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GEB1305 China and the World - Lecture 5 複製
GEB1305 China and the World - Lecture 5 複製
GEB1305 China and the World - Lecture 5 複製
Lecture 5
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Lecture Outline
1. Introduction – Historical Background
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Historical Background
Britain’s Last Colony
• Colonial acquisition of HK: for economic reason
• Important times:
• 1911: Establishment of Republic of China in 1911 => the government was not strong/powerful
enough to reclaim HK => Japanese invasion & civil war 1949
• In 1979, China rejected any ‘lease renewal’ or extension of British sovereignty after 1997
• The Sino-British Joint Declaration (中英聯合聲明) of 1984: confirmed return of the sovereignty
to China 5
Deng Xiaping’s Constitutional Principle for HK
• ‘Existing way of life will remain unchanged for another 50 years’ (生活方式五十年
不變)
• ‘A high degree of autonomy’ (高度自治) for Hong Kong, and above all to meet the
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Accumulation of Wealth of the Chinese Merchants
Entrepot
export to Southeast Asia : Chinese products such as silk, herbal medicines, peanuts
http://lib.hku.hk/general/research/guides/oldstores_photo_all.pdf
(HKU library)
http://podcast.rthk.hk/podcast/item_epi.php?pid=187&lang=zh-CN&id=55514
(Trading North and South, Hong Kong History, RTHK)
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Accumulation of Wealth of the Chinese Merchants
The “Transnationality’ of Hong Kong’s Economy
• Hong Kong as the gateway to the China market geographically and politically;
• Middlemen between the Europeans and the Chinese population in both China and Hong
Kong;
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Japanese Occupation (1941 – 1945)
l Towards the end of 1941, Japan had decided to invade various parts of Asia;
l In order to fulfill Japna’s dream of The Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
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Japanese Administration in Hong Kong
• On 25 December 1941, one week after the Japanese attacked on Hong Kong Island,
• Occupation of Hong Kong was to prevent strategic goods from being transported to China;
• The Japanese Navy planned to establish Hong Kong together with Taiwan and Singapore as
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People’s Life During the Occupation
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End of Japanese Occupation – Return to the Empire
l On 30 August 1945, British led a powerful Royal Navy task force into Victoria
l Although the planners understood that Britain must restore its jurisdiction over
Hong Kong, British would changing its way of governing Hong Kong.
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Cultural Revolution &
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Influx of Refugees from Mainland China
• Refugees came to Hong Kong so as to escape from poverty and political upheavals of the
mainland
• With the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, lots of Chinese came to Hong Kong to
escape from Communism.
• Only with the support of Shanghai entrepreneurs’ capital and resourcefulness, Hong
Kong survived through the Korean War in the 1950s to transformed itself into an
export-oriented manufacturing economy.
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Boom of Industrial Economy in the 1960s
Industrial City
• 5,135 in 1960
• 9,002 in 1965
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Boom of Industrial Economy in the 1960s
for industry
• The average density reached 8,000 people per square mile in the mid-1960s
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Social Development in the 1950s and 1960s
• A home for 8 family members often meant no more than “a single bed-space sandwiched
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Social Development in the 1950s and 1960s
• A huge increase of youth and women in the labor force
in the workplace,
• increased the roles and importance of youths
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Mentality of Hong Kong Chinese before 1967
• Postwar Hong Kong has been described as a refugee society that was made up of Mainlanders
from China who came to Hong Kong to escape from communist rule for economic and political
reasons.
• Refugee mentality: fleeing from political struggle of the mainland – tend to avoid politics,
distrust the colonial government and avoid its interference with their way of life and economic
pursuits => rely on family and relatives for support
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The 1967 Riots
• A dispute in May 1967 over wages and working hours
the Red Guards, followed Chairman Mao Zedong’s call to continue the
• At least 800 people were injured in the riots and more than 300 others were hurt by
bombs.
• More than 5,000 people were arrested and jailed, often without trial
• The relations between China and Britain reached their lowest point in the history of the
new PRC.
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The 1967 Riots
• 50% of the population was under 21 years old
• Pro-Beijing schools
of the week
turned violent 27
The 1967 Riots
• Workers waved Mao’s “Little Red Book,” chanted revolutionary slogans, and sang
revolutionary songs
• Crowds of youths joined the demonstrators, started pelting the police with stones and
bottles
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The 1967 Riots
• By mid-May, the unrest spread throughout Kowloon and to Hong Kong Island.
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The 1967 Riots
• From end-May into early-June, strikes
departments
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The 1967 Riots
• On May 17, one million protesters demonstrated past the British office in Beijing,
carrying posters, demanding the British to leave Hong Kong and vowing to “Hang
Wilson.”
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The 1967 Riots
• The police adopted a much more active approach to deal with the leftists
• The leftists began to bomb police stations and other government buildings
of booming
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The 1967 Riots
• In August, the leftists turned from riots to attacking people who
opposed them
• They then shifted to planting bombs where children easily find them
• On August 24, the leftists attacked the car of Lam Bun, a well-known radio commentator who
had criticized their acts.
• The leftists sent threatening letters to Chinese business and community leaders; and issued lists
of other so-called traitors to be executed.
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The 1967 Riots
• By September, the local leftists started losing the support
of Beijing
• Bombs reports were only down by December, and the unrest had generally settled by
January 1968.
