A day-to-day and week-to-week retelling of the events leading up to and during the 1967 riots, drawing heavily on declassified colonial government documents, newspaper articles, and interviews with officials and union leaders. Ultimately argues that the '67 "watershed" prompted the creation of a state-backed welfare system in Hong Kong under MacLehose as well as the emergence of a "local" sense of identity. Sufficiently entertaining if you have prior interest in Hong Kong during this time period specifically, some notable parallels can also be drawn to recent events.
According to the intro, very little has been written in the history books about the 1967 Hong Kong riots that led to greater social reform by the colonial government. This book aims to correct that – which it does, though not necessarily very well. Cheung is an experienced journalist, but not an experienced book writer, judging from this book. He tends to shoehorn in as many facts as he can, whenever he can, which results in a lot of tangential information getting in the way of the story. It also relies a little too much on the inflated political rhetoric and “he said/she said” testimony from both sides to tell the story instead of trying to cut through it and get to the truth. So it gets jumbled and repetitive at times. Which is too bad because Cheung has some great sources – he did lots of interviews with key players and gained access to previously classified government documents. So there’s a lot of good information here if yr willing to wade through it. And I did come away with a good idea of what generally happened and why. For anyone looking to build on the topic and produce something more definitive, this is a good place to start.
History repeat itself. 2019 has nothing to compare with 1967 of course. But we are supposed to have progress, isn't it? And this time feel much more long lasting, because we are under the thumb of Communist.
I don't mean the British-HK governmet was much better in 1967. They brutally cracked down any opposition. Ignore any human rights in the sense that an emergency law was passed that the government can contain any person without any reason for up to 1 year. FUCK! And they could raid any building without any warrant. Even Communist-HK police has not gone this far... yet.
But it is crazy to learnt that those nutjob could wave 'red Mao book' or even recite them without blushing or throwing off. And it is obvious to me now that this is the extension of the stupid Cultural revolution into HK. Those Leftist stupidly think PRC could take back HK right the way.
The UK-HK government was shamefully brutal in the crackdown. Tsang King-Shing, a 18-year old student was sent into prison for 2 years just because he gave out flyers!!! This is a SHAME!
It's an important history of Hong Kong but mostly not included in normal history book. To understand Hong Kong culture and history, this is a very good piece of work. I also read the Chinese edition, it also very nice.