Land And The Ruling Class In Hong Kong
by Alice Poon
It discusses how the land system in Hong Kong, inherited from the British, has helped to create unrivaled wealth for the ruling class and how the lack of competition law has encouraged industrial and economic concentration in these same entities. Arguing that the land system, industrial concentration, and phenomenal wealth imbalance have given rise to a host of social and economic ills, the concise analysis concludes by offering solutions to heal Hong Kong of these problems. This Edition was rated as Editor's Choice: Scholarly in September/October 2007 by Canadian Book Review Annual.
In July 2010 a Chinese edition of the title - "地產霸權" - was co-published by Enrich Publishing Ltd. and Hong Kong Economic Journal Co. Ltd. (ISBN 9789881921871). Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly) voted it as ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS (NON-FICTION)IN GREATER CHINA FOR 2010. It also won the 4th Year Hong Kong Book Prize in June 2011.
In January 2011 Enrich Professional Publishing (S) Private Ltd. published a thoroughly revised and updated Second English Edition with the addition of a new chapter (ISBN 9789814339100).
Bright Lights and White Nights
by Andrew Carter
At first, moving east appears an inspired decision for Troy. But things take a disastrous turn. He inadvertently becomes embroiled in a debauched adventure, involving the players and oddballs of Hong Kong’s cocaine underworld … and a police informant against his will.
“In his debut novel, Andrew Carter serves up a well-crafted cautionary tale that penetrates Hong Kong’s glitzy surface and explores a darker side of expat life.”
– Peter Gregoire, prize-winning author of best-selling thrillers, Article 109 and The Devil You Know.
Eating Smoke: One Man's Descent Into Crystal Meth Psychosis in Hong Kong's Triad Heartland
(Eating Smoke #1)
by Chris Thrall
Chris Thrall left the Royal Marines to find fortune in Hong Kong, but following a bizarre series of jobs ended up homeless and in psychosis from crystal meth.
He began working for the 14K, a notorious crime syndicate, as a nightclub doorman in the Wan Chai red-light district, where he uncovered a vast global conspiracy and the 'Foreign Triad' - a secretive expat clique in cahoots with the Chinese gangs.
Alone and confused in the neon glare of Hong Kong's seedy backstreets, Chris was forced to survive in the world's most unforgiving city, hooked on the world's most dangerous drug.
Engaging, honest and full of Chris's irrepressible humour, this remarkable memoir combines gripping storytelling with brooding menace as the Triads begin to cast their shadow over him. The result is a truly psychotic urban nightmare ...
Sheriff of WAN Chai: How an Englishman Helped Govern Hong Kong in Its Last Decades as a British Colony
by Peter Mann
In 1976, Peter Mann left a gloomy England for the last corner of the British empire: Hong Kong. As a police inspector, he commanded a sub-unit and led a district vice squad in Kowloon, before joining the colonial government s Administrative Service and working in the fields of transport, housing, security, environment and tourism. He also served as District Officer for Wan Chai. From raids on gambling dens to organising Governors visits, his work involved him in all levels of Hong Kong society. Mann s memoir is an anecdotal, historical and racy account of Hong Kong s last decades as a British colony and the colourful story of a young Englishman in the twilight of empire."
Diamond Hill: Memories of growing up in a Hong Kong squatter village
by Feng Chi-Shun
"Diamond Hill was one of the poorest and most backward of villages in Hong Kong at a time when Hong Kong itself was poor and backward. We moved there in 1956 when I was almost 10. I left in 1966 when I was 19. Those were the formative years of my life. It’s a time that I remember well and cherish."
This memoir of a native son of a Kowloon-side squatter village – the first book ever on Diamond Hill, in either Chinese or English – presents the early days of a life shaped by a now-extinct community. Penned by a high-achieving Hong Kong professional, Feng Chi-shun’s sharp recollections of his humble upbringing contain warmth, humour, and an abundance of insights into a low-income Hong Kong neighbourhood that no longer exists – but remains close to the hearts of many who lived there.
