Swimming for freedom
Simon Holliday meets ‘freedom swimmer’ Mrs Chu
Every day a traditional redsailed Chinese junk boat passes by the skyscrapers along Victoria Harbour; a symbol of Hong Kong’s rich maritime history. I watch the junk go by as I wait for my friend Edie and her acquaintance from the art world, Mrs Chu – one of the socalled ‘freedom swimmers’ who swam into Hong Kong for a new life.
In 150 years, Hong Kong transformed from a collection of fishing villages of perhaps 2,000 inhabitants to an international commercial centre and metropolis of seven million people. It did so with wave after wave of migrations from the Chinese mainland.