Olympics Opening Ceremonies

[macwilkin]

On that note, when Hong Kong was handed back to China ten years ago, the final ceremony was the lowering of the Union Jack to the sounds of a band of bagpipers slowly playing "Auld Lang Syne" and continuing as they slowly marched off to a British naval vessel to depart. I myself found that it very moving. I'm sure that thousands of Chinese were watching that ceremony, and so have heard bagpipes and seen kilts at least fairly recently.

More recently than that, as the Hong Kong Police still maintain a pipe band, and there are at least two civilian pipe bands there today:

Those pipers, btw, were from the Black Watch, who were part of the last British garrison of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.

"Auld Lang Syne" was also the tune played by the Indian Army when the last British regiment, the Somerset Light Infantry, left Bombay in 1947 after Independence. The Black Watch played it in a similar scene when they left the new nation of Pakistan.

Regards,

Todd

[Galician]

More recently than that, as the Hong Kong Police still maintain a pipe band, and there are at least two civilian pipe bands there today:

Those pipers, btw, were from the Black Watch, who were part of the last British garrison of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.

"Auld Lang Syne" was also the tune played by the Indian Army when the last British regiment, the Somerset Light Infantry, left Bombay in 1947 after Independence. The Black Watch played it in a similar scene when they left the new nation of Pakistan.

Regards,

Todd

Interesting to know! My point was simply that the pipers were probably seen across the entire nation. I'm sure that HK residents were somewhat familiar with it after a century of British rule.