Transfer of Sovereignty Over Hong Kong - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The handover is central to the plot of the 1998 action film Rush Hour.
• Kramer mentions it briefly during "The Bookstore", an episode of Seinfeld.
• Hong Kong Cantopop artist Sam Hui has made numerous references to 1997 including the song 話知你 1997 (Could Not Care Less About 1997).
• Chinese American rapper Jin Auyeung has a song called 1997 in his Cantonese album ABC, which he makes references to the handover, Bus Uncle, the ten years since Hong Kong's return to China.
• Zero Minus Ten, a James Bond novel by Raymond Benson, is set largely in Hong Kong during the days leading up to the Handover.
  • The 2012 James Bond film Skyfall features a villain who had been an MI6 agent in Hong Kong until the Handover, when he was handed over to the Chinese for his unauthorized hacking of their security networks.
• The Doctor Who audio drama Sympathy for the Devil by Jonathan Clements is set on the eve of the Handover and involves an attempted defection by a war criminal, mere hours before China takes control.
• Hong Kong 97, a 1994 American movie starring Robert Patrick, is set in Hong Kong during the 24 hours before the end of British rule.
• Hong Kong 97, a 1995 Japanese homebrew SNES game, is set in Hong Kong around the time of the transition. The player controls Chin (Jackie Chan), who was called by the Hong Kong government to kill the invading Chinese, including Deng Xiaoping. The game gained a cult following due to its very poor quality and absurd plot.
• The handover has been referred to numerous times in the movies of Fight back to school by Stephen Chow.
• The handover of Hong Kong is referenced multiple times and witnessed in the 1997 film Chinese Box, starring Jeremy Irons and Gong Li. The film itself was filmed leading up to and during the handover.