GREEN MACHINE: Workers in Nanhai, Guangdong, assemble dolls for Jeffrey Lam's Hong Kong?based toy company. Its mainland staff has grown from 50 workers in 1979 to a seasonal high of 20,000 today
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Guangdong has become the workshop for the world, but that doesn't mean all it does is work. As commercial contacts with Hong Kong grew, the province also looked to its neighbor for hints on how to have fun. Nowhere is that more evident than in Shenzhen, the mainland city next to Hong Kong. The border crossing at Lowu is the world's busiest, with 252,000 trips daily. Hong Kongers cross to shop, sing karaoke in a nightclub or partake in other diversions that have become favorite pastimes for mainlanders, too. Shenzhen is home to Mission Hills, the world's largest golf complex, with a dozen 18-hole courses. When Hong Kong paper-and-packaging tycoon David Chu founded the club in 1994, 90% of its members were from Hong Kong. Today 60% of the members are from the mainland.
The SAR's cultural sway has extended far beyond Shenzhen and the fairways of Mission Hills. Hong Kong's music, movies and fashion dominated pop culture in Guangdong when China first opened up. "In the '80s and '90s, I definitely only listened to Hong Kong artists like Alan Tam, Jacky Cheung and Anita Mui," says Kent Li, 37, who hosts a pop-music show for state-owned Guangzhou Radio. Hong Kong also set the pace for fashion. Before a look is big in Guangzhou, Guangdong's capital, it is vetted in Hong Kong, says He Ying, a 28-year-old video editor and former owner of a clothing shop. "Hong Kong is like a filter," says He. "If people there don't embrace certain trends, then Guangzhou will never embrace them."
The trends are transmitted to the mainland through Hong Kong media, which is widely available in Guangdong despite the fact that most newspapers and TV channels are restricted. Hong Kong-style teahouses, found throughout southern China, always have copies of day-old Hong Kong newspapers; some are distributed legally while others are smuggled across the border. Likewise, hotels and residence compounds for foreigners have access to two dozen overseas satellite channels and eight from the SAR. A huge gray market in illegal satellite dishes means Hong Kong programs are widely available. Indeed, Hong Kong's media spurred the development of Guangdong's own press, which is known for testing the limits of mainland censors. Fledgling mainland journalists looked next door for instruction on everything from story development to production, says Chang Ping, deputy editor of the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Weekly. "Hong Kong media helped establish the foundation for Guangdong's media," he says. but familiarity sometimes breeds discontent. Mainland Chinese nowadays no longer take all their cues from their cousins—and the spread of the Internet in China means they no longer have to, because the whole world is in reach. "Now, there's more of a global culture in Guangzhou," says Alex So of the youth-lifestyle magazine Coldtea. Relaxed travel restrictions mean mainlanders can easily visit the SAR. "Before, when it was harder to go to Hong Kong, I thought it was such a cool, mysterious place," says He. "It's not the same anymore."
Guangdong's industries, too, are more independent of Hong Kong than they once were. "In the 1980s, the shop was in front and the factory was in back," Yvonne Choi, Hong Kong's Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, told a business forum in April. "This has changed and Hong Kong is no longer playing the leading role." Instead, the SAR is increasingly dependent upon China for its economic vitality. Last year, Hong Kong's stock market launched initial public offerings worth more than any other market except London—a bravura performance that was largely due to the $25 billion raised through the IPOs of Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. In 2001, mainland China became Hong Kong's largest investor, and by the end of 2005, it had poured $162 billion into the territory. The capital influx is expected to expand since Beijing announced in May that it would begin to allow mainland institutions to invest in foreign stock markets, beginning with Hong Kong.
The hope is that the mainland's investors will provide the same economic boost that its tourists have. Beginning in 2003, when Hong Kong was suffering a severe economic slump due to the SARS outbreak, the central government began allowing greater numbers of mainlanders to visit the territory. They played a key role in reviving the economy, says Allan Zeman, a Hong Kong developer who operates Ocean Park, a marine-and-amusement park, and owns property, restaurants and bars in Lan Kwai Fong, a popular night spot. "China was the match that started the fire burning and got the economy going again," Zeman says. Of Hong Kong's 25 million visitors last year, 13.6 million came from the mainland, more than four times the 3.1 million who visited in 1999. Zeman says he has changed his businesses to meet the needs of mainland tourists. Fluent Mandarin speakers have been hired, menus have been altered and renminbi, the mainland currency, is now accepted. "Over the last several years there's been a tremendous impact on all business," he says. "I think everyone in Hong Kong is starting to cater ... to the mainland market."
That has created some unexpected opportunities for entrepreneurs like Apichar Sirichantakul, a Thai businessman who calls himself the "father of the ladyboys." The transvestite stage shows he runs in Bangkok are so popular among Chinese tour groups that he decided to bring them to Hong Kong. As many as 3,000 customers a day, most of them mainlanders, pay $20 each to see three dozen Thai transsexuals and transvestites give a 45-minute dance-and-lip-synch performance in an old movie theater on Hong Kong island. "Chinese travelers come here, go shopping in the day and see some sights, but at night there's nothing to do," Apichar says. "We give them something to see."
From lowbrow entertainment to high finance, it's certain Hong Kong will increasingly be catering to China in coming years. Lam, for one, reckons the partnership between the SAR and the rest of China is just as dynamic as it was when he ventured to Guangdong to set up a toy factory 28 years ago. "Hong Kong will continue to impact the mainland," he says. Just not as much as the mainland impacts Hong Kong.
With reporting by Ling Woo Liu / Dongguan and Martha Ann Overland / Hanoi