Sitting in a Hong Kong cemetery
Reading to the dead Chinese poetry
In translation by an American
Who calls lorries ‘trucks’, petrol ‘gas’ and
Motorways ‘highways’ — to Hell or Heaven?
Alas, America! America,
Alas! What have you done to my language,
My culture, my nation, this warring world?
What evil has not sprung from your unequalled
Stupidity, your crass inventiveness —
Or, at least, the inventiveness of those
You have bought with your wealth, your liberties
Limited to those who can afford them
And purchased at the price of nothing less
Than the poverty of the rest of the world?
Alas, America! Alas! Your States
United at the cost of nothing less
Than your refusal to recognise the rest
Of the countries of the Americas,
Whose governments you select and topple.
If you are not the punishment of God
For the crimes of our inhumanity,
Alas, America, then you must be
The plague passed from nation to nation
Through the rats of imperialism.
If I could erase not only you
But all memory of your history,
Wash away all the blood that you have spilled,
With the stroke of my pen, would I hesitate?
Alas, America, that I cannot!
The hungry dead from their graves arose
And their spirits formed in the noonday heat,
A humid breath that my body enclosed,
In which I heard a million souls entreat:
Leave this foreign land and do not return!
— Hong Kong, February 2024
• • • • •
On the steep slopes above Chai Wan, on the east side of Hong Kong Island, is a hill of crematoria and cemeteries divided by faith into Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Military sections, including one of the most bizarre buildings I’ve ever seen, a seven-storey columbarium resembling something between a modernist carpark and an IKEA showroom. It was on the steps of the Buddhist cemetery that I read aloud the book of poetry by Yu Jian (于坚) I had been given years before by Dr. Rossella Ferrari, the Italian Professor of China Studies, and whose translation, tangentially, inspired my poem.
Although my hatred of the criminal syndicate calling itself the United States of America is constant and undying, it wasn’t until I’d finished this poem that I recognised it was less about the latest atrocity being committed by the outpost of the US military in Palestine than it was about my growing discomfort at living in a former colony of the British Empire. At which point the ghosts of Hong Kong, finally allowed their turn to speak, wrote the final stanza.
A Communist in Hong Kong 
having listened to you on Delingpole ( and ordered your book ) are you a communist or is it a statement?
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Communism isn’t a theory, or a party, or a badge, or a slogan. Communism is a practice, which in my case is that of Architects for Social Housing, the company for which I am head of research. My book, Architecture is always Political: A Communist History, is the first volume to be published of my articles between 2015 and 2019. If you’re interested in what communist practice is, you can purchase a copy here:
https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2024/11/21/architecture-is-always-political-a-communist-history/
‘A Communist in Hong Kong’ is the working title of a book I’m writing, which I expect to publish after my three years in China. While I have my own understanding of what ‘communism’ means, I found it a useful position from which to view, understand, criticise and write about both Hong Kong — and its ongoing legacy of colonialism (both British and Chinese) — and China, and whether and to what extent it can be called ‘communist’. Though understandable given the degree of our indoctrination, I still find it interesting that, although people in the West react with horror and disgust at the word ‘communism’ (and I’m not denying there are many reasons for doing so, not least of them from the history of the Chinese Revolution), they react with equal horror and disgust to anyone who dares to challenge the benefits or expose the crimes of ‘capitalism’. Capitalism is organised crime. Given the state of the world at present and, indeed, for some time now, one would think, or at least hope, that anyone in the West concerned about the world and the future of their nations would be asking these questions. For me, communism offers a position from which to ask them. My counter question to you is: are you really a capitalist?
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I hope you appreciate that my question was not confrontational nor a leding question. But I must say that Philosophically, you can apply the same “Reaoning” not only to Architecture, through ou Politician iriosted by Policial itin, sin ing i ings artal etc )
declared & proclaimed themseves as communists / Leninist / maxist / Or Capitalists.
Mideveal Churches & Later Mosques are all political arent they!
In the world that we live in today, I agree that Capitalism above a certain threshold ( Multi Billion Dollar Industries & Govdrnment Level) ARE Organized crime but So is The Regime in Russia & China ! & Likewise those who rule in Robes in Countries Like Iran!
So, yes you’re right.
your reply is a circumloculation to a straightforwards question. How do you afford living in Hong Kong & Buying Bread? by using Capital Or Ideology? Am I really a Capitalist? you ask.
I wonder why you didnt ask if I was a Communist? or I might have been a Pastor?
I have no idea these days. I had a successful business, emplyed 70 people ALL Locally in a small village in England, we made a hand made product which was the finest workmanship money could buy in the field, had an Office in USA, Took all the risks myself (not my emplyees) Paid everyone above the line, loanded anyone who wanted a loan with Zero interest & paid everyone a handsome bonus during every single year that i ownd the business particularly during the recention years & Sold it in 2016. So yes I engaed in Capital. The Architect who helped me design my house charged me £17,000. So, I am not sure what ‘that’ makes me! & what I lacked in inteligence, I made up with hard work! But, any day of the year, I am ready for Judgement day As I Am a believer.
So Am I a capilatist ? maybe
I am really looking forwad to you Book Simon. No one is going near Migration Replacement & they have the public hypnotised by the BBC!
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PS: I have no idea why letters are changed and missing from by reply above, in teh 1st paragraph which should be: I hope you appreciate that my question was not confrontational nor a leding question. But I must say that Philosophically, you can apply the same “Reasoning” not only to Architecture, but also to Art ingeneral, Painting, Poetry, Writting, Design ( be it building or cars etc ) throughout Politician Periods Led by Policial “Humans” ( even now ) who declare and proclaim themselves to be declared & proclaimed themselves as communists / Leninist / maxist / Or Capitalists.
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