AP cameras capture Sha Tin Racecourse alive with colour as the city defies political gloom to celebrate
Lions Roar at Sha Tin as Hong Kong Welcomes the Year of the Horse
On Thursday, February 19, 2026, the first day of the Lunar New Year, performers staged a thunderous traditional lion dance at Sha Tin Racecourse to mark the official arrival of the Year of the Horse in Hong Kong. The Associated Press captured the moment in vivid detail: troupe members in brilliant primary colours moved through the elaborate choreography that has been performed at such celebrations for centuries, their drums and cymbals echoing across the famous racing venue as crowds gathered to watch. It was a defiant statement of cultural vitality in a city that has endured years of political pressure, mass emigration, and the systematic dismantling of its democratic institutions.
A City That Refuses to Lose Its Soul
Lunar New Year has always been the emotional heartbeat of Hong Kong life. Even as the Beijing-backed government has reshaped the political landscape since the crackdown on the 2019 pro-democracy movement, ordinary Hongkongers have continued to gather, light incense, hang red lanterns, and send their children out to collect lai see packets. The lion dance at Sha Tin is more than spectacle. It is an assertion of identity. The tradition predates the People’s Republic of China by centuries and belongs first to the communities that have practised it, not to any political authority.
The Year of the Horse and What It Means
In Chinese astrology, the Horse is associated with energy, freedom, and forward movement. Horses are creatures of the open road, not the enclosed stable. For a city that has seen its press freedoms collapse, its opposition politicians jailed or exiled, and its civil society organisations disbanded under the National Security Law, the symbolism of the Horse year carries an unmistakable resonance. Many Hongkongers in the diaspora, spread across the UK, Canada, Australia, and beyond, will be marking the same new year with the same lion dances, the same foods, and the same prayers. The tradition travels. It cannot be legislated out of existence.
Lion Dance: A Living Heritage Under Pressure
The lion dance form performed in Hong Kong draws on both southern Chinese and local adaptations developed over generations in the territory itself. Lion dance traditions across the Chinese diaspora have been recognised by scholars of intangible cultural heritage as among the most important living performance arts in the world. The UNESCO framework on intangible cultural heritage specifically recognises such community-based celebrations as deserving protection. What makes the Sha Tin performance significant is its public, collective character. In a city where public assembly has been effectively curtailed since 2020, festivals remain one of the few remaining spaces where Hongkongers can gather freely, share their culture, and see themselves reflected back in something larger than individual survival.
Sha Tin: A Place With History
Sha Tin Racecourse itself carries layers of Hong Kong history. The New Territories site has been a gathering place for generations, and its choice for Lunar New Year celebrations is no accident. Racing, festivals, and communal life have long intertwined in this part of Hong Kong, and the decision to stage the lion dance there connects the new year to the deeper rhythms of the city’s working-class and middle-class communities rather than the Central business district skyline more commonly associated with Hong Kong’s international image.
Diaspora Hong Kong: Keeping the Flame Alive
Across the world, communities of Hongkongers who left following the 2019 crackdown and the passage of the National Security Law are marking the Year of the Horse in their new home cities. In London, Toronto, Sydney, and Vancouver, lion dance troupes have performed in public squares. Restaurants have been booked solid for family reunion dinners. Parents have explained to children born in Canada or Britain what it means to be Hongkonger, and why the customs their grandparents kept matter now more than ever. Hong Kong Watch, the UK-based advocacy group that monitors the erosion of freedoms in the territory, has documented how the diaspora community continues to maintain its cultural and civic identity despite the pressure exerted by Beijing on overseas Hongkongers. The group notes that cultural continuity is itself a political act when a government is actively working to erase the distinctiveness of a people’s identity.
New Year, Old Prayers
At temples across Hong Kong, worshippers rose before dawn on February 19 to offer the first incense of the new year. Wong Tai Sin temple, one of the most visited religious sites in the city, drew thousands. Tin Hau temples in fishing communities on Lantau and in the New Territories opened their doors to the familiar ritual of prayer, offerings of fruit, and the ringing of bells. These practices are not controlled by the government. They belong to the people. They are as old as the communities themselves, and no law has yet been passed that can reach into a temple courtyard and silence the prayer of a grandmother asking the Horse year to bring her family safety, health, and reunion.
A New Year Greeting to All Hongkongers
Apple Daily UK wishes every Hongkonger at home and abroad a joyful, hopeful, and brave Year of the Horse. Ma Dou Sing Gung. May every stride take you closer to the freedoms that are rightfully yours.
Hoi Lam
Lifestyle, Gender & Society Journalist, Apple Daily UK
Contact: hoilam@appledaily.uk
Hoi Lam is a lifestyle and society journalist whose work focuses on gender issues, family dynamics, and everyday social change within Chinese and diaspora communities. She completed her journalism education at a leading Chinese journalism school, where she specialized in feature writing, interview techniques, and ethical storytelling.
Her reporting career includes contributions to Apple Daily and other liberal Chinese magazines and newspapers, covering topics such as women’s rights, work-life balance, generational change, and evolving social norms. Hoi Lam’s work is grounded in firsthand interviews and contextual research, ensuring authenticity and factual integrity.
She brings newsroom experience in balancing human-interest storytelling with rigorous fact-checking and responsible framing. Her writing avoids sensationalism and prioritizes accurate representation of sources and lived experiences.
Hoi Lam’s authority is reinforced by sustained publication within reputable media outlets and compliance with editorial review and correction standards. She is trusted by editors for her careful handling of sensitive subjects and ethical clarity.
At Apple Daily UK, Hoi Lam contributes credible, experience-based journalism that documents social realities with accuracy, empathy, and professional discipline.
