6 Larry Feign means that different versions of Hong Kong’s history exist because different countries have controlled Hong Kong and they disagree with one another. The sentence is clever because the word “Victor” has a double meaning. It can be someone’s name as is the case here (the first letter is capitalised) but it is also a synonym of the word “winner”. He is saying that no definitive version of Hong Kong’s history exists because no country definitively “won” or controls Hong Kong. L’enseignant pourrait approfondir davantage le travail sur la notion de subjectivité et de partialité ici.
Feign uses hyperbole and satire in this passage to criticise both Britain and China. He shows that neither the British version nor the Chinese version of events is reliable. For example, in the British version Hong Kong is described as “a barren rock” whereas in the Chinese version it is “a thriving commercial centre”. These descriptions contradict one another and neither is true. Feign uses the superlative form and lots of adjectives and adverbs to qualify or exaggerate his statements. For example, “the most successful freewheeling capitalist economy” or “the greatest humiliation ever perpetrated”. Through these techniques he mocks the two governments by showing that their positions are ridiculous and he implies that they are stupid.