Fortune’s Bazaar: The Making of Hong Kong by Vaudine England

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This history of the making of Hong Kong challenges conventional narratives of either British colonial or Chinese ethnic credit for the unique cultural and economic phenomenon that is (was?) Hong Kong. Instead, Vaudine England posits that Hong Kong was made primarily by the in-betweeners, the imports and their offspring from all over the world who flowed into the port city, mixed, intermingled, fell in love, and made both their fortunes and their offspring in Hong Kong.

Her thesis is supported by the resistance forces of Hong Kong to Japanese invasion, the protests in Hong Kong against the massacre of Tiananmen Square, and many anecdotes, lineages, and family histories showing that the in-betweeners and their descendants, untethered to a single mono-culture, created a special, worldly identity of their own and, with it, a dynamic culture and economy unlike any other.

Going forward, what lies in store for Hong Kong? In what I personally perceive as an historical irony, the Chinese Government has allied itself with the industrial and financial ruling class of Hong Kong, enabling that group to secure its position by cooperating and supporting the suppression of Hong Kong identity, language and history. It has become an enclave of the super-rich, supported by the communist Chinese, so that both can enjoy a more stable hegemony.

It is my personal hope that Hong Kong will resurge, that its port, its people, and its history will not be lost to the world because of China’s ethno-nationalist ideology. It’s not clear how things will go in our lifetimes, but though life is long, history is longer. If Hong Kong has proven anything, it is that Hong Kongers survive.



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