The Making of Hong Kong
by Vaudine England
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2023
368 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
A timely, well-researched, and vibrant new history of Hong Kong that reveals the untold stories of the diverse peoples who have made it a multicultural world metropolis—and whose freedoms are endangered today.
Hong Kong has always been many cities to many people: a seaport, a gateway to an empire, a place where fortunes can be dramatically made or lost, a place to disappear and reinvent oneself, and a mixing pot of diverse populations from literally everywhere around the globe. A British Crown Colony for 155 years, Hong Kong is now ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. Here, renowned journalist Vaudine England delves into Hong Kong's complex history and its people—diverse, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan—who have made this one-time fishing village into the world port city it is today.
Rather than a traditional history describing a town led by British Governors or a mere offshoot of a collapsing Chinese empire, Fortune's Bazaar is the first thorough examination of the varied peoples who made Hong Kong. While British traders and Asian merchants had long been busy in the Indian and South East Asian seas, there were many from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds who arrived in Hong Kong, met and married—despite all taboos—and created a distinct community. Many of Hong Kong's most influential figures during its first century as a city were neither British nor Chinese—they were Malay or Indian, Jewish or Armenian, Parsi or Portuguese, Eurasian or Chindian—or simply, Hong Kongers. England describes those overlooked in history including the opium-traders who built synagogues or churches, ship-owners carrying gold-rush migrants, property tycoons, and more. Here, too, is the visionary who plumbed Hong Kong's harbor depths to spur reclamation, the half-Dutch Chinese gentleman with two wives who was knighted by Queen Victoria, and the landscape gardeners who settled Kowloon and became millionaires.
A story of empire, race, and sex, Fortune's Bazaar combines deep archival research and oral history to present a vivid history of a special place—a unique city made by diverse people of the world, whose part in its creation has never been properly told until now.
"Extensively researched and accessibly written, this is a winning portrait of Hong Kong's vibrant mosaic." —Publishers Weekly
"[With] deep research, an ambitious swath of Hong Kong social history, notable for particular insights about Eurasian entrepreneurs and dynasties." —Kirkus Reviews
"A formidable and important work of historical scholarship... . England has a fluent, vigorous prose style... . Even people who have read just about everything there is to read about Hong Kong will find their own outlook overturned by this excellent book." —The Correspondent
"At last: a lively and carefully researched page turner about the individuals and social forces that have made Hong Kong the dynamic (and quirky) place it is." —Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief, Harvard Business Review, and former Wall Street Journal Bureau Chief in Beijing
"If you love Hong Kong and have lost her, as have I, Vaudine England's marvelous account of the 'in-between people,' who made it the remarkable place it was, will fill you with wonder, understanding, and a sadness for a place—and an idea—that no longer exists." —Richard Hornik, former Time Bureau Chief in Beijing and Hong Kong
"As a history of Hong Kong, not just as a British colony, or an exotic Chinese enclave, but as a cosmopolitan city of many creeds and races, Asian and European, Vaudine England's book is unsurpassed. Her take on the so-called Eurasians, who have played such a large part in Hong Kong's history, is fresh and essential to a better understanding of this unique place." —Ian Buruma
"Hong Kong is not just about the Chinese and the British but also about all the in-between people who helped build the city and made it their home. In this wonderfully quixotic and deeply researched history, Vaudine England has delved into Hong Kong's history to bring to life the Eurasians, Armenians, Portuguese, Parsis, Muslims, Jews, and others who have played such a crucial role since 1841 in making it a commercial and cultural hub in east Asia." —Victor Mallet, former Asia editor, Financial Times, and author of The Trouble with Tigers: The Rise and Fall of South-East Asia
"Vivid, atmospheric, packed with brilliant story-telling, Vaudine England brings to life the boiling pot of race, culture, and ambition that made Hong Kong one of the world's great cities. Within this compelling read, Fortune's Bazaar boldly explodes the myth that Hong Kong is 'just another Chinese city.' Not at all, England gives us the story of the visionary, deal-making, itinerant Eurasian elite who created this unique, international place that is Hong Kong." —Humphrey Hawksley, former BBC Beijing, Hong Kong and Asia correspondent, and author of Dragon Strike: The Millennium War
This information about Fortune's Bazaar was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Vaudine England has been a journalist in Hong Kong and South East Asia for years. As a historian, she has focused on the diverse personalities and peoples that have gone into making Hong Kong a cosmopolitan Asian metropolis. She is the author of The Quest of Noel Croucher: Hong Kong's Quiet Philanthropist as well as several privately published works of Hong Kong history and biography.
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