作者：钟然
编辑：钟然 校对：王滨 翻译：戈冰
自由雕塑公园大逃港纪念碑 THE GREAT ESCAPE TO HONG KONG
“中国逃港潮”主要指发生在20世纪50至80年代，这并非零星个体的越境行为，而是在中共残酷统治下，由生存危机、制度压迫与社会封闭共同催生的集体选择，反映了当时民众通过“用脚投票”来对抗命运的悲壮历史。
1960年3月，苏就带领其全家共48人，从广东省惠阳乘渔船逃往香港
穿越边境地逃港者 摄于1962
趁深圳河枯水期涉水前往香港地逃港者 摄于1962年
自1951年深港边界被封锁以来，至1985年的三十余年间，约有250万内地居民冒险南下。他们或在大鹏湾中与风浪搏命，甚至有人葬身鲨口；或冲过深圳河武警的严密防守；或长时间泅渡深圳湾，在体力与意志的极限中挣扎求生，只为抵达香港，寻求一线生机与新的生活。
自中共建政起，直至1997年香港主权移交之前，逃港潮始终未曾间断，其间更出现过四次规模尤为突出的高峰期。
一、1957年由于反右运动及农业合作化运动导致大规模逃港潮
1957年开始的反右运动，使全中国317万右派知识份子遭受迫害
农业合作化运动将农民私有的土地等主要生产资料变为合作社集体共有，实质上取消了土地私有权
二、1962年大跃进运动导致的大饥荒引发规模最大、最为惨烈的逃港潮
三、文革造成社会经济失序，“上山下乡”使大批知青困于农村、前途黯淡，在失望与无望中，催生了1972年前后的知青逃港潮
2014年 幸存的知青逃港者在吉澳岛东南角立了一块“知青难友纪念碑”
香港纪念逃港死难者的活动阻碍重重 2022年旅居美国的逃港幸存者在美国建碑 延续每年的拜祭
四、中国内地经济低迷，与“亚洲四小龙”之一的香港形成巨大反差，月薪差距动辄百倍。在这种鲜明落差下，1979年深圳建市前，再度掀起一波逃港潮。
1979年香港铜锣湾街景
逃港潮中抵达香港的大陆人，并非只是“过客”，而是逐渐融入并托举起这座城市，成为香港社会不可替代的地基石。正是这群从专制与饥荒中逃生的人，塑造了狮子山精神的内核；也正因为他们记得苦难的来处，在大陆同胞遭受压迫与不幸时，始终选择站出来支持与声援。
然而，香港今非昔比，这座曾经庇护无数逃难者的城市，如今在中共的高压控制下，自由与自主空间正被蚕食殆尽。曾经承载希望与逃生的庇护所被拆解，那些曾在狮子山下奋斗、塑造城市精神的人们，那些试图捍卫自由的人，不被中共容忍，甚至被投入监牢，昔日的荣光与理想正遭全面摧毁。
上世纪六十年代逃港的黎智英，为追求自由与尊严奋斗一生，却在2026年因国安罪被判二十年监禁，成为香港从“庇护之地”沦为“惩罚异议之地”的最残酷见证。
The Exodus to Hong Kong and the Fall of the Land of Freedom
Author: Zhong Ran
Editor: Zhong Ran Proofreader: Wang Bin Translator: Ge Bing
Abstract: From the 1950s to the 1980s, approximately 2.5 million mainland Chinese fled to Hong Kong due to famine, oppression, and economic disparities. They shaped the spirit of Hong Kong. Today, freedom is being eroded, defenders imprisoned, and the once-safe haven transformed into a place where dissent is punished.
Freedom Sculpture Park Monument to the Great Escape to Hong Kong
The “Great Escape to Hong Kong” primarily refers to the mass exodus occurring between the 1950s and 1980s. This was not sporadic individual border crossings, but a collective choice driven by survival crises, systemic oppression, and social isolation under the brutal rule of the Chinese Communist Party. It reflects the tragic history of people “voting with their feet” to resist their fate.
In March 1960, Su led his entire family of 48 members from Huiyang, Guangdong Province, to flee to Hong Kong aboard a fishing boat.
Border-crossing escapees to Hong Kong. Photographed in 1962.
Crossing the Shenzhen River during low water to reach Hong Kong. Photographed in 1962.
From the sealing of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border in 1951 until 1985, over three decades saw approximately 2.5 million mainland residents risk their lives to flee southward. Some battled fierce winds and waves in Dapeng Bay, with some even falling prey to sharks; others charged through the tight security of armed police along the Shenzhen River; still others endured lengthy swims across Shenzhen Bay, struggling at the limits of their physical and mental endurance, all to reach Hong Kong in search of a glimmer of hope and a new life.
From the founding of the People’s Republic of China until Hong Kong’s handover in 1997, the exodus to Hong Kong never ceased, with four particularly prominent peaks occurring during this period.
I. 1957: Mass exodus triggered by the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Agricultural Cooperativization Movement
The Anti-Rightist Campaign launched in 1957 subjected 3.17 million “rightist” intellectuals across China to persecution.
The Agricultural Cooperativization Movement transformed privately owned land and other primary means of production into collective ownership by cooperatives, effectively abolishing private land ownership.
II. The Great Leap Forward in 1962 triggered the largest and most devastating wave of escape to Hong Kong
III. The Cultural Revolution caused socioeconomic chaos. The “Down to the Countryside” campaign trapped large numbers of educated youth in rural areas with bleak futures. Their despair and hopelessness fueled the educated youth exodus to Hong Kong around 1972.
In 2014, surviving educated youth who had fled to Hong Kong erected a “Monument to Fellow Educated Youth in Distress” at the southeastern tip of Kat O Island.
Efforts to commemorate those who perished during the escape to Hong Kong faced significant obstacles. In 2022, survivors residing in the United States erected a monument there, continuing the annual memorial ceremonies.
IV. China’s economic stagnation starkly contrasted with Hong Kong, one of the “Four Asian Tigers,” where monthly salaries differed by a hundredfold. This stark disparity triggered another wave of escape attempts before Shenzhen’s establishment in 1979.
1979 Street Scene in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay
Mainlanders arriving in Hong Kong during this exodus were not mere “transients.” They gradually integrated into and became the indispensable foundation of the city, shaping the core of the Lion Rock Spirit. It is precisely because they remember the origins of their suffering that they consistently stand in solidarity with their compatriots on the mainland when they face oppression and misfortune.
Yet Hong Kong is no longer what it once was. This city that once sheltered countless refugees now sees its freedoms and autonomy eroded under the CCP’s high-pressure control. The sanctuary that once embodied hope and escape is being dismantled. Those who toiled beneath Lion Rock to forge the city’s spirit, those who sought to defend freedom, are now intolerable to the CCP—even imprisoned. The former glory and ideals are being utterly destroyed.
Jimmy Lai, who fled to Hong Kong in the 1960s, spent his life fighting for freedom and dignity. Yet in 2026, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison for national security offenses. His case stands as the cruelest testament to Hong Kong’s descent from a “place of refuge” to a “place of punishment for dissent.”
