"Refugees" or "Undesirables": The Fate of Chinese Escapees in the 1950s and 1960s -- The Third Force and the Culture of Dissent in Hong Kong -- Cultural Revolution at Sea: Dead Bodies and Kidnapping in the Hong Kong Sea Territories -- The Unwanted in Limbo: Was Hong Kong a Refuge or a Dumping Ground? -- The Routes of Three Escapees who Left the PRC in -- Commemorating the Big Escape: The Question of Memories.
Summary:
"Between the late 1940s and the 1980s, tens of thousands of people fled mainland China after the Communist takeover in 1949 because of social upheavals, including the Great Leap Forward famine and the Cultural Revolution. Many of those who fled imagined Hong Kong, under British colonial rule, to be a place of political freedom and full of easy opportunities to get rich. The ones who managed to reach the British colonial city eventually settled down and became the first generation of "Hong Kongers." Most scholarly works about Hong Kong's post-World War II development perpetuate this popular account by featuring poor migrants who overcame perilous journeys and economic poverty to eventually succeed in climbing up the social ladder and transforming the colonial city from a backwater to an industrial and financial hub. However, in reality, not everyone who stayed in Hong Kong was comfortable in the host city. Some were refugees, exiled people, or "undesirable" residents-and others were locals who had never been a part of the traditional Chinese narrative, like people in sea communities living along the coasts of Hong Kong. This book presents an alternative way to discuss the formation of Hong Kong identity by linking the experiences of different types of border-crossers, arguing that the political identity of people in Hong Kong today was formed not only from the struggle of lower-class immigrants under British colonial capitalism, but also from the collective trauma of fleeing mainland China. Drawing on archival research, oral history, and media analysis, this book explores the roots of Hong Kong's ambivalent relationship to the mainland and its role in the global push-and-pull of the Cold War and its aftermath"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.