HONG KONGS HISTORY
Hong Kongs History offers a new perspective on British colonialism in Hong Kong. Challenging the mainstream view that British rule transformed a barely inhabited fishing port on the South China coast to a capitalist metropolis, the book shows that the development of the colony owed very little to the good policies of the colonial state, but was shaped by the actions of, amongst others, the ruling lite, business class, compradors, rural interests, social activists and marginalized groups in their struggle for domination, manipulation of conflicts, as well as in collaboration and compromise.
Rewriting history from the bottom up, the chapters investigate hitherto obscured areas of Hong Kongs history such as Chinese collaboration with the colonial regime, legal discrimination and intimidation, rural politics, social movements, government-business relations, industrial policy, flexible manufacturing and colonial historiography. Each chapter shows, from its own special focus, that the nature of British colonial rule was neither benevolent nor indirect. By highlighting the roles played by a variety of social actors in Hong Kongs history, the volume captures the continuity and change of Hong Kongs development from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
This book is an important contribution to the study of Hong Kong history, differing both from recent celebrations of British colonialism and anti-colonial Chinese nationalism. It contains contributions from historians, sociologists and political scientists, based on new materials uncovered by court cases, colonial archives, government reports, unofficial documents and ethnographic fieldwork. By looking at state-society relations in colonial Hong Kong in a new light, this volume will set the agenda for future research in this field.
Tak-Wing Ngo is Lecturer in Chinese Politics at Leiden University, and currently Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the co-editor of The Cultural Construction of Politics in Asia.
ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN ASIAS TRANSFORMATIONS
Edited by Mark Selden, Binghamton and Cornell Universities
The books in this series explore the political, social, economic and cultural consequences of Asias twentieth century transformations and look towards their impact on the twenty-first century. The series emphasizes the tumultuous interplay of local, national, regional and global forces as Asia bids to become the hub of the world economy. While focusing on the contemporary, it also looks back to analyse the antecedents of Asias contested rise.
This series comprises two strands:
Asias Transformations aims to address the needs of students and teachers as well as scholars, and the titles will be published in hardback and paperback. Titles include:
1. DEBATING HUMAN RIGHTS
Critical essays from the United States and Asia
Edited by Peter Va n Ness
2. HONG KONGS HISTORY
State and society under colonial rule
Edited by Tak-Wing Ngo
Routledge Studies in Asias Transformations is a forum for innovative new research intended for a high-level specialist readership, and the titles will be available in hardback only. Titles include:
1. THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF JAPAN AND OKINAWA
Literature and memory
Michael Molasky
First published 1999 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
1999 Edited by Tak-Wing Ngo
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hong Kongs History: state and society under colonial rule/edited by Tak-Wing Ngo
p. cm.(Asias transformations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Hong Kong (China)History. 2. Hong Kong (China)Social conditions. 3. Hong Kong (China)Politics and government. 4. Great BritainColoniesAdministration.
I. Ngo, Tak-Wing. II. Series.
DS796.H757H663 1999
951.25dc21 9911838
CIP
ISBN 0-203-01202-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-21067-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0415203058 (hbk)
ISBN 0415208688 (pbk)
LIST OF TABLES
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
John M.Carroll is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.
Stephen W.K.Chiu is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Alex H.Choi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Studies at Queens University, Kingston, Ont., Canada.
Ho-fung Hung is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University, United States.
Kim-Ming Lee is a Lecturer in the Division of Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Tai-lok Lui is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Christopher Munn holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Toronto.
Tak-Wing Ngo is Lecturer in Chinese Politics at Leiden University and currently a Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hui Po-keung is Assistant Professor in the Department of Translation, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
PREFACE
This book offers neither a conventional account of the history of colonial administration in Hong Kong nor a linear prescription of Hong Kongs development from a barren fishing port to a modern capitalist metropolis. Rather it sets to unveil aspects of state-society relations that are hitherto obscured in Hong Kongs history.
With the transfer to Chinese rule on 1 July 1997, most recent publications on Hong Kong focus on the problem of the transition. A few revisit the historical background leading to the issue of 1997, but typically without questioning the conventional account about the colonial past. The present volume calls into question two underlying assumptions of the dominant scholarship. The first is the one-dimensional view that reduces complex and multi-faceted dimensions of colonial rule to the story of a benevolent colonial state exercising indirect rule over an apathetic society. The second is the static view of colonial rule that slights the agency of such diverse actors as the ruling lite, business classes, compradors, rural interests, social activists, marginalized groups, etc. in shaping colonial rule in Hong Kong.
In response to these problematic assumptions, this book presents an empirically and historically rooted account of state-society relations in the making of colonial Hong Kong that differs from recent celebrations of British colonialism and anti-colonial Chinese nationalism. By highlighting the roles played by a variety of social actors in their struggle for domination, manipulation of conflicts, and collaboration and compromise, the present volume seeks to appraise Hong Kong history from the bottom up.
