I visit the new national exhibition in the Hong Kong Museum of History in late August 2024. As a long-term resident and close observer of Hong Kong, I want to see for myself how it tells the city’s story.

A large slogan is displayed across the entrance: “National security is the bedrock of national rejuvenation. Social stability is a prerequisite for building a strong and prosperous China.” Nothing new here, I think.

I sit down to watch ‘The Ebbs and Flows of History’, a short video that sweeps us along more than 5,000 years, the narrator highlighting the “unfair treaties” of the nineteenth century that forced China to cede Hong Kong to the British and the latter’s “heinous acts” towards the local population. Despite various trials, we’re told, the “indomitable spirit” of the Chinese people always shone through. Depicting the protests in 2019, the video shows protesters hurling Molotov cocktails. “Law and order vanished,” the indignant narrator intones. The video credits new national security laws imposed by Beijing for turning the tide “from chaos to order”.

• Tags: Hong Kong, Issue 38, Jennifer Eagleton