Hong Kong: Migrant Lives, Landscapes, and Journeys
Caroline Knowles and Douglas Harper
Abstract
In 1997 the United Kingdom returned control of Hong Kong to China, ending the city's status as one of the last remnants of the British Empire and initiating a new phase for it as both a modern city and a hub for global migrations. This book is a tour of the city's postcolonial urban landscape, innovatively told through fieldwork and photography. This book's point of entry into Hong Kong is the unusual position of the British expatriates who chose to remain in the city after the transition. Now a relatively insignificant presence, British migrants in Hong Kong have become intimately connected w ... More
In 1997 the United Kingdom returned control of Hong Kong to China, ending the city's status as one of the last remnants of the British Empire and initiating a new phase for it as both a modern city and a hub for global migrations. This book is a tour of the city's postcolonial urban landscape, innovatively told through fieldwork and photography. This book's point of entry into Hong Kong is the unusual position of the British expatriates who chose to remain in the city after the transition. Now a relatively insignificant presence, British migrants in Hong Kong have become intimately connected with another small minority group there: immigrants from Southeast Asia. The lives, journeys, and stories of these two groups bring to life a place where the past continues to resonate for all its residents, even as the city hurtles forward into a future marked by transience and transition. By blending ethnographic and visual approaches, this book offers a fascinating guide to a city that is at once unique in its recent history and exemplary of our globalized present.
Keywords:
Hong Kong,
United Kingdom,
China,
British Empire,
global migration,
urban landscape,
British migrants,
Southeast Asia
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226448565 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: February 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226448589.001.0001 |