Diamond Hill will invite comparisons with Martin Booth's 2004 hit Gweilo. If you enjoyed the latter, you will likely find the former similarly absorbing, because the young Feng was, for many a “gweilo”, the inaccessible yet intriguing face of an altogether edgier Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Noir
by Feng Chi-Shun
Hong Kong pathologist Feng Chi-shun was once part-owner of a dive bar in Kowloon City: a rough part of town which was home to the Sun Yee On triad gang. During that time, he heard a lot of stories.
How about the street sleeper who was a secret millionaire, or the man who chose to end it all in Chungking Mansions? Do you want to know the details of Kowloon's gruesome Hello Kitty murder, or what the taxi driver from hell did to his passengers? How about Elvis of the Orient, the ancient movie star who fooled hundreds of people for his final performance, or the student who stumbled into the 1967 riots and entered the world of girlie bars? And what was the truth about the girl with the eagle tattoo?
The 15 stories in Hong Kong Noir offer a glimpse of what happens in the shadows.
No City for Slow Men: Hong Kong's quirks and quandaries laid bare
by Jason Y. Ng
Author and popular blogger Jason Y. Ng has a knack for making the familiar both fascinating and achingly funny. Three years after his bestselling début HONG KONG State of Mind, the razor-sharp observer returns with a sequel that is bigger and every bit as poignant.
No City for Slow Men is a collection of 36 essays that examine some of the pressing social, cultural and existential issues facing Hong Kong. It takes us on a tour de force from the gravity-defying property market to the plunging depths of old age poverty, from the storied streets of Sheung Wan to the beckoning island of Cheung Chau, from the culture-shocked Western expat to the misunderstood Mainland Chinese and the disenfranchised foreign domestic worker. The result is a treatise on Hong Kong life that is thought-provoking, touching and immensely entertaining.
Not The Slightest Chance: The Defence Of Hong Kong, 1941
by Tony Banham
"Not the slightest chance" was Winston Churchill's April 1941 estimate of Hong Kong's prospects in the face of a Japanese assault. When in December the attack came, his prediction proved sadly accurate in just 18 days of brutal and confused fighting. In this book, Tony Banham tells the story of the battle hour-by-hour, remarkably at the level of the individual participants. As he names individuals and describes their fates, so he presents a uniquely human view of the fighting and gives a compelling sense of the chaos and cost of battle.
More than 10% of Hong Kong's defenders were killed in battle; a further 20% died in captivity. Those who survived seldom spoke of their experiences. Many died young. The little 'primary' material surviving--written in POW camps or years after the events--is contradictory and muddled. Yet with just 14,000 defending the Colony, it was possible to write from the individual's point of view rather than that of the Big Battalions so favoured by God (according to Napoleon) and most historians.The book assembles a phase-by-phase, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and death-by-death account of the battle. It considers the individual actions that made up the fighting, as well as the strategies and plans and the many controversies that arose.
Not the Slightest Chance will be of interest to military historians, Hong Kong residents and visitors, and those in the UK, Canada, and elsewhere whose family members fought, or were interned, in Hong Kong during the war years.
HONG KONG State of Mind: 37 Views of a City That Doesn't Blink
by Jason Y. Ng
Hong Kong is a mixed bag of a city. It is where Mercedes outnumber taxi cabs, party-goers count down to Christmas every December 24, and larger-than-life billboards of fortune tellers and cram school tutors compete with breathtaking skylines.
HONG KONG State of Mind is a collection of essays by a popular blogger who zeroes in on the city’s idiosyncrasies with deadpan precision. At once an outsider looking in and an insider looking out, Jason Y. Ng has created something for everyone: a travel journal for the passing visitor, a user’s manual for the wide-eyed expat, and an open diary for the native Hong Konger looking for moments of reflection.
