Four Generations
Hong Kong has a wealth of street signs from different eras, but unlike Montreal, political and linguistic tensions are buried far beneath the surface. No matter what the age or style, Hong Kong street signs follow a formula: black text, white background, English above Chinese. There have been some minor variations through the years; in older signs, the Chinese is usually smaller than the English (no doubt reflecting the colonial mindset of the era’s bureaucrats), and the two languages were sometimes differentiated by colour.
