Hong Kong Books

I lived in Cambodia from January 1995 for five years. I visited Angkor Wat at least 8 times, usually playing guide. This particular book was my absolute favorite because it offered details you could search for, such as paint remnants on the reliefs, etc.

I give it four stars only because it was published in 1994 and now, 12 years later, some of the points of information might have been changed due to the tourist trade. I was fortunate enough to enter the ruins before all the attempts to repair, remake and rebuild began. I witnessed some of the poor attemps at remaking/repairing with cement that have ruined the magic of Angkor. I hope others will be able to enjoy the magic of Angkor. Avoid tour groups and merely go with a friend of two.

Trans-Pacific Airways has developed an emergency fuel formula which can provide clipper ships with a greatly increased flying range up to 6000 miles. The formula, however, has not yet been perfected.

When the operations manager of Trans-Pacific commits suicide, he leaves a note. It mentions the secret formula and its amazing possibilities. The suicide note is published in a newspaper giving the secret formula wide publicity. Trans-Pacific is an American airline and the United States War and Navy Departments do not want the secret to fall into unfriendly hands.

Captain Hugh North from G-2, Department of Army Intelligence, is sent to Hongkong to keep the formula away from any potential enemies in a future war. He quickly learns that there are several operatives seeking the formula. There is also a rival airline, Air Oriental, which is planning a Pacific route and will want to have the advantages of the new fuel. Air Oriental is registered as a Chinese corporation but uses German pilots and equipment.

Sam Patterson, the chief engineering officer of Trans-Pacific, is murdered. The company's safe is broken into and the formula is stolen. North believes that the murder of Patterson and the theft of the formula are connected. The murder scene reveals several clues including the victim's double-breasted coat which was buttoned on the wrong side and a glass water pitcher containing a woman's flesh-tinted stocking. The leading suspects are Patterson's former and current girl friends. Also under suspicion are the new operations manager of Trans-Pacific and the Macao manager of Air Oriental. In addition, North must consider Mr. Tashima, previously a lieutenant in the Japanese Navy but now in the postal service and Alexis Lebov, a professed White Russian who is thought to actually be working for the NKVD. Louis Martin and his wife are imposters who may really be representing French interests.

Hugh North has his work cut out for him in this case at a time when tensions are heating up before World War II in both Europe and the Far East. Germany in particular is singled out as a threat.

North is aided in his investigations by Sir George Amberson and Inspector Yu Shih of the Royal Victoria Police.

Ms. B. Ho's Hong Kong Contract Law is really a treasure for the HK students who are studying contract law.

It's tailor-made for the Hong Kong students. All topic from the books are relevant and useful in Hong Kong who are practicing contract law.

From Offer to Acceptance, from the execution of contract to the unenforceability of the contract........you will find the most useful and quick reference of the authority in her book. I did find that her book was really helpful was I was doing contract law last year.

Ms. Ho has been an experienced lecturer on Contract Law for many years in several universities in Hong Kong. You will find that her own opinion is vivid because she is a practicing lawyer in Hong Kong.

One more point, the hardcover makes itself easy to last long......you may even can keep the book in good condition in the future when you practice!

Written like short stories, each chapter a different aspect of life in Hong Kong just before and during the Japanese takeover, it's very interesting with somehow a humerous and also sad take. Believe most of the stories were first published in the New Yorker. First read it 20 years ago and recently reread it and found it just as interesting.

I really enjoyed learning about the 1st chinese abstract painter. it also let me know more about my family history because Lui Shou Kwan was my great uncle

A handy reference book on the high-flying entrepreneurs of Hong Kong and where they sought to invest money after the British colony reverted to Chinese control in 1997.
One hundred of Hong Kong's big-money people are mentioned and indexed.

In the 1960s, Hong Kong films failed to achieve the international notoriety, critical notice, or box-office success of films from Taiwan or mainland China. There was neither the filmmaking professionalism or skills nor public receptivity for such films. At the time, the young generation had a "weak sense of nationhood and held neither long-term goals nor ambitions." With Hong Kong society "suffused with Western popular culture" mainly from the Western education that was given in the schools, Hong Kong films were largely imitations of Western films with respect to themes, characters, and style. Films were youth-oriented; and they dealt with drugs, antisocial behavior, relationships, and other issues especially of interest to adolescents.

