Study Buddy (Challenger): Why Hong Kong’s sailing junks symbolise a lost era
- City is instantly recognisable for the iconic red sails, but there haven’t been any authentic junks in local waters for decades
- This page is for students who want to take their reading comprehension to the next level with difficult vocabulary and questions to test their inference skills
Chinese sailing junks, and their iconic red sails, have been a tourist attraction and symbol of the city for many years. Photo: Elson LiContent provided by British Council
Read the following text, and answer questions 1-9 below:
[1] Chinese seagoing junks, with their distinctive batwing sails, were used to symbolise Hong Kong to the world from the British colony’s mid-19th century urban beginnings. Ever since, these graceful vessels have been featured on postcards, paintings, banknotes and much more.
[2] Established in 1957, the Hong Kong Tourist Association (Hong Kong Tourism Board since 2001) later adopted a stylised cinnabar-red junk as its symbolic trademark for Hong Kong – so successful that even for those who have never been to Asia, this image immediately comes to mind whenever the city is mentioned.
[3] Much as the Eiffel Tower and Buckingham Palace symbolise Paris and London, sailing junks cruising through Victoria Harbour in the late afternoon light, in front of the massed ranks of the city’s skyscrapers, offer a plethora of seductive Hong Kong marketing banalities. But while the stylised sailing junk logo is a worldwide symbol for Hong Kong, unfortunately there have been no authentic Chinese sailing junks in local waters for some decades.
[4] Their decline began in the late 1940s; the establishment of the Fish Marketing Organisation, and rapid motorisation of the local deep-sea fishing fleet – aided by government grants and loans – meant fishermen stayed away for weeks in deep-sea fishing grounds off Hainan in southern China, and Vietnam.
[5] Far-reaching changes transformed both lifestyles and livelihoods for local fishing families. Multi-generational families once lived on a single junk, but they now remained behind in new resettlement estates at Aberdeen, Shau Kei Wan and other former anchorages, and their children attended school on land – often for the first time; most never returned to the sea.
[6] Increasingly strident political campaigns in mainland China in the 1950s, combined with the Communist collectivisation of fisheries, caused many floating families to quietly sail away in the night, never to return. Thereafter, they only fished within Hong Kong territorial waters, which put further pressure on local fish stocks.
[7] Until the mid-1960s, gently bobbing lights from inshore fishing boats were a familiar local sight. Small craft cruised the shallows with hurricane lamps suspended over the bows; fish attracted by the glare would be easily scooped up. Small fish, fry and other marine life were also netted, which further exhausted Hong Kong’s inshore waters commercially.
[8] Massive overfishing, compounded by annually worsening marine pollution, caused the Hong Kong fishing industry’s terminal decline over the next three decades. By the early 1970s, most local vessels carried sails only for emergency auxiliary power.
[9] A few motorised tourist junks with fixed sails still confuse the credulous but – much like other endlessly recycled Hong Kong clichés – the obsolete sailing junk icon is decades beyond having any genuine symbolic purpose.
Source: South China Morning Post, October 28
Questions
1. In paragraph 1, the writer implies that Chinese seagoing junks ... through the sentence “Ever since, these graceful vessels have been featured on postcards, paintings, banknotes and much more.”
A. are an important part of Hong Kong’s identity and culture
B. were successfully introduced by the British to the local community
C. are unique because of their batwing sails
D. all of the above
2. Find a word in paragraph 2 that refers to a special trait that makes something easily recognised.
3. What is ironic about paragraph 3?
4. What does “their” in paragraph 4 refer to?
5. According to paragraph 5, Aberdeen and Shau Kei Wan used to be …
A. a housing estate for people who have been displaced from their homes.
B. go-to relaxing spots for local fishermen and their families.
C. areas where sailing boats for housing multi-generational families were built.
D. places for boats to rest and shelter from storms and other hazards.
6. Where does the phrase “never to return” in paragraph 6 refer to?
7. In paragraph 7, what does the phrase “further exhausted” suggest about the state of Hong Kong’s inshore waters by the mid-1960s?
8. What eventually led to the collapse of Hong Kong’s fishing industry according to paragraph 8?
9. Which of the following best describes the writer’s tone towards Chinese sailing junks?
A. defensive and accusatory
B. callous and candid
C. nostalgic and bittersweet
D. incredulous and enraged
Answers
1. A
2. trademark
3. Even though the sailing junk logo is a worldwide symbol for Hong Kong, there have been no authentic Chinese sailing junks in local waters for some decades.
4. Chinese sailing junks in local waters
5. D
6. fishing grounds in mainland China (accept other similar answers)
7. The phrase “further exhausted” suggests that Hong Kong’s inshore waters were already in a state of decline by the mid-1960s due to overfishing and that the inshore fishing made the situation worse. (accept other similar answers)
8. massive overfishing and annually worsening marine pollution
9. C