In January 1980, a young police officer named John MacLennan committed suicide in his Ho Man Tin flat. His death came mere hours before he was to be arrested for committing homosexual acts still, at t
BY 1945, EVERYWHERE ONE LOOKED IN THE FAR EAST THE BRITISH EMPIRE WAS BEING OPENLY QUESTIONED OR WAS FAILING OUTRIGHT. YET IN THE PREVIOUS CENTURY, THE BRITISH HAD BEEN THE PRE-EMINENT IMPERIAL POWER
This book is an attempt to clarify the history of San On County ― the broader Hong Kong area ― centring on the troubled years of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is based on an in-depth stu
Land was always at the center of life in Hong Kong's rural New Territories: it sustained livelihoods and lineages and, for some, was a route to power. During imperial times villagers managed their lan
Many words have been used to describe John Pope Hennessy, the former governor of Hong Kong. “Controversial” is perhaps the briefest way to outline his character. Yet we may be guilty of ascribing mode
This book is a history of village communities in the New Territories of Hong Kong, including those in the areas of Ha Tsuen, Hung Shui Kiu, and Sha Tin as well as those on the islands of Lamma, Ma Wan
While Hong Kong's spectacular economic growth and political development have been well documented, the social and cultural lives of the ordinary people swept up in the changes have not found a signifi
Living most of his adult life as an official in the Chinese Imperial Customs Service, Charles Brewitt-Taylor also achieved distinction as a scholar of Chinese. He prepared a masterly translation of th
The Peak is Hong Kong's top residential district, where property prices are as high as the altitude. How did it become an exclusive enclave in the business centre of 19th-century Asia? The British wan
Hong Kong, 1918. Tranquil compared to war-torn Europe. But on January 22nd, a running battle through the streets of Wanchai ended with five policemen dead.One of the men came from a small town in Irel
Offerings of various kinds –food, incense, paper money and figures –have been central to Chinese culture for millennia, and as a public, visual display of spiritual belief, they are still
New research on the history of public housing and squatting in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong Public and Squatter Housing, Alan Smart and Fung Chi Keung Charles trace the development of squatting in Hong Kong from 1963 to 1985. The authors reconstruct government policy on squatting through both ethnographic and archival research. This book sheds new light on the consequences of various attempts to control encroachment on scarce urban space. The authors argue that intersecting policy agendas resulted in decisions that were often not desired, but which emerged as practical solutions from prior failures. They address the challenges of explaining confidential policy decisions and offer new approaches applicable in other contexts. Overall, this book makes an important contribution to the understanding of how public housing and squatting interacted in influential ways that have been poorly understood and offer new perspectives on the challenges of urban governance and housing problems.
