| In Tiananmen
Square in the heart of Beijing a large digital clock was erected and
started marking off the days until the red, five star flag of China
would be hoisted over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, ending 156 years of
British colonial rule. In Hong Kong, Todd
Crowell, a senior writer for Asiaweek magazine, began a journal
of the tumultuous last two years of the colony – when the grand but
untried idea of "one country, two systems" was being put into
practice.
Crowell joined politicians seeking votes in the
elections under Governor Patten's last-minute attempt to install a
democratic tradition, and reports on the "selection" of a rival
legislature and of shipping magnate Tung Chee-hwa as the first Chinese
leader of the territory. He tells how Hong Kong's Chinese and
expatriates, taipans and cagemen, come to terms with the
impending change of sovereignty.
Farewell, My Colony conveys the hopes and
uncertainties of this unique city as Hong Kong's "borrowed time"
finally came to an end.
Asia 2000 has also published Todd Crowell's
Tokyo, city on the edge and
Discover Macau.
Critics Comments
"History has not normally been kind to people trying
to do what journalist Todd Crowell has done here. His Farewell My
Colony: Last Days in the Life of British Hong Kong is a kind of
journal of events leading up to the colony's handover last year, from
September 1995 to the Great Day. There is an "epilogue" of July 1997
thoughts – at which point Crowell submitted his manuscript and has
since corrected only misprints. This could have had deeply
embarrassing results 15 months on, so it is cheering to discover that
the author's observations have weathered so well.
"Crowell scores some palpable hits on the prediction
front. Four months before the handover, he picked up the first
complaints that tourist bookings for the SAR era were disappointing,
and wondered if being a colony wasn't actually part of the attraction.
And in May 1997 we have this remarkable display of prescience: "To my
mind, it often seems that Hong Kong's economy is nothing more than a
highly sophisticated version of taking in each other's laundry. People
put their savings into the stock market, take them out and buy
property. They sell their apartments and put the proceeds back into
stocks, in an ever-upward spiral of price inflation that seems bound
to crash someday."
"This is an intelligent and illuminating book. The
stylish writing is itself a constant source of pleasure. One finishes
it with a renewed resolve to look out for Crowell's contemporary
offerings as a Senior Writer with Asiaweek.
"Farewell, My Colony
would be an excellent acquisition for someone who needs a painless
introduction to recent Hong Kong history. It remains to be seen if
that is enough to keep it afloat in the crowded pool of post-handover
publishing."
Tim Hamlett
Asiaweek
Readers Comments
Extract
Copyright © Todd
Crowell
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