ABSTRACT
The prophets of doom and the seers of success have lately been busily making predictions about Hong Kong. A process of reification has been at work wherein the present is construed not simply as the here and now but a moment that must be dated and called the ‘late-transitional’ phase, a moment pregnant with potential meanings. When British colonisation ends in 1997 Hong Kong will become a Special Administrative Region of China, governed by a vision of reunification which is guided by the dream of an essential difference between Western capitalisms and the People’s Republic. This dream is called ‘One Country, Two Systems’. Initially conceived by Deng Xiaoping to settle the question of Taiwan (Sum 1995:96), the fantasy has become a formula which states that for fifty years following the transfer of sovereignty China will continue to practice socialism while Hong Kong will keep its capitalist systems and lifestyle.
