Hong Kong Culture – Present and Future
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Worksheet 4
P.13
Entertainment – leisure & sports activities
Source 1
Song: Horse racing – Gay Singers
1.
Which popular activity in Hong Kong does this song reflect?
.
2.
Do the lyrics make sense? Explain your answer.
Source 2
The British first introduced betting on horse races. In 1842 and 1843, Hong Kong held two horse
races at the racecourse in Macau. At that time, horseracing was mainly a sports activity with hurdles
and other contests. It was held once a year and so was named Annual Horseracing. In 1848, a new
racecourse was built in Wong Nai Chung in Happy Valley on Hong Kong Island. In 1884, the Hong
Kong Jockey Club was established. This became an arena of social activities for key government
officials and the senior personnel of the big commercial firms. Racial discrimination was practised in
the first forty years or so by the Club. Even Chinese of the upper class could be visitors only and not
members.
Source 3
馬蹄聲聲 – 刑寶莊
From: homepage of
HongKong Heritage
Museum,
<http://www.heritagemuseu
m.gov.hk/>
Hong Kong Culture – Present and Future
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3.
Who first brought horse racing to Hong Kong?
4.
Was horse racing part of the popular culture at that time? Explain your answer.
5.
Why did the painter of Source 3 take the Tang Dynasty painting as the background of the picture?
Source 4
China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. To symbolically express the
principle of ‘one country, two systems’ and that the previous capitalist system and the way of life in
Hong Kong would remain unchanged for fifty years, the catchphrase of ‘horse racing stays, dancing
goes on’(馬照跑,舞照跳) was invented.
6.
According to Source 4, ‘horse racing stays, dancing goes on’ symbolizes the capitalist system and
way of life in Hong Kong. Name two characteristics of “the way of life in Hong Kong”.
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Source 5
Illegal betting on horses reached $8o billion last year
Legislative Council urged to legislate before summer recess
Hong Kong Jockey Club points out that offshore betting companies are becoming more and more active.
According to the Club, last season alone, even the most conservative estimation suggested that the bets put
into illegal and offshore betting activities amounted to $80 billion and this money mostly went to betting
on horse racing and soccer matches.
Illegal offshore gambling operates like supermarket
The Executive Director of Betting of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Mr. S. K.Chan, describes the illegal
gambling businesses outside the territory operate in the same way as a supermarket business in that they
offer various types of activities for betting. These include beauty contests, golf, basketball, soccer,
greyhound racing, Mark Six and even overseas lotteries and casino games. He pointed out that one of these
offshore betting companies has had the number of clients doubled within three months.
He warned that if Hong Kong did not set up an ‘anti-shark net’ as soon as possible and the Legislative
Council could not pass the Gambling (Amendment) Bill before its summer recess, the situation would be
out of control in the Jockey Club summer break.
Banks should be banned from servicing offshore gambling
Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs, Mrs. Betty Fung said that the new bill, once passed, would ban local
banks from providing banking service for offshore betting companies. Credit-card holders would be
banned from using their credit cards to participate in offshore betting. In this way, these companies would
be cut off from ‘water and electricity supplies’ and have to resort to asking their clients to bet through bank
cheques, money order and draft order, thus adding to their costs.
Translated from: Ming Pao, 16 May 2001
7.
What challenges is the Hong Kong Jockey Club facing?
8.
What light does the situation described in Source 5 shed on the future way of life in Hong Kong?
F1 IH
Hong Kong Culture – Present and Future
What have you learnt?
You have
1.
some idea of horse racing and how it affects the life of the people.
2.
reflected on the impact of modern technology on Hong Kong’s
life style.
P.16