Description
For decades, Hong Kong has maintained precarious freedom at the edge of competing world powers. In City on the Edge, Ho-fung Hung offers a timely and engaging account of Hong Kong's development from precolonial times to the present, with particular focus on the post 1997 handover period. Through careful analysis of vast economic data, a myriad of political events, and intricate networks of actors and ideas, Hung offers readers insight into the fraught economic, political, and social forces that led to the 2019 uprising, while situating the protests in the context of global finance and the geopolitics of the US-China rivalry. A provocative contribution to the discussion on Hong Kong's position in today's world, City on the Edge demonstrates that the resistance and repression of 2019-2020 does not spell the end of Hong Kong but the beginning of a long conflict with global repercussions.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; 2. At Empires' Edge, 1197–1997; Part I. Capital: 3. The Making of China's Offshore Financial Center; 4. Mainlandization of Business Monopoly; Part II. Empire: 5. 'One Country, Two Systems' Before Hong Kong; 6. From Autonomy to Coercive Assimilation; Part III. Resistance: 7. The Class Politics of Democratic Movement; 8. Hong Kong as a Political Consciousness; 9. Conclusion: Endgame or New Beginning?
