Dissertation

Hong Kong's Place in South East Asia

On Thursday 7 November 2024 Vaudine England successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Author: England, V.M.
Date: 07 November 2024
Links: Leiden Repository

Despite Chinese government claims that Hong Kong has ‘always been a Chinese city’, this thesis shows that the people who made Hong Kong into a thriving port city came from all over the world, bringing their diverse faiths, lifestyles and trading networks with them. Through archival research and oral history interviews, I show how women from across Asia birthed the mixed race children who would later lead Hong Kong society. I trace the outsized influence of the Parsi community, of Baghdadi Jews, of Armenians and many others from South and Southeast Asian trading communities: they made Hong Kong not Chinese, but Eurasian. I look closely at exactly who came to Hong Kong, from where, with whom, how they lived with others in Hong Kong, how they reacted to the shock and stresses of Japanese occupation in World War Two and the British return. I conclude that the visions of multiple generations of Hong Kongers of their own futures remain unheard as ruling powers fail to acknowledge Hong Kong’s character as neither solely Chinese city, nor British colony, but a Eurasian Port City.

Supervisor: Prof.dr. H. Schulte Nordholt
Co-supervisor: Dr. Pui Chi Lai