It is clear, from the deluge of newspaper and magazine articles focusing on commerce and "human rights," that few Westerners understand the meaning of the return of Chinese sovereignty to Hong Kong. For Chinese people in China, and elsewhere in the world, the handover marks the end of a degrading chapter in their history that has lasted more than 150 years. Ling-chi Wang is former head of ethnic studies and a specialist in Asian American history at the University of California, Berkeley.

A long and humiliating chapter in the history of modern China is finally coming to an end. June 30 marks a finish to 158 years of British colonial rule and the return of Chinese sovereignty.

This event is so significant, the excitement surrounding it so irresistible, that I find myself joining tens of thousands of Chinese throughout the world making their way to Hong Kong.

This is not my first visit, of course. I once lived in Hong Kong, and as a teacher and historian I have traveled there frequently for scholarly and professional reasons. And there exists an abiding bond between Hong Kong -- the port of departure for almost all Chinese immigrants to the United States from the time of California's Gold Rush to China's liberation in 1949 -- and San Francisco, long the center of Chinese American social, cultural and economic life.

But I am not going to conduct research or attend professional meetings on this trip. Nor am I going in my capacity as co-chair of the San Francisco Bay Area Committee to Celebrate the End of British Colonialism which plans a series of public events in the Chinese American community in the next six weeks. In fact, I have no plans to attend any official function during my week in Hong Kong.

My trip is, instead, strictly personal. What I remember most vividly about growing up in Hong Kong in the 1950s was our parents' determination to get us children out of a place they saw as having no future.

The colonial government invested only the minimum in education, health care, and industry. Education was extremely limited and expensive, dedicated only to preparing a small elite to work in the colonial civil service. Schools glorified English and the history of the British Empire, but relegated Chinese language and history to the margins.

In business and industry until 1984, Hong Kong was known worldwide as a sweatshop that produced cheap garments, plastic toys and flowers and low-tech electronic goods and as a giant discount store for bargain hunters, because of its free port status.

Since 1984, however, thanks to the Sino-British Joint Declaration and above all to economic reform in China, Hong Kong has become integrated into China's booming economy, shaken off its old reputation, and is now a vibrant international financial service center -- a place every business wants to be at, if it can afford it.

This is why I just want to be there on June 30. To experience the sight and sound of the historic transition, to be among friends, relatives, and colleagues, and above all to see the lowering of the British flag which was raised there in 1842, following the defeat of China. Acting in the name of "free trade," the British decided to punish China for outlawing the lucrative dope traffic, instigated by British and American merchants. (China seized the British opium and burned it, much like the patriots dumped the imported tea into Boston harbor).

Cheering the British, John Quincy Adams accused China of being "anti-commercial," unneighborly, and violating the Christian precept "to love your neighbor as yourself" -- meaning free trade among equals. The Treaty of Nanking set the pattern for a series of unequal treaties which effectively reduced China to a semi-colony until 1949. While Western powers exploited China's resources, the average life span of Chinese hovered around 30.

Chinese throughout the world consider this a history of humiliation. In contrast, Western journalists, by and large, depict the transition as a human rights disaster -- a prosperous free city, built by the benevolent and ingenious British, being thrown over to the Chinese wolf.

The British departure in fact was a reluctant but inevitable surrender -- reluctant especially during the tenure of the last governor, Chris Patten, who tried in every way to extend colonial domination by institutionalizing what the British never entertained for one moment in more than 150 years -- British-style "democracy," a "bill of rights," and "human rights" for the 6.5 million Chinese in Hong Kong.

The majority of the people of Hong Kong sees this hypocrisy as an attempt to create division, something the British managed to do quite well in many former colonies.

In spite of British rule, the Chinese people in Hong Kong have accomplished a great deal. June 30 should be celebrated by people of good will throughout the world, not just Chinese, as a symbol of liberation not just from the British, but from a shameful history that began with the Opium War.