press Releases (December 8, 2008) (backup link archived on September 2, 2019)
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  102. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong's finest toys set to take centre stage in museum on South China Morning Post (January 24, 2011) (backup link archived on May 14, 2024)
  103. ↑ Premium-Era-real Toy town: Hong Kong's toy makers seek wider recognition by Katie Hunt on the BBC (December 22, 2011) (backup link archived on April 10, 2014)
  104. ↑ Premium-Era-real Home to the world on The Economist (August 20, 2011) (backup link archived on September 29, 2018)
  105. ↑ Premium-Era-real 《星球大戰》精品 (Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (September 23, 2012) (backup link archived on September 1, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  106. ↑ Premium-Era-real 香港交響樂團發出舞會之約　迎接二○一三的來臨 on HKSAR Government Press Releases (November 29, 2012) (backup link archived on May 19, 2025)
  107. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars The Clone Wars (V) on TVB (backup link archived on May 25, 2013)
  108. ↑ YouTube TVB Pearl Promo Star Wars The Clone Wars on the CHARLIE SUEN YouTube channel (December 28, 2019) (backup link)
  109. ↑ StarWars.com Hot Toys Feels the Force: An Interview with Founder and CEO Howard Chan on StarWars.com (backup link not verified! (the-art-of-action-figures-an-interview-with-hot-toys-founder-and-ceo-howard-chan))
  110. ↑ Premium-Era-real 歷史文化教育外展劇場 (2013 & 2014) on Leisure and Cultural Services Department (backup link archived on January 15, 2023)
  111. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong can and should foster creative industries by SCMP Editorial on South China Morning Post (January 18, 2014) (backup link archived on December 23, 2019)
  112. ↑ Premium-Era-real 「香港玩具博物館」始動！專訪館長彭順導演 (Hong Kong written Chinese and Cantonese) on Unwire (backup link archived on March 23, 2014)
  113. ↑ Premium-Era-real Cosplayers don costumes for charity on news.gov.hk (November 9, 2014) (backup link archived on July 13, 2025)
  114. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars princess a beacon for needy kids as Carrie Fisher visits Hong Kong by Steven Dunthorne on South China Morning Post (November 22, 2014) (backup link archived on December 3, 2019)
  115. ↑ 115.0 115.1 Premium-Era-real 財政司司長出席「星球大戰：入侵明日世界」揭幕禮致辭全文（只有中文）（附圖∕短片） on HKSAR Government Press Releases (June 10, 2016) (backup link archived on June 13, 2016)
  116. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars The Clone Wars (VI) on TVB (backup link archived on January 24, 2018)
  117. ↑ Premium-Era-real 'Chinese democracy' removed from TIME cover on Hong Kong Free Press (June 22, 2015) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  118. ↑ 118.0 118.1 Premium-Era-real 黑武士帶白兵遊《蘋果》 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (July 24, 2015) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  119. ↑ Premium-Era-real TThe Falcon has landed: Huge 5.5 metre Hong Kong-built model of iconic Star Wars spaceship on display at anime fair on South China Morning Post (July 23, 2015) (backup link archived on July 27, 2015)
  120. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【短片】【星戰打到灣仔】黑武士動漫展視察《星戰》檔口 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (July 24, 2015) (backup link archived on September 2, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  121. ↑ Premium-Era-real 香港迪士尼月尾搞大型《星戰》粉絲巡遊 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (July 16, 2015) (backup link archived on August 30, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  122. ↑ Premium-Era-real 黑武士殺入迪士尼　搞乜鬼？ (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (July 28, 2015) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  123. ↑ Premium-Era-real Disney Showcases Biggest Gaming Content Line Up at China Joy by The Walt Disney Company on PR Newswire (August 1, 2015) (backup link archived on June 10, 2025)
  124. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars: Commander is a big hit in China with 1M users in four days by Dean Takahashi on VentureBeat (February 9, 2016) (backup link archived on March 26, 2023)
