Rennie’s Mill and My Love for National Flag :: May :: 2006 :: Merdeka 曖昧

I love flags, always, all kinds of flags. Apart from our Jalur Gemilang, I love flags of British Columbia, Republic of China (even that I prefer DPP), Kelantan, Penang, Canada, the Hong Kong flag prior to its falling into the illegimate Communist terrorist regime, as well as our Keadilan and Pas flags. Seeing flags flying high boils my blood, be it on top of houses, or in the case of opposition flags, on top of trees, more so in a strong wind.

I haven’t really blogged about Rennie’s Mill (Tiu Keng Leng) before. It was a special settlement created by Hong Kong government for Nationalist (Kuomintang) soldiers and supporters after they lost the Chinese civil war in 1949 and escaped to Hong Kong, in order to avoid Communist reprecussion.

When people first arrived here, it was a small bay surrounded by hills. The only gateway was sea as no roads were built back then. Without a roof to run for shelter, government built them A-shape huts that accomodated 4 people each. Nevermind, most of them thought, as perhaps at most after few months they would move to Taiwan or Hainan. Hainan hadn’t fallen into Communist liberation then.

One could see ROC flags flying everywhere, together with words like “Long Life President Chiang” on walls. Only if Chiang senior give them a damn. Realising that it’s hopeless to go to Taiwan, they made it their permanent home, celebrating National Day on October 10th every year like other pro-ROC quarters in Hong Kong.

Many call it the prettiest place in Hong Kong. Not anymore. Afraid of clashes between Nationalist loyalists and Commies terrorists, the government dismantled the whole settlement and forcibly evicted the residents, in 1996 if I am not mistaken. On its former site now stands shopping centres, subway station, flats, flats and more flats.

I could have visited Rennie’s Mill during my first visit to Hong Kong in December 1993. Unfortunately, we spent the whole days and nights chatting with relatives, a habitual phenomenum that hasn’t changed much until now every time we go to Hong Kong. The scenic view with ROC flags flooding over everywhere, even more than you can find in Taiwan, is lost forever. We can only imagine those moments by visiting a handful websites that have captured this nostalgia.

I did take some pics of ROC flags during my recent trip to Taiwan. One that I like the most was the flags in a Zih-ju (Self Help) New Village, a veterans’ village in Zuoying (Left Camp) District, Kaohsiung City, near my mom’s former junior high school, the Ocean Youth Junior High, so-named due to its proximity to naval base and the fact that it was attended mostly by kids of navy officers (my mom the rare exception). I will save those pics for another day.

I was stunned by ROC flags when people raise it voluntarily. Unlike the “Raise our flag” campaign in Malaysia which is effectively a brilliant move to enrich Umnoputra businessmen, Taiwanese do so to symbolise their commitment in defending whatever that’s left for their ideal Free China, fighting Taiwan independence on one side and Communist invasion on another.

That reminds me of something. I was told that Keadilan webmasters were told to take our beloved Malaysian flag off the website. The leftists find it disturbing. I find their narrow-mindness disgusting.