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Update | Why Hong Kong has Mao to thank for ID cards

British colonial administration, braced for chaos and a tide of refugees from Communist takeover in China, began registering population and issuing them identity cards in the summer of 1949

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An applicant for a Hong Kong identity card undergoes fingerprinting in 1969. Picture: SCMP

Published: 6:00am, 2 Sep 2016Updated: 10:27am, 12 Sep 2016

As it turns out, Hong Kong has Mao Zedong to thank for those little green pieces of plastic we are obliged to carry on our person: identity cards.

In 1949, the British colony was preparing for chaos and an influx of refugees, as civil war raged in China. On October 1, Mao established the People’s Republic of China.

Attorney general J.B. Griffin moved earlier that summer for Hong Kong to register all persons in the colony and issue them identity cards. By September, it was announced the government would register 5,000 people per day, a task that would take years.

In 1960, the South China Morning Post reported that a new ID card would be introduced, “measuring 3.5 by 4 inches, laminated in plastic, simple, durable and convenient to handle”. The old cardboard cards were easily spoiled and too big for most wallets. There was, however, one problem: how to record Chinese names.

“It is quite normal customarily to use more than one name in everyday life in Hong Kong and second there is the difficulty of romanisations,” said D.C. Trench, acting colonial secretary.