After ruling Hong Kong for 155 years, what did the British leave behind when they withdrew at midnight on 30 June 1997? C. K. Lau answers this question for the lay reader. Whether you are a long-time resident or merely a newcomer to the territory, Hong Kong's Colonial Legacy promises to deepen your understanding of this Pearl of the Orient. Questions this book tackles include: (1) What is the attitude of Hong Kong Chinese towards British rule and the resumption of Chinese sovereignty? (2) Why have most of them failed to master English despite a century and a half of colonial rule? (3) What is the future of the common law after 1997? (4) What do Hong Kong's leaders mean by executive-led government? (5) What is Hong Kong's recipe for economic success? (6) What is the future of press freedom in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region?
Introduction: straddling the handover: colonialism and decolonization in British and PRC Hong Kong / Gary Chi-hung Luk -- Part I. British colonial legacies -- The Comprador System in nineteenth century Hong Kong / Kaori Abe -- Government and language in Hong Kong / Sonia Lam-Knott -- A ruling idea of the time? The rule of law in pre- and post-1997 Hong Kong / Carol A. G. Jones -- Part II. Hong Kong, Britain, and China(s) -- From Cold War warrior to moral guardian: film censorship in Hong Kong / Zardas Shuk-man Lee -- The roots of regionalism: water management in postwar Hong Kong / David Clayton -- Economic relations between the mainland and Hong Kong: an 'irreplaceable' financial center / Leo F. Goodstadt -- Part III. Decolonization, retrocession, and recolonization: new perspectives -- At the edge of empire: Eurasians, Portuguese and Baghdadi Jewish communities in British Hong Kong / Felicia Yap -- Reunification discourse in between Chinese nationalisms / Law Wing Sang -- From citizens back to subjects: constructing national belonging in Hong Kong's national education center / Kevin Carrico
When the British occupied the tiny island of Hong Kong during the First Opium War, the Chinese empire was well into its decline, while Great Britain was already in the second decade of its legendary "Imperial Century." From this collision of empires arose a city that continues to intrigue observers. Melding Chinese and Western influences, Hong Kong has long defied easy categorization. John M. Carroll's engrossing and accessible narrative explores the remarkable history of Hong Kong from the early 1800s through the post-1997 handover, when this former colony became a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The book explores Hong Kong as a place with a unique identity, yet also a crossroads where Chinese history, British colonial history, and world history intersect. Carroll concludes by exploring the legacies of colonial rule, the consequences of Hong Kong's reintegration with China, and significant developments and challenges since 1997.
This book critically reviews the British experience in Hong Kong with special emphasis on the tenure of the last governor, Chris Patten, and the discourse he used in guiding the transfer of sovereignty to China. While the People's Republic of China proclaimed the recovery of Hong Kong to be just retribution for a century and a half of national shame under British rule, Patten, as the spokesperson for the British, was concerned that Britain's exit from its last significant colony should be an honourable one.
This major history of Hong Kong tells the remarkable story of how a cluster of remote fishing villages grew into an icon of capitalism. The story began in 1842 with the founding of the Crown Colony after the First Anglo-Chinese war - the original 'Opium War'. As premier power in Europe and an expansionist empire, Britain first created in Hong Kong a major naval station and the principal base to open the Celestial Chinese Empire to trade. Working in parallel with the locals, the British built it up to become a focus for investment in the region and an international centre with global shipping, banking and financial interests. Yet by far the most momentous change in the history of this prosperous, capitalist colony was its return in 1997 to 'Mother China', the most powerful Communist state in the world.
