HONG KONG: Borrowed Place--Borrowed Time

by Richard Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1968

The subtitle is borrowed--from Hah Suyin--but the outlook is independent in this brief overview of Hong Kong as it is, was, and may be. Politically neuter, ""an impudent capitalist survival on China's communist derriere,"" Hong Kong even in violence has been notably free of subversion: the 1967 riots were the first in which Mao's name and image were evoked. Mr. Hughes describes the ""anachronistic mixture of British colonialism, and the Chinese way of life,"" looks back to the era of the taipans and the Opium Wars, ahead to Hong Kong's future. In 1997 the colony and the New, Territories revert to China; there is time to influence to build on the Hong Kong Chinese preference for colonial conditions rather than the Communist way of life. ""The real, final and only question"" is: how much is Hong Kong worth? and to whom? Mr. Hughes' gallery of sister cities (Shanghai, Singapore, Macao) gives some perspectives on possibilities; his open-ended study is alert, informative.

Pub Date: March 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Praeger

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION