Christmas in Hong Kong meant something else this year: the 70th anniversary of the fall of Hong Kong, otherwise known as Black Christmas.
Fighting broke out on December 8, 1941 and ended with British Hong Kong surrendering to the Japanese on Christmas Day 70 years ago–in the Peninsula Hotel, which was renamed the Toa (or East Asia) during the remainder of the war.
You can read about Black Christmas in a number of books, both old and new. I just received notice that my copy of Tim Luard’s Escape from Hong Kong (Hong Kong University Press, 2011) is currently on a boat sailing from the UK to the US. I should receive it in a few weeks.
Another historical account can be found in Philip Snow’s The Fall of Hong Kong (Yale University Press, 2004).
And then there’s Emily Hahn’s memoir, China to Me (Country Life Press, 1944), in which she writes with vivid detail about the turmoil in WWII Hong Kong.
Some novels that include Black Christmas include Eileen Chang’s Love in a Fallen City (New York Review Books, 2006). Although the story is fiction, Chang studied in Hong Kong 70 years ago and was an eyewitness to the Black Christmas.
And then more recently, Janice Y.K. Lee’s debut novel, The Piano Teacher (Penguin, 2009), incorporates Black Christmas into her moving story of love, loss, and betrayal in 1941 and 1951 Hong Kong.
I know it’s not a cheery topic during this joyous time of year. But it’s important to Hong Kong’s history and the people who remember that very difficult time. Just as they’ve done during other crises, the people of Hong Kong prevailed.
I just reserved THE PIANO TEACHER from my library. Very excited to read it! Thanks, Susan!
So glad to hear that! I can’t wait to hear what you think. Janice Lee grew up in Hong Kong and lives there now. She had four kids during the time it took her to write and publish The Piano Teacher!
I read about this in King Hui: The Man that Owned all the Opium in Hong Kong. Have you read it, Susan?
Thanks, Chris! Yes, I read King Hui several years ago and loved it. Talk about being in all the right places at the right time!
Isn’t Pearl Harbour still a US Territory?
People are trying to gently put the past behind them about these things – no point stirring up the fact that your favourite trade partner bombed somewhere flat…
Yes, of course it’s a US territory. People in the US have no trouble stirring up old hatred toward the Japanese every December. It’s embarrassing.
I’m just surprised the Commonwealth Forces held out so long – Hong Kong’s not that big a place, and I don’t think there’s a spot on it that would be out of range of a naval gun.
Strangely enough this anniversary didn’t get a mention in China Daiy.
Didn’t get any mention here in the US either. What was even more surprising was the Fall of Singapore. They were expecting the Japanese by sea, but they came overland. I guess if these war anniversaries don’t involve the US (or a former US territory, like Pearl Harbor), our newspapers can’t be bothered.