Hong Kong
Douban
Migrant Lives, Landscapes, and Journeys
Caroline Knowles / Douglas Harper
Overview
In 1997 the United Kingdom returned control of Hong Kong to China, ending the city’s status as one of the last remnants of the British Empire and initiating a new phase for it as both a modern city and a hub for global migrations. Hong Kong is a tour of the city’s postcolonial urban landscape, innovatively told through fieldwork and photography.
Caroline Knowles and Douglas Harper’s point of entry into Hong Kong is the unusual position of the British expatriates who chose to remain in the city after the transition. Now a relatively insignificant presence, British migrants in Hong Kong have become intimately connected with another small minority group there: immigrants from Southeast Asia. The lives, journeys, and stories of these two groups bring to life a place where the past continues to resonate for all its residents, even as the city hurtles forward into a future marked by transience and transition. By skillfully blending ethnographic and visual approaches, Hong Kong offers a fascinating guide to a city that is at once unique in its recent history and exemplary of our globalized present.
contents
Acknowledgements
Prologue
BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS
Arriving in Hong Kong
Framing Migration
Framing Migrants
Framing Hong Kong Chineseness
Framing Whiteness
Framing Empire and After
Framing the Investigation
Arranging the Dead
Soldiering On
Drying the Flag
MAKING NEW LIVES
An Ordinary Life(style)
Day-trip to Shenzhen
Inside the Expatriate Bubble
Fabricating the City
Moving On
THE ENGLISH BUSINESS
The Schools and Language Game
Trading Places
OLD CHINA HANDS
Riding the Waves
Managing Dis/Location
Island Life
"Britain Saddens Me"
Lifestyle Migration
The Baby
WORKING GLOBAL SYSTEMS
Corporate Lives/Wives
The United States and the Matrix of Global Dominance
"Choosers and Loosers"
Chungking Mansions
Central Kowloon Mosque
Indian Food
LIFE AT THE TOP
The Peak
Ladies Who Lunch
Tea?
SERVICE
Serving-Class Migrants
Living inside Others' Lives
Sundays in Statue Square
Relationships in the Philippines
Routes Out
BOYS' NIGHT OUT
Night and Day in Wanchai
Wanchai Warriors
The "Girlies"
CLUBBING
Club Scenes
United Services Recreation Club
Poolside with the Vicars's Wife
Poolside with the Diver
"It's time to pack up and go home"
Kowloon Cricket Club
ON PATROL
MIGRATION REVISITED
ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS
Bringing it All Back Home
Joyce
Notes
Index