  125. ↑ Premium-Era-real Complete ‘Star Wars’ Saga Gets First-Ever Digital Release In China Via Tencent by Nancy Tartaglione on Deadline (September 14, 2015) (backup link archived on September 15, 2015)
  126. ↑ Premium-Era-real Tencent by Chris Yunker on Flickr (backup link archived on August 14, 2024)
  127. ↑ StarWars.com Younglings, Enroll Now: Disney's Jedi Academy Comes to Hong Kong on StarWars.com (backup link)
  128. ↑ Premium-Era-real Times Square Hong Kong Star Wars Exhibit – Phase 2 on Brick Brains (backup link archived on July 7, 2017)
  129. ↑ Premium-Era-real 《星球大戰：原力覺醒》：星戰迷的祭典 on Hong Kong Inmedia (December 7, 2015) (backup link archived on March 7, 2022)
  130. ↑ YouTube 星球大戰「Join the Force」45s完整版官方宣傳片: 絕地武士古天樂掀起全城原力! on the official Star Wars Hong Kong YouTube channel (November 17, 2015): "最強絕地武士古天樂號召全城星戰迷，執起光劍「Join the Force」！記得開大喇叭，盡情感受原力爆發！立即參加「全城光劍無限接力」，仲有機會得到仲有機會得到世界頂級珍藏人偶品牌Hot Toys 1:6比例《星球大戰：原力覺醒》珍藏人偶同i.t旗下品牌5cm、AAPE BY A BATHING APE®、:CHOCOOLATE、fingercroxx、Musium Div. 同izzue嘅最新Star Wars服飾！詳情：www.StarWars.com.hk

    Turn up the volume and feel the power of the Star Wars phenomenon in this brand new video featuring Hong Kong ambassador and Jedi Master Louis Koo! Submit a video to join Louis and get a chance to win Hot Toys 1:6 Star Wars: The Force Awakens Collectible Figures and the latest Star Wars apparel collection from i.t’s six home labels: 5cm, AAPE BY A BATHING APE®, :CHOCOOLATE, fingercroxx, Musium Div. and izzue! For more details please see: www.starwars.com.hk"     (backup link)
  131. ↑ YouTube 星球大戰「Join the Force」製作特輯（一） on the official Star Wars Hong Kong YouTube channel (November 23, 2015): "古天樂對Star Wars嘅熱愛程度，相信全香港都知㗎啦！古仔對於今次有份以絕地武士身份參與「Join the Force」官方宣傳片拍攝，唔知有咩感受呢？仲有，今次拍攝嘅難度其實相當高，當中牽涉到好多演員參與舞動光劍嘅場面。大家一齊睇吓呢條幕後花絮片段吖！" (backup link)
  132. ↑ Premium-Era-real HK Phil’s December Concerts Prove Popular on Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (backup link archived on November 14, 2025)
  133. ↑ 134.0 134.1 Premium-Era-real 【短片】【玩具展】感受《星戰》熱潮排通宵買限量白兵模型 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (December 18, 2015) (backup link archived on August 30, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  134. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong The Force Awakens Version "B" One-Sheet on StarWarsMoviePoster.com (backup link archived on July 30, 2024)
  135. ↑ Premium-Era-real 'Star Wars' China Poster Sparks Controversy After Shrinking John Boyega’s Character by Maane Khatchatourian on Variety (December 4, 2015) (backup link archived on December 4, 2015)
  136. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【星戰覺醒】香港反抗軍包場cosplay新白兵 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (December 22, 2015) (backup link archived on September 2, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  137. ↑ Premium-Era-real 義工《星戰》迷　毒女探病童 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (December 24, 2015) (backup link archived on September 2, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  138. ↑ Premium-Era-real Ten Years: Hong Kong film that beat Star Wars at the box office, and the directors behind it on South China Morning Post (December 29, 2015) (backup link archived on January 1, 2016)
  139. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【港式星戰】沙鍋年畫衝出香港　下月港台英三地開展 (Hong Kong written Chinese) by Stand News on 聞庫 (December 29, 2015) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Stand News irretrievable)
  140. ↑ Premium-Era-real 香港‧設計廊舉辦「Salute to Hong Kong Toys」玩具珍藏展覽 (Hong Kong written Chinese) on Hong Kong Trade Development Council (backup link archived on February 24, 2024)
  141. ↑ Premium-Era-real 逾四百樂手參與音樂馬拉松 on news.gov.hk (January 7, 2016) (backup link archived on January 12, 2016)
  142. ↑ StarWars.com Barrie Ho's Star Wars Collection on StarWars.com (backup link)
  143. ↑ Premium-Era-real 港版黑武士與白卜庭
    （執業律師　任建峰） - 任建峰     (Hong Kong written Chinese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (February 5, 2016) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  144. ↑ DPB-Logo 10 Major Entertainment Milestones at Disney Parks in 2016 on the Disney Parks Blog (backup link)
