Hong Kong: Migrant Lives, Landscapes, and Journeys (Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries)

In 1997 the United Kingdom returned control of Hong Kong to China, ending the citys 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 citys postcolonial urban landscape, innovatively told through fieldwork and photography.

Caroline Knowles and Douglas Harpers 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.

Caroline Knowles is professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and the author of Race and Social Analysis. Douglas Harper is professor of sociology at Duquesne University and the author of Changing Works: Visions of a Lost Agriculture.

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