Together with No City For Slow Men (2013) and Umbrellas in Bloom (2016), HONG KONG State of Mind forms Ng’s "Hong Kong Trilogy" that traces the city’s sociopolitical developments since its return to Chinese rule.
The Heritage Hiker's Guide to Hong Kong
by Pete Spurrier
In terms of Chinese dynasties, Hong Kong's history has been short - but its tale has been told by a cosmopolitan cast of traders and taipans, adventurers and assassins, refugees and revolutionaries. And despite the city's pace of change, traces of this colourful past can still be found.
Let this walking guide show you the way. Hidden behind Hong Kong's modern facade, there are wartime tunnels, backstreet shophouses, ancient shrines and colonial forts - and there's a story to each one. With clear maps and archive photography, this book will lead you on your own explorations of Hong Kong's heritage.
The Tiger Hunters of Tai O
by John Saeki
Hong Kong, 1954. The British colony was not yet ready to hear about a Eurasian policeman having an affair with the police commissioner's daughter. Simon Lee tasted swift punishment. He was banished to the far tip of a wild and distant island a stone's throw from Chinese waters - to Tai O, the ancient trading post where fishermen, salt-farmers and refugees were thrown together with spies, pirates and Triads. Dolphins swam the waters, eagles fished the sea, and some still believed that a tiger prowled the hills at night. It was a place haunted by history, where corpses had floated in the bay when Japanese troops occupied the police station, and everybody had a secret about what they did during the war. Life was unpredictable for the band of misfits that staffed Tai O Police Station. But when a stranger was murdered on a beach, accused of being a Communist spy, Lee found himself on a collision course with his masters in Central. Who had the dead man been working for? What did the secret agents know? Why was Central so eager to brush the execution aside? And who or what really was the 'tiger'?
Poverty in the Midst of Affluence: How Hong Kong Mismanaged Its Prosperity
by Leo F. Goodstadt 顧汝德
Hong Kong is among the richest cities in the world. Yet over the past 15 years, living conditions for the average family have deteriorated despite a robust economy, ample budget surpluses and record labour productivity. Successive governments have been reluctant to invest in services for the elderly, the disabled, the long-term sick, and the poor, while education has become more elitist. The political system has helped to entrench a mistaken consensus that social spending is a threat to financial stability and economic prosperity. In this trenchant attack on government mismanagement, Leo Goodstadt traces how officials have created a ‘new poverty’ in Hong Kong and argues that their misguided policies are both a legacy of the colonial era and a deliberate choice by modern governments, and not the result of economic crises. This provocative book will be essential reading for anyone wishing to understand why poverty returned to Hong Kong in this century.
Leo F. Goodstadt is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Hong Kong and was head of the Hong Kong government’s Central Policy Unit from 1989 to 1997.
‘In this meticulously researched study of the causes and the course of worsening poverty amid growing affluence in Hong Kong, Leo Goodstadt has identified the New Poor as those made vulnerable through diminishing access to essential services and opportunities. The culprits are misguided policies, and the callous and uncaring decisions of those in power. This compelling critique carries weight and demands a response.’
—Christine Fang, Chief Executive of The Hong Kong Council of Social Service
‘In this last volume in his series on Hong Kong’s economic, social, and political development, Goodstadt has again given us a most timely intervention in policy discussion and public debate. This is a critical reflection on Hong Kong’s path of social development and a most discerning analysis of the Third World mentality espoused by the government and the business community in the area of social welfare.’
—Lui Tai-lok, Professor of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong
‘Welfare spending was like “pouring sand into the sea to reclaim land”, thought one Chief Executive. Governments restrained social spending based on that skewed view. Quality education was privatised through the direct subsidy scheme, putting social mobility and hope beyond the reach of many. This book is meticulously researched and painfully insightful. It is a masterly chronicle of Hong Kong’s social welfare poliy.’
—Anna Wu, Non-Official Member of the Executive Council, HKSAR