By the 1970s and '80s, however, the status of Hong Kong films had changed so they were recognized as being incomparably more skilled and imaginative and more engaged with both regional and global issues than other Chinese films. With only a weak identity and superficial assimilation of Western culture, in these decades Hong Kong directors were able to easily, quickly, and fluently move to a new way of making films. The close-knit body of directors in the small area of Hong Kong, many of them having gained experience in the field of Hong Kong television, found inspiration in the French "New Wave" film movement. Highly technically skilled so they could produce zoom-ins, split-screens, fast-paced editing, and other state-of-the-art techniques and having the artistic vision and business acumen to join together the Cantonese and Mandarin branches of Chinese film giving their films access to a much wider audience (Singapore and Malaysia, for instance), the Hong Kong moviemakers struck out on a path taking them to the head of Chinese films. The Hong Kong films arising from the New Wave not only attracted attention as a compelling regional phenomenon, but they also had an influence on Western filmmakers regarding storytelling, characterization, tone, and other areas of film. The Hong Kong films found an enthusiastic Western audience. Bruce Lee, notably, "wrought miracles for Hong Kong cinema."

Cheuk, associate professor in film and TV studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, points to the 1978 film "The Extra" made by the team of Yim Ho, Dennis Yu, and Ronnie Yu as "the beginning of the New Wave." Yim Ho is one of the six "core" New Wave directors whose themes, style, development, and influence are studied individually. The others are Ann Hui, Tsui Hark, Patrick Tam, Allen Fong, and Alex Cheuk. Six "non-core" directors are grouped for study in other chapters. The filmography of each including screenwriters, producers, and production company is useful for further study of any one of the directors.

The content divided between the background and development of Hong Kong New Wave cinema and critical appraisals of central directors plus author Cheuk's nuanced comprehension from proximity to the subject make the work of particular interest to students of contemporary cinema.

Hayes studies the complexity of Hong Kong, during a time of British rule. The study includes not just the city part, but also the so-called New Territories. There were two main ethnic groups, Cantonese and Hakka. Along with several other smaller groups, like the Hoklo and Tanka. But there was an inevitable process of assimilation. Whereby the lesser groups soon merged into a Cantonese mainstream.

The belief systems common in Hong Kong were investigated. Most prominent was feng shui. Which is still widely followed today. Speaks to the enduring quality of superstition.

More crucially perhaps is the analysis of land ownership. In such a small region, it was already an important aspect of the economic underpinnings. There were many tenant farmers on Lantau, for example. And at one time, the Li family claimed ownership of all Lantau. A very feudal structure. Not dissimilar to arrangements in Europe.

What the book mostly omits is a study of the British colonial government. Possibly because Hayes felt that was already adequately covered by the British themselves. He focused on the majority Chinese society.

Reading Hong KOng's History makes me feel so ignorance with a place where I grow up. Unlike some popular readings about the colonial governance in there, this book proffers us a both/and perspective of the colonial history of hong kong. It also re-articulated the relations between the colonisers and the colonised. Both resistance and collaboration are mentioned in this book. Both the elites and the grassroots are analysed in this book. The sophisticated relations between the British colonisers, the Chinese compradors, trade and political middleman, original habitants in rural areas, etc are opened up in front of reader another picture about hong kong's colonial era. True, Hong KOng's History is a post-colonial reading of the colonial history. However, it has provided lot of new primary resources to evindence that have been wittingly neglected by some famous hong kong coloinal historians. Through the both/and perspective, this book gives a more precise explanation of why hong kong being one of the Asian Miracles.

Hong Kong has gone through many transformations in its political, social and economic history.It was a British Colony and it is now a part of China. This book examines, explores and provides us with an intimate portrait of some of the most influential personalities who are the movers and shakers of Hong Kong. It is seen through their eyes, as former British Subjects and now citizens of China. It is not everyday that one country changes hands to another completey different country. This book shares with us their feelings and provides us with an inside look into their personaql life. It is very vell written and deep. A must for any reader on Hong Kong.This book is not only important about the social and political transformation of Kong Kong, but it is also about people who are no different from any of us, but have just applied themselves harder and worked profusely for their personal accomplishments.