ABSTRACT
Archeological excavations in Hong Kong over the past few decades have shown that Hong Kong has a long history of being linked to China (Shang 1999). There are reasons to be skeptical at some new assertions of Hong Kong’s Chineseness on the basis of archeological evidence – when one authority writes, “In that Hong Kong is a very Chinese city even today, its precolonial past is as relevant as its colonial history” (Chan 1993: 483), the reader may be forgiven for wondering how much present-day political exigencies are shaping views of the past. Nonetheless, it does seem clear that Hong Kong has had thousands of years of being linked to China, albeit a linkage that became attenuated in more recent centuries. Pottery and other artifacts have been found at numerous sites in Hong Kong dating back 5,000-6,000 years; bronze tools date from 1500 B.C. “As shown by the large number of unearthed artifacts, the ancient cultures of the Hong Kong area and Guangdong on the mainland have enough features in common to prove they were of the same origin” (Liu 1997: 3-4), implying a shared prehistoric culture.
