A Modern History of Hong Kong

Contemporary Review, Oct, 2004

A Modern History of Hong Kong. Steve Tsang. I.B. Tauris. [pounds sterling]35.00 (US$59.50). xii 340 pages. ISBN 1-86064-184-9. As the author points out, the history of Hong Kong fascinates not just because of its phenomenal economic growth but because British rule gave the colony 'as good a government as possible in the Chinese political tradition', that is, government by laws in the formulation of which the majority did not participate.

British rule also created a colony that had and has still more in common with London or New York than with China itself. Finally, Britain gave Hong Kong an independent judiciary based on impartial law: something alien to China. This history sets out to be fair to all concerned, to eschew 'political correctness' (i.e. anti-British bias) and simply to explain how modern Hong Kong came into being. In addition to a great deal of research the author has interviewed more than forty former members of the Colonial government. He begins his survey in the 1840s and carries it to the end of colonial government in 1997. 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.