ABSTRACT

When Britain and China negotiated the future of Hong Kong in the early 1980s, their primary concern was about maintaining the status quo. The rise of China in the last thirty years, however, has reshaped the Beijing-Hong Kong dynamic as new tensions and divisions have emerged. Thus, post-1997 Hong Kong is a case about a global city’s democratic transition within an authoritarian state.

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Hong Kong introduces readers to these key social, economic, and political developments. Bringing together the work of leading researchers in the field, it focuses on the process of transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region under China’s sovereign rule. Organized thematically, the sections covered include:

  • ‘One Country, Two Systems’ in practice
  • Governance in post-colonial Hong Kong
  • Social mobilization
  • The changing social fabric of Hong Kong society
  • Socio-economic development and regional integration
  • The future of Hong Kong.

This book provides a thorough introduction to Hong Kong today. As such, it will be invaluable to students and scholars of Hong Kong’s politics, culture and society. It will also be of interest to those studying Chinese political development and the impact of China’s rise more generally.

chapter |29 pages

Introduction

The long transition

part Theme 1|55 pages

‘One Country, Two Systems’ in practice

chapter 2|14 pages

The Basic Law in the courts

Learning to live with China and a changing Hong Kong

chapter 3|20 pages

Becoming part of one national economy

Maintaining two systems in the midst of the rise of China 1

part Theme 2|66 pages

Governing post-colonial Hong Kong

chapter 4|20 pages

Stalemate in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong

Disarticulation, fragmentation, and the political battleground of “One Country, Two Systems”

chapter 5|14 pages

Advisory politics before and after 1997

In search of a new relationship between state, political society and civil society

chapter 6|16 pages

“Consultative politics” refined

The precarious development of civic engagement in post-colonial Hong Kong

part Theme 3|92 pages

Social mobilization

chapter 8|15 pages

Social mobilization for large-scale protests

From the July 1 demonstration to the Umbrella Movement

chapter 9|15 pages

Opinion media

From talk radio to internet alternative websites

chapter 10|14 pages

Social media and social mobilization

chapter 11|11 pages

Legal mobilization

chapter 13|18 pages

Confrontation, state repression and the autonomy of metropolitan Hong Kong

The Umbrella Movement and the 1967 Riots compared

part Theme 4|117 pages

The changing social fabric

part Theme 5|85 pages

Socio-economic development and regional integration

chapter 21|32 pages

Hong Kong’s film industry reconstituted

Pathways to China after the golden age 1

chapter 22|17 pages

End of a chapter?

Hong Kong manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta

chapter 23|16 pages

Hong Kong

China’s global city

part Theme 6|82 pages

Future development

chapter 25|11 pages

Identity as politics

Contesting the local, the national and the global

chapter 27|20 pages

Sustainable development in Hong Kong

Roadblocks and road-map

chapter 29|20 pages

Lost in competition

Rethinking Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen as a new triangle of China’s global cities and regional hubs