Claim: "Lion Rock Spirit" helped Hong Kongers persevere 1976, when 68,000 children left school, and remained a part of the culture even after sovereignty was transferred to China in 1997.
Evidence: Lion Rock Spirit (Chinese: 獅子山精神), is said to be the core values that is inherited by Hong Kong people from generation to generation. In 1976, the Director of Education stated that 68,000 children between age of 10 to 14 had discontinued their education as their parents could not support the tuition fees, and some had to start working to support their families. In the 1970s, "Lion Rock Spirit" was embodied by the poorest sector in Hong Kong who rode through ups and downs together. Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港, Cantonese: [hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ (listen)), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (HKSAR), is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of the People's Republic of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta of the South China Sea. Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. The whole territory was transferred to China in 1997.