  145. ↑ Premium-Era-real Labor groups criticize Disney over worker conditions at China suppliers by Adam Jourdan on Reuters (June 14, 2016) (backup link)
  146. ↑ Premium-Era-real 行政長官主持全港青少年禁毒運動揭幕致辭全文（只有中文）（附圖／短片） on HKSAR Government Press Releases (June 25, 2016) (backup link archived on February 19, 2023)
  147. ↑ Premium-Era-real Evading Hong Kong’s self-censors: Ah To’s absurd yet poignant comics about life and politics on 88 Bar (backup link archived on January 16, 2022)
  148. ↑ Premium-Era-real A little bit of Mong Kok appears at Lego's first Hong Kong store on South China Morning Post (August 18, 2016) (backup link archived on September 6, 2017)
  149. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【專訪】拍《星戰》「整盲自己」 甄子丹：我應該收版權費 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (December 13, 2016) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  150. ↑ Premium-Era-real 滅罪星球大戰競技日 on Hong Kong Police Force (backup link archived on June 18, 2018)
  151. ↑ Premium-Era-real 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility Report on Hasbro (backup link archived on August 11, 2025)
  152. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars… as Chinese ink paintings, by Tik Ka From East by Hong Wrong on Hong Kong Free Press (January 27, 2018) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  153. ↑ Premium-Era-real 「香港玩具傳奇」展明天開幕 展出逾二千組玩具 (Hong Kong written Chinese) on The Epoch Times (Hong Kong) (March 1, 2017) (backup link archived on April 21, 2017)
  154. ↑ 155.0 155.1 Premium-Era-real First “Star Wars Dress Up Day” comes to Hong Kong on May 4　New “Star Wars” Limited-Edition Keepsakes to Help Raise funds for UNICEF　Dress Up to Celebrate May 4 ‧ For Every Child by The Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF on unicef.org.hk (April 12, 2018) (backup link archived on February 20, 2025)
  155. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【搶先睇】銅鑼灣LEGO Store黑武士做保安　必搶阿波羅火箭 (Hong Kong written Chinese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (July 8, 2018) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  156. ↑ Premium-Era-real Exclusive: Chinese maker of Star Wars robot close to raising US$400m in largest funding round on South China Morning Post (November 15, 2017) (backup link archived on February 28, 2023)
  157. ↑ 158.0 158.1 Premium-Era-real 【聖誕主題展】apm 2.5米高巨型戰機+1:1　Lego版BB-9E (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (November 18, 2017) (backup link archived on August 31, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  158. ↑ Premium-Era-real 友邦香港獨家贊助 《星球大戰：最後絕地武士》香港首映禮 星級鐵粉古天樂任特別嘉賓星光熠熠 on AIA Group (backup link archived on June 7, 2023)
  159. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars: The Last Jedi – the Chinese themes in the eighth instalment of the franchise on South China Morning Post (January 5, 2018) (backup link archived on January 5, 2018)
  160. ↑ Premium-Era-real 音樂事務處舉辦四十周年誌慶音樂會 (Hong Kong written Chinese) on HKSAR Government Press Releases (November 30, 2017) (backup link archived on September 1, 2019)
  161. ↑ YouTube John Williams/ arr. Burden: Star Wars Medley 《星球大戰》主題串燒 - HKYSB Alumni - 香港青年管樂團 舊生 on the official Music Office 音樂事務處 YouTube channel (September 17, 2020) (backup link)
  162. ↑ Premium-Era-real 星球大戰與香港民主運動
    （港大法律系副教授　戴耀廷） - 戴耀廷     (Hong Kong written Chinese) by Benny Tai on 聞庫 (January 30, 2018) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  163. ↑ Premium-Era-real Event: Star Wars: A New Hope - screened with a live orchestra at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre by Hong Wrong on Hong Kong Free Press (February 5, 2018) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  164. ↑ Premium-Era-real 音樂事務處樂團聯合音樂會　逾九百位樂手演奏古今中外經典美樂 on HKSAR Government Press Releases (March 5, 2018) (backup link archived on May 15, 2025)
  165. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【港產那些年玩具】港男天價入手絕版星戰玩具「唔好叫我收藏家！」 (Hong Kong Cantonese) on 聞庫 (April 29, 2018): "當年香港是玩具生產王國，好多外國品牌的玩具都是香港製造，《星戰》也不例外。我身為一個香港人，也有一份使命感，將當年香港生產得這麼好的玩具從世界各地帶回香港，跟香港人分享。" (backup link archived on August 31, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  166. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【洛杉磯獨家專訪】愛頓演《韓索羅：星球大戰外傳》戀上侏兒 (Hong Kong Cantonese) on 聞庫 (May 23, 2018) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  167. ↑ StarWars.com 9 Star Wars Foods That Make Our Stomachs Rumble on StarWars.com (backup link)
