ONE of the last pillars of the British colonial establishment, the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, is set to join the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Hong Kong Golf Club in dropping the word "Royal" from its name before communist China takes over the territory on July 1st.
While bowing to the inevitable, the move is also seen by many as symptomatic of an extraordinary phenomenon the Americanisation of Hong Kong as the day of the Chinese takeover approaches.
Many of the rich and influential members of the top clubs in Hong Kong now have American rather than British business links, and American is fast replacing British as the secondary culture in the city of six million Chinese.
The 3,000 members of the prestigious yacht club, who twice last year voted against dropping the word "Royal" - a right granted by Queen Victoria in 1894 and treasured by many yacht club loyalists - are to meet again to reconsider the move next month, following a meeting at the club yesterday.
Some members expressed fears that retaining sentimental links with the colonial era might discourage the Chinese Navy from rendering emergency assistance to members in trouble. The patron of the club, Queen Elizabeth, is also likely to be dropped before July 1st. The post is traditionally held by the Head of State, who after the handover will be President Jiang Zemin of China.
Its vice patron, currently the Governor, Mr Chris Patten, will almost certainly be replaced by Hong Kong's chief executive designate, Mr Tung Chee hwa.
Mr Tung, in common with the new generation of Chinese executives and financial brokers in Hong Kong, is more familiar with American than British lifestyles. He worked for 10 years in the US, maintains a home in California and sent his children to Princeton.
In 1996, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, for 100 years a bastion of colonialism, appointed an American Ford Motor Company executive, Mr Larry Wong, as its chief executive. It not only dropped the "Royal" but insisted that in future the people who placed bets should be known as "players", as in the US, rather than British "punters".
Basketball is replacing soccer as the most popular sport of teenagers, and the top civil servants training programme has been moved from Oxford University to the University of Michigan. Americans now outnumber the British in" Hong Kong by 34,000 to 27,000.
US investment in Hong Kong rose 30 per cent in the last three years and nine of the territory's top advertising companies are now American, according to a survey conducted by Newsweek magazine.
Many of Hong Kong's overtly colonial street names are expected to go after the handover, such as Elgin Street, named after James Bruce, Earl of Elgin, who led the Anglo French army which marched on Beijing during the Opium War of 1856-1860.
The crowned badges of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force will be replaced at a cost of 20 million Hong Kong dollars (£1.7 million) and like the old blazers and crests of the once royal clubs will become "collectables" in the post handover period. The Post Office has already received bids as high as HK$30,000 (£2,500) for pillar boxes bearing the GR of King George V.