SUMMARY |
The story of Hong Kong's social, political, and economic development is a remarkable Chinese-British chronicle. This book contains first-hand accounts of life and times in Hong Kong from before the Second World War to the end of its life as a colonial territory. Over six decades, Hong Kong has been transformed from a sleepy colonial backwater, to an overcrowded, refugee haven fraught with health and welfare problems, to a shining model of laissez -faire capitalism, with an exemplary public housing programme, a modicum of democracy, and a thriving, hybrid cultural life. The contributors to this book recall the important events along the rocky path to development, including the housing crisis of the 1950s, the 1967 anti- Government riots, the Sino-British talks of the 1980s, the effect on the Hong Kong people of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, and the contentious politics of the tra. |