Tensions of 1967 riots echo today, says director of new drama

The deadly 1967 riots are seen by many as a watershed in Hong Kong's history - but for drama director Wu Hoi-fai, the days of havoc hold another message: resorting to violence won't help.

"The lesson of history is when people resort to violence, no one, especially Hongkongers, will buy it," said Wu, artistic director of Pants Theatre Production.

Wu's group is creating a drama about the disturbances that intensified anti-communist feeling in Hong Kong and entrenched divisions between the left and mainstream society.

Although he was born in 1969, two years after the riots, he sees echoes of the tensions today.

"Society is now more polarised. Some people even compare it with the 1967 riots," he said.

The riots can be traced back to a labour dispute at a factory in San Po Kong in early May, 1967, at a time when corruption was rampant and people's living and working conditions were poor.

Throughout that summer, unionists and pro-communist sympathisers staged demonstrations across the city.