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Introduction

Hong Kong as a Site of Britishness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

Vivian Kong
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Summary

The introduction sets out the framework of the book by situating Hong Kong as a site of Britishness. It introduces the major aim of the book: to challenge widely made assumptions about the primacy of ‘race’ in determining the entitlements and benefits of being ‘British’, and to call for a full consideration of how racial and cultural diversity shaped Britishness. It explains how Hong Kong, a nexus of mobilities within and across the British Empire, Chinese treaty port world, and the Asia-Pacific, offers us a uniquely important site to understand identities and belonging in the British Empire. The case of Hong Kong, this book argues, illuminates the blurred distinctions between Britons and other Europeans in colonial Asia, and the possibility for colonial subjects to claim a British subjectivity. Building on recent literature on modern Asia and global history, this book will also challenge common assumptions about race and identities in colonial Hong Kong. It will also trace how rising nationalism and the global dispersal of cosmopolitan sensibilities created tensions in the colony, offering a global history of exclusivity and cosmopolitanism in the twentieth century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Multiracial Britishness
Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45
, pp. 1 - 23
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Vivian Kong, University of Bristol
  • Book: Multiracial Britishness
  • Online publication: 19 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009202930.001
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  • Introduction
  • Vivian Kong, University of Bristol
  • Book: Multiracial Britishness
  • Online publication: 19 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009202930.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Vivian Kong, University of Bristol
  • Book: Multiracial Britishness
  • Online publication: 19 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009202930.001
Available formats
×