Residents pay respect to late Queen on first day of condolence service
A few dozen people signed the book of condolence yesterday for the late Queen Elizabeth II at the Morrison Chapel next to the Camões Garden.
Organized by the British Consulate General Hong Kong, the condolence book opened yesterday and will remain open today from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Macau service was presided over by the British Honorary Consul in Macau, Glenn McCartney. The book of condolence will be sent to the Royal Family, according to McCartney.
There were some British citizens currently in Macau amongst those in attendance.
“I was born here in Macau, before moving to Hong Kong when I was very young,” said Mr U, a British citizen who attended the service yesterday. “Then I started pursuing a career in both Hong Kong and the U.K.”
He stated that this was the reason behind his decision to pay tribute to the late Queen.
Mr Li, a Macau resident who was also present at the service, explained that he regarded the late Queen as a figurehead who had united the Commonwealth and pushed for world peace and the betterment of the environment, hinting that he had seen evidence of this first-hand through his travels to several Commonwealth nations.
Meanwhile, Ms Chan, also a Macau resident, considered the late Queen a “respectable monarch.”
“I think one of the most respectable aspects of the late Queen is that somehow she put her service higher than her family,” she said. “In addition, she was crowned very suddenly but she picked things up well, which I interpret as a quality of resilience.”
She was the only one of the three interviewees who had not been to the U.K. She admitted that she had formed her impressions on the country on the basis of news reports and TV dramas.
For the time being, it is unclear if any government officials will be signing the book of condolence in their public capacity. However, Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan in the neighboring city has done so on behalf of the government there, according to Hong Kong media reports.
In the neighboring region, the death of Queen Elizabeth II has sparked a wave of nostalgia and renewed interest in British memorabilia in Hong Kong, which for 156 years had lived under the British crown until its return to China in 1997.
