Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In January 1841 a naval landing party hoisted the British flag at Possession Point (now
Possession St) on Hong Kong Island. Subsequently, the Treaty of Nanking abolished the
monopoly system of trade, opened five 'treaty ports' to British residents and foreign trade,
exempted British nationals from all Chinese laws and ceded the strategically useful island of
Hong Kong to the British 'in perpetuity'.
Hong Kong, with its deep, well-sheltered harbour, formally became a British possession
on 26 June 1843, and its first governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, took charge. A primitive, chaot-
ic and lawless settlement soon sprang up.
Today's Triads still recite an oath of allegiance to the Ming, but their loyalty these days is
to the dollar rather than the vanquished Son of Heaven.
THE TRIADS
Hong Kong's Triads, which continue to run the territory's drug, prostitution, people-
smuggling, gambling and loan-sharking rackets, weren't always the gangster opera-
tions they are today.
They were founded as secret and patriotic societies that opposed the corrupt and
brutal Qing (Manchu) dynasty and aided the revolution that eventually toppled it in
1911. The fact that these organisations had adopted Kwan Tai (or Kwan Yu), the god of
war and upholder of righteousness, integrity and loyalty, as their patron, lent them
further respectability. The Triads descended into crime and vice during the Chinese
Civil War (1945-49), and came in droves to Hong Kong after the communists came to
power in 1949. Today they are the Chinese equivalent of the Mafia.
The communists smashed the Triad-controlled drug racket in Shànghǎi after the
1949 revolution. Having long memories and fearing a repeat could occur with the
looming 1997 handover, many Hong Kong-based hoods moved their operations to
ethnic-Chinese communities in countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Australia,
Canada and the US. Since 1997, however, many Triads have moved back into Hong
Kong and have even expanded their operations onto the mainland.
The definitive work on the Triads is Triad Societies in Hong Kongby WP Morgan
(1960), a former subinspector with the Royal Hong Kong Police.
