Hong Kong and British culture, 1945-97

Studies in Imperialism

by Mark Hampton

This book examines the British cultural engagement with Hong Kong in the second half of the twentieth century. It shows how the territory fit unusually within Britain's decolonisation narratives and served as an occasional foil for examining Britain's own culture during a period of perceived stagnation and decline.

Drawing on a wide range of archival and published primary sources, Hong Kong and British culture, 1945-97 investigates such themes as Hong Kong as a site of unrestrained capitalism, modernisation, and good government, as well as an arena of male social and sexual opportunity. It also examines the ways in which Hong Kong Chinese embraced British culture, and the competing predictions that British observers made concerning the colony's return to Chinese sovereignty. An epilogue considers the enduring legacy of British colonialism.

This book will be essential reading for historians of Hong Kong, British decolonisation, and Britain's culture of declinism.

339 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[哈哈小姐]

This is a postwar cultural history of Hong Kong written from the perspective of a British expat. It gives good broad strokes on the cultural values that the British have planted in the colony (I.e, club culture, neo-Victorian non-interference economic system; racial consciousness; modernisation; law and order…) YET! it fails to unpack the ideological workings of these values by answering that why they are created and for what purposes. The first three chapters are much better than the latter half.