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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Tsang's history is authoritative and well-researched...From rock to great metropolis, the story storms along, full of heroes and villains, eccentrics and visionaries, bounders and buccaneers.' Chris Patten, New Statesman 'Steve Tsang's admirable A Modern History of Hong kong is clearly written, logically organised and sustains a tone of persuasive authority.' Wm Roger Louis, Kerr Professor at the University of Texas at Austin 'Having spent half his life in Hong Kong and half in the West, Mr Tsang is uniquely placed to write this book. He has produced what must be the definitive history of Hong Kong.' Contemporary Review 'This is a well constructed, thorough yet succinct history of Hong Kong. It should be on the shelf of everyone interested in the city. for the general reader, this will stimulate further interest. For the experts, enjoy Tsang's fine style.' Christine Loh, Civic Exchange 'A respected Oxford scholar brought up in Hong Kong, [Steve Tsang] has drawn on a vast array of sources, Chinese as well as British, to produce a thorough and well-crafted study which should appeal to the general reader as well as the specialist...For those who want to understand the importance of the territory's British legacy in its continuing success, Dr Tsang's study is likely to remain the best guide for some time to come.' Sir Robin McLaren, China Review
Product Description
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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is by far the best book on Hong Kong I have ever read. It is clearly written, balanced, and insightful. My family and I have lived in Hong Kong for years and it is nice to read a book that describes a place one knows well in beautifully written prose. It is fair about both the British and the local Chinese communities. When I read the chapter on the rise of a Hong Kong identity I know this is really good. It rings true. Most highly recommended.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A Modern History of Hong Kong presents a supremely well-balanced history of this former British imperial possession. Steve Tsang’s meticulously researched historical narrative duly recognizes the efforts of both Hong Kong’s industrious and civic-minded local Chinese population and the expatriate British who held the bulk of the administrative power over Hong Kong during its tenure as a crown colony. Tsang’s work demonstrates that Hong Kong’s ethnic Chinese inhabitants played an essential and dynamic role in the creation of the former colony in that they constituted its economic, industrial, and infrastructural workforce from the beginning, and came to develop their own unique Hong Kong identity as the population stabilized culturally but exploded in number in the decades following the Second World War. Tsang’s historical account never strays far from what students of Marxist theory would likely refer to as Hong Kong’s material conditions, in that the book portrays Hong Kong’s cultural development within the context of its economic and political circumstances. The work puts forth a history of Hong Kong in which the colony’s unique social and cultural characteristics were established as a result of the relatively minimalist legal and political framework that was provided by the British colonizers in order to ensure Hong Kong’s capitalistic success. Students of history, English, postcolonial studies, comparative literature, and other academic disciplines will find this book to be a fascinating primer for further studies into both Hong Kong’s history and the colonial and postcolonial initiatives of Britain and other Eurasian countries. General readers and academics alike who are interested in Hong Kong’s history will find Steve Tsang’s book to be a lively, entertaining, and fair treatment of the forces and events that led to the formation of this former colony and to the creation of its current identity as a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the best book on Hong Kong's history I have read. Insightful and well written. It demolishes some myths of Hong Kong's history and explains the forces behind its changes in easily accessible language. I strongly recommend it. The only 'complaint' I have is the size of the print. It is a bit small for my preference.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Recommended
A very enjoyable read, that gives a thorough account of the fascinating history of Hong Kong in a very readable style. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Uguisu
hong kong history
It really 9is a tragedy when o truly excellent book is turned into a disasterous presentational mess by an incompetent publisher. Read more
Published on 8 May 2010 by G. I. Forbes
Hong Kong Experience
I bought this book for my grandson. He has informed me that
the book is full of important information. Read more
the book is full of important information. Read more
Published on 24 April 2010 by Little Mo
History comes alive
Steve Tsang writes a balanced history of Hong Kong and brings it alive. I say balanced because he writes with clarity and truth about the British and the Chinese sides and what... Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2010 by G. E. Jerjian
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