City on the Edge
Hong Kong under Chinese Rule

A timely study of Hong Kong's politics and society since the 1997 handover that explores the city's long history of resistance.

Ho-fung Hung (Author)

9781108840330, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 May 2022

316 pages
22.3 x 14.5 x 2.2 cm, 0.5 kg

'… City on the Edge presents a solid and powerful analysis of the forces and events behind one of the most defining moments in Hong Kong, China and global history. Engagingly written and theoretically informed, it caters to the needs of the scholarly community and general audience.' Edmund W. Cheng, The China Quarterly

For decades, Hong Kong has maintained precarious freedom at the edge of competing world powers. In City on the Edge, Ho-fung Hung offers a timely and engaging account of Hong Kong's development from precolonial times to the present, with particular focus on the post 1997 handover period. Through careful analysis of vast economic data, a myriad of political events, and intricate networks of actors and ideas, Hung offers readers insight into the fraught economic, political, and social forces that led to the 2019 uprising, while situating the protests in the context of global finance and the geopolitics of the US-China rivalry. A provocative contribution to the discussion on Hong Kong's position in today's world, City on the Edge demonstrates that the resistance and repression of 2019-2020 does not spell the end of Hong Kong but the beginning of a long conflict with global repercussions.

1. Introduction
2. At Empires' Edge, 1197–1997
Part I. Capital: 3. The Making of China's Offshore Financial Center
4. Mainlandization of Business Monopoly
Part II. Empire: 5. 'One Country, Two Systems' Before Hong Kong
6. From Autonomy to Coercive Assimilation
Part III. Resistance: 7. The Class Politics of Democratic Movement
8. Hong Kong as a Political Consciousness
9. Conclusion: Endgame or New Beginning?

Subject Areas: Geopolitics [JPSL], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Asian history [HBJF], Development studies [GTF]