  168. ↑ Premium-Era-real The 500-year-old snack by Kate Springer and Chan Sin Yan on the BBC (December 18, 2015) (backup link archived on March 19, 2025)
  169. ↑ Premium-Era-real Sounds Great! Classical Music in Movies on Hong Kong Sinfonietta (backup link archived on February 25, 2021)
  170. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【失傳行業】中秋手紮兔仔燈籠 紙紮鋪第二代撑起家業：唔想嘥咗阿爸嘅心血（完整版） (Hong Kong Cantonese) on 聞庫 (September 21, 2018) (backup link archived on September 1, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  171. ↑ Premium-Era-real 深水埗潮爆紙紮鋪 星球大戰都整到 (Hong Kong Cantonese) on Next Plus (March 17, 2015) (original page now obsolete)
  172. ↑ YouTube Spoon Jar Films - BBC Radio Leicester Interview (October 2018) on the mglmedia YouTube channel (October 15, 2018) (backup link)
  173. ↑ Premium-Era-real Mars in Xinjiang: Star X Cinema By Alexander Wong by Tamsin Bradshaw on Indesign Media Asia Pacific (November 19, 2018) (backup link archived on March 1, 2024)
  174. ↑ Premium-Era-real Jaap van Zweden takes the stage of Swire Symphony Under The Stars, starring the HK Phil’s own musicians
    The Orchestra’s Annual Outdoor Extravaganza returns to Central Harbourfront on 24 Nov, Saturday     on Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (backup link archived on August 3, 2020)
  175. ↑ Premium-Era-real 「愛‧耀能聖誕狂歡嘩啦啦 - Star Wars奇兵」 on Drainage Services Department (2019) (backup link archived on July 13, 2025)
  176. ↑ Andor logo new Star Wars: Andor — "Rix Road"
  177. ↑ Premium-Era-real 2019AnnualReport (Standard written Chinese) on Gravity (backup link archived on March 11, 2024)
  178. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【創作展覽】黑武士化身日本浮世繪 傳統與現代藝術融合 (Hong Kong Cantonese) on 聞庫 (March 27, 2019) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  179. ↑ Premium-Era-real 亞太地區唯一LEGO® Star Wars™主題展覽空降香港—慶祝LEGO®星球大戰20週年 on StarWarsBase.com (backup link archived on March 5, 2024)
  180. ↑ Premium-Era-real You’re wonderful, Po Po, but is the Star Wars gear the right look? by Tim Hamlett on Hong Kong Free Press (July 4, 2019) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  181. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong's Networked Agitprop: Popular Nationalism in the Wake of the 2019 Anti-Extradition Protests by Milan Ismangil and Florian Schneider on Journal of Current Chinese Affairs (2023) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  182. ↑ Premium-Era-real HK Phil’s Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert & Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back in Concert to Feature Iconic Score Performed Live to Film on Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (backup link archived on July 9, 2025)
  183. ↑ Premium-Era-real 2019 香港青年音樂營 - 音樂營音樂會（二） on Leisure and Cultural Services Department (backup link archived on July 15, 2025)
  184. ↑ 186.0 186.1 Premium-Era-real Hong Kong protest art: meet the student leading the defiant design team on South China Morning Post (August 28, 2019) (backup link archived on August 27, 2019)
  185. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars and oil: How Hong Kong’s protesters keep their movement in the spotlight on The National (October 15, 2019) (backup link archived on April 10, 2024)
  186. ↑ Premium-Era-real 'No tears, no blood': Hongkongers stage huge laser show to protest against arrests on The Guardian (August 8, 2019) (backup link archived on March 26, 2025)
  187. ↑ Premium-Era-real ‘Be water:’ Hong Kong protest mantra influences how art is designed and distributed by Rebecca Wright on CNN (August 8, 2019) (backup link archived on March 9, 2024)
  188. ↑ Premium-Era-real 'Each of us writes': Hong Kong's discontent fuels creative art by Farah Master on Reuters (August 9, 2019) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  189. ↑ Template:WebCite error: missing text parameter must be specified.
