What do you think England's relationship with Hong Kong is like?
hmmm good question! this is how i think it would’ve been during the Victorian era: from England’s perspective, I see him positioning himself as HK’s “”benefactor”” (laden with all the ironies and caveats of empire), if that makes sense? (China’s perspective would of course, be completely different.) I don’t really see a parental dynamic the way I analogise Arthur and Alfred’s relationship. The closest analogy I can think of as to how England sees it is like a wealthy patron who funds a younger person’s education—those kinds of 19th century dynamics. I guess I’m thinking of the cultural dimension of the British empire here? The way I see it, HK as a teenager being ‘educated’ in the British schooling system in the 19th century is also about instilling certain concepts, ideas and world views too. The aspect of history that I’m trying to incorporate is the historical dynamic of how HK existed within the larger empire—intended as an important port city that further facilitated trade and commercial links across the British empire’s other colonies, as well as the cultural influence and legacy British rule had on HK. Victoria’s reign was an era where the concept of Westernisation was uncritically assumed to be synonymous with modernisation and progress by a lot of people: therefore, in terms of global imperial dynamics, the narrative was that the older, formerly powerful empires Qing China had become stagnant and therefore, its value systems and way of life were outdated etcetera.
From HK’s perspective, I think he sort of tries to make the best of the situation (he doesn’t have much leverage, between Arthur and Yao, whom are from his perspective, the old world empires with all the cards, even if the latter has been shorn of a lot of prestige after the Opium Wars) and that means sometimes going along with some things. But I do think the end result of all of this is him growing into his own distinct person with a unique way of seeing things, and in some ways he has a perspective of two (and more) different cultural worldviews from it. On this level, this is where I think he has some things in common with Eleanor/Zee (NZ); both being distinctly read as not-English and having to navigate that cultural terrain. I also pretty much can see them both going to university in the 1800s (I already headcanon Zee being educated at the first women’s college at Oxford, whereas I don’t see Alfred, Matthew or Jack/Australia going to university then, at least not until they decide to take it up after WWII).