Remembrance Day

Vasco saw a few poppies this year in Hong Kong, but he didn't read any news about the memorial service. Before the handover in 1997, there used to be a simple ceremony on November 11 every year. Alice went to several of them, both as a child and as an adult. She was actually quite sad that HK has stopped honoring it. People claimed that Poppy Day is a British thing and thus has no place in a new Chinese HK. Vasco disagreed. In a very narrow sense, yes, it is definitely a British tradition. Every year, the Queen leads the ceremony and pays respect to the soldiers who scarified to protect their countries. From a broader perspective, Vasco is sad that a page of HK history is being totally wiped away. Soldiers, British, American, India, Chinese, Canadian etc..., died in WWII to protect HK from the Japanese. It is not too much to ask for a simple ceremony to remember their bravery.

Walking around the Stanley Military Cementary in Stanley and Sai Wan War Cementary in Chai Wan reminds us the history that we should remember. Remembrance Day is not just a British 'thing', it is a way for us to be grateful for the services of all those who fell in the wars. They did it for us. For Hong Kong.

Photo: Harry Patch, 110, the last remaining British Tommy and veteran of the first world war, cries as he attends the Remembrance Day service at St Cuthbert's church in Wells (from The Guardian).

This reminded Vasco a comics he read last year from Non Sequitur about Nazi survivor. It was a dialogue between Dana and an old Jewish man. The man told Dana that he wears the Nazi number tattoo to remind the younger generation of what he and his people went through.
Due to copyright reason, Vasco can not show you the comics.