  190. ↑ Premium-Era-real Inside the Hong Kong protesters’ anarchic campaign against China on Reuters (August 16, 2019) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  191. ↑ Premium-Era-real Dozens of Designers Work in Shifts to Create Hong Kong Protest Art. Here Are Some Examples of Their Work on TIME (September 18, 2019) (backup link archived on June 13, 2025)
  192. ↑ Premium-Era-real Disney and Tencent to Put Out New Chinese 'Star Wars' Story by Rebecca Davis on Variety (October 18, 2019) (backup link archived on October 19, 2019)
  193. ↑ Premium-Era-real China Literature IPO raises $1.1 billion amid heavy demand, stellar debut expected by Donny Kwok and Anne Marie Roantree on Reuters (November 7, 2017) (backup link)
  194. ↑ Premium-Era-real 星球大戰的啟示 - 戴耀廷 (Hong Kong written Chinese) by Benny Tai on 聞庫 (December 24, 2019) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  195. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in concert on Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (backup link archived on August 15, 2025)
  196. ↑ Premium-Era-real Unfree Speech by Joshua Wong review – a young life of protest in Hong Kong by Julia Lovell on The Guardian (February 22, 2020) (backup link archived on March 26, 2020)
  197. ↑ Premium-Era-real 【多圖】睽違三年　法國街頭藝術家 Invader 再度來港辦展 (Hong Kong written Chinese) by Stand News on 聞庫 (July 7, 2020) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Stand News irretrievable)
  198. ↑ Template:WebCite error: missing text parameter must be specified.
  199. ↑ Premium-Era-real Rubber ducks in Thai protests inspire solidarity and memes on Global Voices (November 25, 2020) (backup link archived on November 25, 2020)
  200. ↑ Premium-Era-real When Movies meet Harmonica! on Leisure and Cultural Services Department (backup link archived on July 13, 2025)
  201. ↑ StarWars.com From the Pages of Star Wars Insider: Educating Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth – Exclusive Excerpt on StarWars.com (backup link)
  202. ↑ Premium-Era-real 文化地標●名氣響遍全球　奧斯卡影帝都識　太原街玩具尋寶　童年回憶返晒嚟 (Hong Kong Cantonese) by Apple Daily on 聞庫 (February 1, 2021) (backup link archived on September 2, 2021) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  203. ↑ Premium-Era-real 《Milk×星球大戰Star Wars特集》+直版海報 on Carousell (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  204. ↑ Premium-Era-real 灣區風情｜Star Wars的薪火相傳（程凱） (Hong Kong written Chinese) by Ching Koi on 聞庫 (June 12, 2021) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  205. ↑ Premium-Era-real Star Wars and ‘Passing the Baton’｜Ching Hoi by Ching Koi on 聞庫 (June 15, 2021) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on censored news site Apple Daily irretrievable)
  206. ↑ Premium-Era-real Sounds Great! The Sound of the Movies on Hong Kong Sinfonietta (backup link archived on June 13, 2025)
  207. ↑ Premium-Era-real HK Phil and pianist/conductor David Greilsammer in a cinema and classics crossover featuring the music of John Williams and Mozart on Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (backup link archived on July 16, 2025)
  208. ↑ Premium-Era-real Disney Slashes Linear TV in Asia With 18-Channel Closure, Shifts Focus to Disney Plus by Patrick Frater on Variety (April 27, 2021) (backup link archived on May 25, 2025)
  209. ↑ Premium-Era-real Disney Forced To Face Activist Shareholder Inquiring About China by Kenneth Rapoza on Forbes (March 11, 2022) (backup link archived on February 21, 2024)
  210. ↑ Premium-Era-real See exclusive first look photos of Obi-Wan Kenobi by Ross, Dalton on Entertainment Weekly (March 9, 2022) (backup link archived on March 9, 2022)
  211. ↑ Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return