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The 1967 Riots
• The leftists never received widespread support from the local
• Especially among a population which included lots of refuges who had fled the Chinese
Communist government and viewed the Cultural Revolution with horror and revulsion
message of support.
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Effects of the 1967 Riots
• The pro-Beijing convictions of people had been strengthened by the government’s treatment
of the rioters
• The rioters : “simple workers who had been oppressed all their lives”
• However, for most of the Hong Kong people, the riots gave the government new popularity
and legitimacy.
• The 1967 riots were considered as proof that life in Hong Kong was better than that in the
mainland.
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Effects of the 1967 Riots
• The riots also changed the way the colonial government governed Hong Kong:
Ø expand education.
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The Emergence of Hong Kong Identity
• Most scholars argue that Hong Kong identity only emerged after the Communist revolution of
1949.
• Nelson Chow Wing-sun, professor of social work and social administration at HKU, said:
“At the time of the 1967 riots, I felt Hong Kong people were generally lukewarm
towards the government but they were disgusted with the acts of the leftists. Hong
Kong people realized that they had to unite together in support for the government.
From then on, Hong Kong people appeared to start treasuring this place. At least Hong
Kong was their haven where they were sheltered from the disasters arising from the
Cultural Revolution.”
Cheung, K. W. (2009) 38
The Emergence of Hong Kong Identity
• More Alienated from the PRC Government and the Leftist Patriotic
• Especially during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong people
contrasted the political stability and economic freedom they enjoyed in Hong Kong with
• During the 1960s and 1970s, more locally born Chinese started seeing Hong Kong as their
home.
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The “Open Door” Policy
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The Emergence of Hong Kong Identity
• Because of Guangdong’s inexpensive labor and land, Hong Kong and Guangdong had became
increasingly reintegrated in a symbiotic relationship featured by Hong Kong's capital and
extensive international connections.
• Through investment, finance, and trade, China's economic reforms had been helped by Hong
Kong’s business knowledge and connections in the capitalist world.
• Since late-1970s and early-1980s, China had become more open to the outside world, visits
to the PRC let Hong Kong people know how different Hong Kong was from Mainland China.
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The Emergence of Hong Kong Identity
• The new contacts with China had made some Hong Kong people felt that they
were part of China, however, these contacts also made many felt that they were a
• The shift of activist discourse and campaigns from Chinese nationalism to local
community affairs showed that the sense of Hong Kong Identity had emerged.
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China’s Resumption of Sovereignty in 1997
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The Emergence of Hong Kong Identity
• A lot of people migrated from Mainland China to Hong Kong in the postwar
period were:
Ø political refugees; or
Ø those who had suffered economic hardship in Mainland China
• People who were born or grew up in Hong Kong also felt uneasy about the
differences in these 2 place and systems
(Lee, 1998)
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References
• Baker, H. (1964). Clan organization and its role in village affairs. Royal Asiatic Society. Aspects of social organization in the New
Territories. Hong Kong: Cathy Press.
• Carroll, J.M. (1998). Empires’ Edge: The Making of the Hong Kong Chinese Bourgeoisie. Ph.D. Dissertation. Harvard University,
1998.
• Carroll, J. (2007). A Concise History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Chan, K.S. (1998). Negotiating the transfer practice of housing in a Chinese village. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong
Branch, 37, pp.63 – 80.
• Chiu, S.W.K. and Hung, H.F. (1999). State building and rural stability. In Ngo, T. W. Hong Kong history: State and society under
colonial rule. London, New York: Routledge.
• Hase, P.H. (2008). The Six-Day War of 1899: Hong Kong in the age of imperialism. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Pomerantz-Zhang, L. (1992). Wu Tingfang (1842-1922) Reform and Modernization in Modern Chinese History. Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press.
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References
• Tsang, S. (2004). A modern history of Hong Kong. London: I.B. Tauris.
• Benton, G. (2013). Book review. Journal of Chinese Studies, 57 (July), pp. 351 – 356.
• Carroll, J. (2007). A Concise History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Han, W.T. (1981). Bureaucracy and Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. In Newell, W. H. (Ed.). Japan in Asia, 1942 – 1945. (pp. 7-
21). Singapore: Singapore University Press.
• Hui, P. K. (1999). Comprador politics and middleman capitalism. In Ngo, T. W. (ed.) Hong Kong ‘s history: State and society under
colonial rule. New York: Routledge.
• Lethbridge, H. J. (1998). Hong Kong under Japanese occupation: Changes in social structure." In Jarvie, I. C. (Ed.). Hong Kong: A
society in transition. (pp.77-127). Reprinted. London: Routledge.
• Sinn, E. (2013). Pacific crossing: California gold, Chinese migration, and the making of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press.
• Carroll, J. (2007). A Concise History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Cheung, K. W. (2009). Hong Kong’s Watershed: The 1967 Riots. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Fu, P. & Desser D. (2000). The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Horlemann, R. (2003). Hong Kong’s Transition to Chinese Rule. New York: Routledge.
• Jones, C. (2015). Lost in China?: Law, Culture and Identity in Post-1997 Hong Kong. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Lam, W.M. & and Lui. L.T. (2012). Contemporary Hong Kong Government and Politics. Hong Kong : Hong Kong University
Press.
• Ma, N. (2007). Political Development in Hong Kong: State, Political Society and Civil Society in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press.
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