Colonial legacies in knowledge production affect the way the world is represented and understood today. However, the subject is rarely attended. The book, Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Studies of China and Chineseness: Unlearning Binaries, Strategizing Self, is about the colonial construction of intellectual perspectives of the colonized population in terms of the latter's approach to China and Chineseness in the modern world. Relying on the available oral histories of senior China scholars primarily in Asia, authors from various postcolonial and colonial sites present these multiple routs of self-constitution and reconstitution through the use of China and Chineseness as category. The revealed manipulation of this third category, romantically as well as antagonistically, is easier than straightforward self-reflection for us all to accept that, coming to identities and relations, none, even subaltern, is politically innocent or capable of epistemological monopoly. Through comparative studies, it shows a way of self-understanding that does not always require discursive construction of border or cultural consumption of any specific 'other'.With US-China rivalry possibly lasting for decades, this book offers extremely rich and contrasting practices from the subaltern worlds for anyone in a quest for humanist alternatives. This interdisciplinary and transnational project contributes to post-colonial studies, cultural studies, international relations, China and Chinese studies, and the comparative histories of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
Meeting Place: Encounters across Cultures in Hong Kong, 1841–1984 presents detailed empirical studies of day-to-day interactions between people of different cultures in a variety of settings. The broad conclusion—that there was sustained and multilevel contact between men and women of different cultures—will challenge and complicate traditional historical understandings of Hong Kong as a city either of rigid segregation or of pervasive integration. Given its geographical location, its status as a free port, and its role as a center of migration, Hong Kong was an extraordinarily porous place. People of diverse cultures met and mingled here, often with unexpected results. The case studies in this book draw both on previously unused sources and on a rigorous rereading of familiar materials. They explore relationships between and within the Japanese, Eurasian, German, Portuguese, British, Chinese, and other communities in areas of activity that have often been overlooked—from the schoolroom and the family home to the courtroom and international trading concern, from the gardens of Government House to boarding houses for destitute sailors. In their diverse experiences we see not just East meeting West, but also East meeting East, and South meeting North—in fact, a range of complex and dynamic processes that seem to render obsolete any simplistic conception of “East meets West.” “Hong Kong’s people have too often been ignored in histories of this colonial port. This important volume restores them through a series of fascinating case studies of connections, collaborations, and conflicts across diverse cultures, languages, and interests. Here we have the bedroom, law court, restaurant, school, dockyard, and offices amongst the other places where Hong Kong’s history was really made.” —Robert Bickers, author of Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination “With richly researched studies of heretofore little-known aspects of Hong Kong society and history, Meeting Place offers perceptive insights into the city’s vital role as a focal point for the intersection of diverse cultures, social classes, institutions, and practices. Taking us far beyond the hackneyed stereotype of ‘East meets West,’ this volume provides a kaleidoscopic view of the rich multiplicity, multi-directionality, and hybridity of this global hub.” —Emma J. Teng, author of Eurasian: Mixed Identities in the United States, China, and Hong Kong, 1842–1943
In Edge of Empires, Carroll situates Hong Kong squarely within the framework of both Chinese and British colonial history, while exploring larger questions about the meaning and implications of colonialism in modern history.
With original case studies of a more than a dozen countries, Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia offers new perspectives on how both European monarchs who reigned over Asian colonies and Asian royal houses adapted to decolonisation. As colonies became independent states (and European countries, and other colonial powers, lost their overseas empires), monarchies faced the challenges of decolonisation, republicanism and radicalism. These studies place dynasties – both European and ‘native’ – at the centre of debate about decolonisation and the form of government of new states, from the sovereigns of Britain, the Netherlands and Japan to the maharajas of India, the sultans of the East Indies and the ‘white rajahs’ of Sarawak. It provides new understanding of the history of decolonisation and of the history of modern monarchy.
As a hybrid regime, Hong Kong has been governed by a state-business alliance since the colonial era. However, since the handover in 1997, the transformation of Hong Kong’s political and socio-economic environment has eroded the conditions that supported a viable state-business alliance. This state-business alliance, which was once a solution for Hong Kong’s governance, has now become a political burden, rather than a political asset, to the post-colonial Hong Kong state. This book presents a critical re-examination of the post-1997 governance crisis in Hong Kong under the Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang administrations. It shows that the state-business alliance has failed to function as an organizational machinery for supporting the post-colonial state, and has also served to generate new governance problems. Drawing upon contemporary theories on hybrid regimes and state capacity, this book looks beyond the existing opposition-centered explanations of Hong Kong’s governance crisis. By establishing the causal relationship between the failure of the state-business alliance and the governance crisis facing the post-colonial state, Brian C. H. Fong broadens our understanding of the governance problems and political confrontations in post-colonial Hong Kong. In turn, he posits that although the state-business alliance worked effectively for the colonial state in the past, it is now a major problem for the post-colonial state, and suggests that Hong Kong needs a realignment of a new governing coalition. Hong Kong’s Governance under Chinese Sovereignty will enrich and broaden the existing literature on Hong Kong’s public governance whilst casting new light on the territory’s political developments. As such, it will be welcomed by students and scholars interested in Chinese politics, Hong Kong politics, and governance.