  212. ↑ Premium-Era-real 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Composer Natalie Holt Reveals "Haunting" Approach by Breznican, Anthony on Vanity Fair (April 22, 2022) (backup link archived on April 22, 2022)
  213. ↑ HasbroInverted Hasbro Third-Party Factory List 2022 on Hasbro's official website (backup link)
  214. ↑ Premium-Era-real Tariff war zaps ‘Star Wars’ toymaker Hasbro by Chris Dupin on FreightWaves (October 22, 2019) (backup link archived on August 14, 2020)
  215. ↑ Premium-Era-real Rare Star Wars Jawa figure found in loft sells for £19,500 on the BBC (backup link archived on January 27, 2024)
  216. ↑ Premium-Era-real Lot 154 - A PALITOY Star Wars Jawa figure with rare on Excalibur Auctions (backup link archived on January 28, 2024)
  217. ↑ Premium-Era-real Tencent-backed UBTech, China-based maker of Star Wars robots, files for IPO in boost to Hong Kong’s capital markets on South China Morning Post (February 1, 2023) (backup link archived on February 1, 2023)
  218. ↑ Premium-Era-real Post Hearing Information Pack of UBTECH ROBOTICS CORP LTD on Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2023) (backup link archived on December 12, 2025)
  219. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong keeps Russia's dark fleet afloat by Selwyn Parker on Lowy Institute (September 3, 2024) (backup link archived on May 23, 2025)
  220. ↑ Premium-Era-real Good Music for Babies on Hong Kong Sinfonietta (backup link archived on May 16, 2025)
  221. ↑ StarWars.com Star Wars Is on TikTok! on StarWars.com (backup link)
  222. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Presents
    Two Swire Denim Series Concerts
    Featuring Popular Film Music and Symphonic Fairy Tale to
    Comfort Your Soul     on Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (backup link archived on June 18, 2024)
  223. ↑ Premium-Era-real Donnie Yen is Hong Kong’s ageless action hero by Oliver Franklin-Wallis on GQ magazine (UK) (February 28, 2023) (backup link archived on April 18, 2023)
  224. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hong Kong Science Museum's new exhibition leads members of public to explore different science fiction themes (with photos) on HKSAR Government Press Releases (December 14, 2023) (backup link archived on April 30, 2025)
  225. ↑ Premium-Era-real Good Music for Kids: Family Film Favourites on Hong Kong Sinfonietta (backup link archived on April 18, 2025)
  226. ↑ 228.0 228.1 Premium-Era-real 圖輯｜日夜都PunkPunk on The Collective (March 4, 2024) (backup link archived on June 28, 2024)
  227. ↑ 229.0 229.1 Premium-Era-real Where did ‘Night Vibes’ go; Hong Kong as a hub of hubs on Hong Kong Free Press (September 20, 2025) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
  228. ↑ Premium-Era-real 圖輯｜光劍攻殼　耍快劍「平反」 on The Collective (March 6, 2024) (backup link archived on June 28, 2024)
  229. ↑ Instagram-Logo Hot Toys (@hottoyscollectibles) on Instagram (post on April 25, 2024): "🔴“Star Wars: The Power of The Dark Side” Exhibition & Pop-Up Store | HONG KONG

    Hot Toys is celebrating this year’s Star Wars Day with an exceptional “Star Wars: The Power of The Dark Side” exhibition and pop-up store starting from 27th April running until 2nd June, showcasing incredible creations and masterpieces inspired by the timeless legacy of Star Wars.

    From a 6.7-meter Death Star to the hyper realistic, life-sized statue of Darth Vader, Boba Fett and exquisitely detailed helmets, firstly-shown figures, adorable Cosbaby & Cosbi ranging from 3-meter tall to miniature sizes, stylish movie merchandise and more, all serve as a blunt reminder of the alluring and dangerous allure of the Dark Side.

