Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Non-Fiction 2020complete | Page 113
Black and White Cats
Sha Tin College, Cheng, Yui Hang - 16
Surely, Deng wasn't impressed when his ashes were brought back to life again. His unmistakable frown was
still there, but was he still functionally a human being? "That is the fundamental question," he proclaims
triumphantly after emerging from his pensive stare, a smile creeping across his morose complexion.
Towering above Shenzhen's skyline just like the propaganda posters that once emblazoned the streets of the
overachieving fishing village, a sense of pride overwhelms him, a feeling that his efforts have not been in
vain.
He was never the theoretical bureaucrat his predecessor was; as another of his sayings goes, "seek truth from
facts". Presiding over a regime of extreme pragmatism, experimentation, and setting down the foundations
of an institutional praxis that continue to be legally codified in the form of the PRC's current constitution,
his legacy lives on in the memories of those who witnessed the changes precipitated by his Reform and
Opening-up program.
Sidelining Mao's designated successor, deposing leftist radicals and shifting culpability for the cultural
revolution from Mao to four of his loyal followers (the notorious "Gang of Four"), legitimising his grip on
power in the process, his political prowess is undeniable. It is hard to imagine what it felt like to be purged
twice from the upper echelons of a party he helped create, to labelled an enemy of the state, and to have his
family tortured by fanatical mobs. Whether he ever wept for his son's predicament is something we'll never
know, permanently handicapped after years of torment from the Red Guards, but his reputation as the
architect of China's unprecedented rates of modernisation is, as the Chinese saying goes, imprinted into our
bones and hearts.
Well, what a long digression. Deng hated verbose language, following in the tradition of laconic diction
adopted by the great thinkers of his youth. And accordingly, out of deferential respect, it would be most
befitting for me to skip all the bureaucratic gibberish about the 13th Five Year Plan, the Hong Kong
Steering Committee for the Development of the GBA, the National Development and Reform
Commission etc. etc. etc., and delve directly into how the GBA took its present form and what this means
in light of the status quo. And honestly, Deng wouldn't be impressed (or rather, appalled) by the level of
progress Hong Kong is making, especially when it was once seen as the paragon of a modern capitalist
welfare state and something tangible to learn from.
Somehow finding himself perched over a little knoll across the border, he turns around and gets quite
befuddled by the sight he beholds. A meandering river divides the two territories; one side is sparsely
populated by farmers with superiority complexes and the other is a bustling CBD full of financial activity.
"What a spectacular waste of land," Deng exclaims, expectedly. The ubiquitous officials that meticulously
noted down any room for improvement were no longer here with him, but so was the political factionalism
that catalysed his retreat from power. He liked the latter's absence. Very much, in fact, as he nods in
agreement, reminding him of the strict discipline during his days as a guerilla fighter. But the status quo kept
bothering him.
And voilĂ , pathetic fallacy. Dark clouds and torrential rain. But as they say, there's a silver lining in every
cloud. With pessimism comes a certain degree of optimism, and we hark back to a fateful day 40 years ago.
Goodbye with the ration ticket and hello to liberalism. "We need a Special Economic Zone, no matter the
cost!" Deng announced during another of his Working Committee meetings. One year later, the Shenzhen
SEZ was born as a pilot project, opening to foreign investment and free-market forces in a sharp deviation
from the centrally planned economy embraced by Mao. And as its name suggests, it was really distinct, with
its own border checkpoints, its own policies, and even planned to introduce its own currency, presumably