Multiracial Britishness
Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

Explores how British subjects of different 'races' collectively shaped what it means to be British today, focusing on 1910-45 Hong Kong.

Vivian Kong (Author)

9781009202947, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 November 2023

292 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.57 kg

'Conceptually broad and empirically rich, Multiracial Britishness unpacks the complexities and contradictions of a more capacious Britishness in Hong Kong's uniquely urban, cosmopolitan and diasporic historical setting - with enduring implications, not just for the strained civic fabric of Britain's former colony, but also that of Britain itself.' Stuart Ward, author of United Kingdom: A Global History of the End of Britain

What does it mean to be British? To answer this, Multiracial Britishness takes us to an underexplored site of Britishness – the former British colony of Hong Kong. Vivian Kong asks how colonial hierarchies, the racial and cultural diversity of the British Empire, and global ideologies complicate the meaning of being British. Using multi-lingual sources and oral history, Kong traces the experiences of multiracial residents in 1910-45 Hong Kong. Guiding us through Hong Kong's global networks, and the colony's co-existing exclusive and cosmopolitan social spaces, this book uncovers the long history of multiracial Britishness. Kong argues that Britishness existed in the colony in multiple, hyphenated forms – as a racial category, but also as privileges, a means of survival, and a form of cultural and national belonging. This book offers us an important reminder that multiracial inhabitants of the British Empire were just as active in the making of Britishness as the British state and white Britons.

Introduction. Hong Kong as a site of Britishness
1. British by law
2. The Britishers
3. Britishness and Chineseness in an age of nationalism
4. The British Portuguese
5. Multiracial civic Britishness
6. The test of war
Epilogue: After empire, after Brexit.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]