    📌Exhibition Info:

    Hot Toys “Star Wars: The Power of The Dark Side” Exhibition | Hong Kong

    Date: April 27th until June 2nd, 2024
    Venue: 2/F Atrium & Centre Bridge, Cityplaza, 18 Tai Koo Shing Rd, Quarry Bay
    Opening Hours:
    Monday to Friday – 12 noon to 9 pm
    Sat, Sun & PH – 11 am to 9 pm"     (backup link not available)
  230. ↑ Premium-Era-real 47人案｜辯方指《國安法》生效後戴耀廷已退出　重申不能控制他人取態非「主腦」 on Channel C (June 26, 2024) (content obsolete and backup link not available) (original link on the now-censored news site Channel C)
  231. ↑ Premium-Era-real Good Music for Kids: Alasdair’s Interstellar Odyssey on Hong Kong Sinfonietta (backup link archived on July 17, 2025)
  232. ↑ Premium-Era-real Gold Members Soar Through Space with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Alasdair Malloy! on Centaline Club (backup link archived on November 14, 2025)
  233. ↑ StarWars.com Star Wars: Master of Evil, a New Darth Vader Novel, Turns the Page on the Sith Lord on StarWars.com (backup link)
  234. ↑ Premium-Era-real 本地漫畫家Man僧與迪士尼合作　《Star Wars: Thrawn》漫畫版料下半年上市　經理人「肥佬」：我要全世界讀者都叫得出你 on Channel C (April 19, 2025) (backup link not verified!) (original link on the now-censored news site Channel C)
  235. ↑ Threads-Logo 100mosthk (@100mosthk) on Threads (post on April 22, 2025): "香港漫畫家有幾勁？而家連Star Wars漫畫都搵埋香港漫畫家主理呀！
    早幾日喺東京嘅《Star Wars Celebration 2025》，迪士尼宣布，會同香港漫畫家Man僧合作，推出《Star Wars:Thrawn》漫畫版！同名作品嘅小說版由曾經贏得科幻界最高殊榮「雨果獎」嘅Timothy Zahn撰寫，喺2017年4月推出之後，一度喺Goodreads網站上嘅「GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS」排到上第三，畀得Man僧主理呢部作品嘅繪圖工作，證明迪士尼相當睇重佢～
    Man僧話，迪士尼係睇到佢創作嘅《0課特工》外文版而邀請佢，過程中一直收到晉級嘅通知，再到收到獲選嘅消息，到而家仲好記得當刻嗰種興奮！
    Man僧經理人「肥佬」話，呢個項目由兩年前開始試稿，到活動當日先至同得大家講，單係主角造型就來回修改咗三個月，要喺迪士尼、Lucasfilm、同埋Man僧平日工作攞到平衡係唔容易，但喺活動到聽到Man僧個名，真係乜辛苦都值！肥佬話佢要有朝一日，全世界嘅漫畫讀者都叫得出Man僧嘅大名，到時所有人都要知香港有一位咁傑出嘅漫畫家！"     (backup link)
  236. ↑ Premium-Era-real Andor Finale: Diego Luna, Tony Gilroy on Revolutionizing 'Star Wars' by Adam B. Vary on Variety (May 13, 2025) (backup link archived on May 13, 2025)
  237. ↑ Premium-Era-real Andor – Season 2: Mohen Leo (Production VFX Supervisor), TJ Falls (Production VFX Producer) and Scott Pritchard (ILM VFX Supervisor) by Vincent Frei on www.artofvfx.com (May 22, 2025) (backup link archived on May 22, 2025)
  238. ↑ Premium-Era-real How Hong Kong Gave Rise to Labubu by Zevi Yang on WIRED (October 9, 2025) (backup link archived on October 9, 2025)
  239. ↑ Premium-Era-real Indefinite Leave to Remain on Hansard for the House of Commons (UK) (backup link archived on September 10, 2025)
  240. ↑ Premium-Era-real Hollywood studios sue Chinese AI company for alleged copyright infringement by Christopher Grimes and Eleanor Olcott on Financial Times (September 16, 2025) (backup link archived on September 16, 2025)
  241. ↑ Premium-Era-real Reform vows to scrap migrants' indefinite leave to remain by Sam Francis on the BBC (September 22, 2025) (backup link archived on September 22, 2025)
  242. ↑ Premium-Era-real Farage: Reform deportation plan will mean ‘massive’ welfare cuts by Dominic Penna on The Telegraph (September 22, 2025) (backup link archived on September 22, 2025)
  243. ↑ Premium-Era-real China’s Facilitation of Sanctions and Export Control Evasion on United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission (November 24, 2025) (backup link archived on December 7, 2025)