Before I started writing, YouTube recommended a video of Jessica Alba, the American actress who played Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four, being called "the most beautiful woman on the planet" by the host during an interview. While beauty is always subjective, a catchy nickname or compliment can leave a lasting impression.
This is true for individuals as well as cities. Besides their names, cities often have a variety of nicknames: London was known as the "City of Fog" because of its former abundance of factories and dense chimneys; Paris was called the "City of Light" for its crucial role in the medieval Enlightenment, a metaphor for the light of enlightenment illuminating the world; and Moscow calls itself the "Third Rome," inheriting the historical mission of Rome and Constantinople, the two former capitals of the Roman Empire, to save the world.
A nickname alone can reveal the characteristics or positioning of a city. If we can trace the changes in a city's nicknames at different times, it would be an alternative or even more accurate city history.
In the early 20th century, Hong Kong was known as the "Great Commercial Port of the Far East".
In the less than two hundred years of recent development, Hong Kong's nickname has undergone numerous changes. Its first proud moniker in the early 20th century was "Emporium of the Far East." Today, in the 21st century, people might scoff at the word "Emporium": "Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium" is simply an ordinary department store. This usage of the word "Emporium" didn't take hold until the mid-20th century; it wasn't so in the late 19th century. Consider an 1876 article in the Hong Kong Daily Press about New York: "This city, the commercial emporium of the United States, is situated on New Island, formerly called Manhattan Island." In this sentence, the article before "emporium" is "the," not "a." The meaning is clear: an emporium is the commercial center of a country or even a region, implying irreplaceable status. Therefore, calling Hong Kong the Emporium of the Far East should actually be translated as "the largest commercial port in the Far East". This nickname confirms that Hong Kong has transformed from a "you go bury my place" to a world-famous city in the sixty years since its founding, which is also covered in the literary classic "Around the World in Eighty Days".
