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A Borrowed Place: The History of Hong Kong
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About A Borrowed Place: The History Of Hong Kong
Product Description A sweeping history of Hong Kong, Britain's last colony, documents court intrigues of London and Peking, the heyday of the British Empire, economic development, its role as a refuge from mainland Chinese communism, and the 1997 return to Chinese sovereignty. From Publishers Weekly In this deeply researched but sterile history of the British crown colony, Welsh describes how Hong Kong became a trading and commercial center after its inception during the 1839-1842 Opium War and gives a straightforward account of the British entrepreneurs and their accumulation of wealth. The narrative is focused almost entirely on British rather than Chinese interests. Welsh chronicles periodic scandals involving the opium trade, prostitution, gambling and corruption that often led to quarrels between colonial governors, civil servants, goverment departments and the community. He describes conditions in the colony during the WW II Japanese military occupation and the postwar effect of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the 1989 massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Welsh predicts that the handover of Hong Kong to Beijing in 1997 will be accomplished without a serious hitch. "To any British government," he concludes, "Hong Kong will remain a peripheral concern." A former international banker, Welsh is the author of Building a Trireme. Photos. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Scholarly, understated, massive history of the Crown Colony, from Britisher and former international banker Welsh. Hong Kong has been a source of embarrassment to both Britain and China from the outset. British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston sacked the envoy who negotiated the island's cession- -and, ever since, the colony has irritated Whitehall with scandals over drugs, prostitution, corruption, and, now, this dreary hand- over business. On China's end, it's the principle of the thing, a scar symbolic of a great wound. Here, Welsh covers events large and small. In 1854, he tells us, Hong Kong Governor Sir John Bowring precipitated a second Anglo-Chinese war, and, through his efforts, China was opened up to European travelers, missionaries, and traders. In 1894, plague struck, causing Governor Sir William Robinson to observe that the Chinese died ``like sheep,'' since they were ``educated to unsanitary habits...accustomed from infancy to herd together''--but Hong Kong survived to see the British accept a 99-year lease in 1898. The 1960's were the golden years of economic freedom, but, even though the populace prospered, hundreds of thousands suffered wretched temporary living conditions--such as sleeping in cardboard boxes near the Star Ferry terminal and even in wire cages at Mongkok. The events of 1972--when Hong Kong's future was decided by Britain and China--are still shrouded in a secrecy that Welsh doesn't dispel, stating only that some feel that if Britain hadn't approached China, China would have let matters lie because Hong Kong was too valuable a trading partner to lose. Welsh doesn't bring history to life so much as recite details, and even the fascinating characters and events that stipple his pages don't add much color. (For a livelier look at the island- colony, see Gerald Segal's The Fate of Hong Kong, p. 921.) (Sixteen pages of b&w illustrations--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
