Opinion

Hong Kong’s Gen X has a duty to help the city and its youth forge a better future

The generation that spans Hong Kong’s colonial past and post-2047 future has a duty to help the city’s angry, disenfranchised youth out of the crisis so they can see a way to a better future. Hong Kong’s fate depends on it

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A teenager carries a placard saying “Young lives matter” at a lunchtime protest at the Landmark shopping centre in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Daryl Ng is chairman of Sino Group and the founding chairman of the Hong Kong-Asean Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation promoting and deepening ties between Hong Kong and Asean to build a community of shared future to reinforce Hong Kong’s international position and support future growth.

Published: 9:30am, 16 Jun 2020Updated: 9:50am, 16 Jun 2020

I was born in Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam 42 years ago, a third-generation member of an immigrant family from Singapore. I was raised and educated in Hong Kong. This is where I built my career, where my children were born and are raised. Hong Kong is my home and where my heart is.

Hongkongers of my generation have experienced phenomenal changes: we grew up under colonial rule, experienced the handover, and witnessed China’s rise. The entire 50-year span of “one country, two systems” will occur in our lifetime. We acknowledge that our generation bears the heaviest impact compared to those before us, and is also responsible for Hong Kong’s future.

Over the past year, a deep political crisis has engulfed and divided our city. Violence has become routine. The youth feel alienated, their mood the most negative in decades. They say: “If we burn, you burn with us.” This new generation grew up knowing no other system and face a seismic shift in circumstances for the first time.

Fear of change brought protest and violence to our streets. Yet, I ask our young people to step back, take a breath and realistically assess the situation.