Sir Robert Ho Tung

Sir Robert Ho Tung PDF

Author: May Holdsworth

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2022-05-03

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 9888754246

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Sir Robert Ho Tung (1862–1954) is a compelling figure in Hong Kong history. He is regularly portrayed as the colony’s greatest philanthropist and wealthiest man of his day, the first Chinese to live on the Peak, and, at the end of his life, the ‘Grand Old Man of Hongkong’. The illegitimate son of a Chinese mother and European father, he was highly sensitive about his mixed heritage though he consistently made the most of his fate. He was a man perfectly in tune with his place and time, his success driven as much by his entrepreneurial talents as by his being Eurasian. This book shows him in all his immense variety—clerk with the Imperial Maritime Customs, chief compradore of Jardine Matheson, financial wizard, husband and lover, patriarch of a large family of five sons and eight daughters, loyal British subject but also, paradoxically, Chinese patriot. China’s president Yuan Shikai awarded him the Order of the Excellent Crop, and King George V knighted him. May Holdsworth’s thoughtful and deftly written account of the life is the first full-length biography in English. Given unique and unprecedented access to family and personal papers, including letters, diaries, notes, and photographs, she offers a nuanced perspective on a public but also private man. Her book will be a rich resource for historians and general readers interested in the men and women who played a key part in the shaping of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Hong Kong. ‘With painstaking research using an invaluable cache of private letters, family photographs, and other rarely seen archival materials, May Holdsworth has produced a definitive English-language biography of Hong Kong’s Grand Old Man, Sir Robert Ho Tung, as both public figure and private man. A must-read for anyone interested in Hong Kong history.’ —Emma J. Teng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘This biography of Sir Robert Ho Tung is well written, well organized, and based on original unpublished documentary sources that have not been previously utilized. Though of a scholarly nature, it is eminently readable and should appeal to a broad readership, including lovers of Hong Kong history.’ —Edward J. M. Rhoads, University of Texas at Austin

The Last Kings of Shanghai

The Last Kings of Shanghai PDF

Author: Jonathan Kaufman

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-06-01

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0735224439

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"In vivid detail... examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties."--The Boston Globe "Not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."--LA Review of Books An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist The Sassoons and the Kadoories stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred seventy-five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival.

Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945

Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945 PDF

Author: Geoffrey Charles Emerson

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2008-03-01

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9789622098800

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945: Life in the Japanese Civilian Camp at Stanley tells the story of the more than three thousand non-Chinese civilians: British, American, Dutch and others, who were trapped in the British colony and interned behind barbed wire in Stanley Internment Camp from 1942 to 1945. From 1970 to 1972, while researching for his MA thesis, the author interviewed twenty-three former Stanley internees. During these meetings, the internees talked about their lives in the Stanley Camp during the Japanese occupation. Long regarded as an invaluable reference and frequently consulted as a primary source on Stanley since its completion in 1973, the study is now republished with a new introduction and fresh discussions that recognize later work and information released since the original thesis was written. Additional illustrations, including a new map and photographs, as well as an up-to-date bibliography, have also been included in the book.

Ghosts of Empire

Ghosts of Empire PDF

Author: Kwasi Kwarteng

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2012-02-07

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1610391217

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Kwasi Kwarteng is the child of parents whose lives were shaped as subjects of the British Empire, first in their native Ghana, then as British immigrants. He brings a unique perspective and impeccable academic credentials to a narrative history of the British Empire, one that avoids sweeping judgmental condemnation and instead sees the Empire for what it was: a series of local fiefdoms administered in varying degrees of competence or brutality by a cast of characters as outsized and eccentric as anything conjured by Gilbert and Sullivan. The truth, as Kwarteng reveals, is that there was no such thing as a model for imperial administration; instead, appointees were schooled in quirky, independent-minded individuality. As a result the Empire was the product not of a grand idea but of often chaotic individual improvisation. The idosyncracies of viceroys and soldier-diplomats who ran the colonial enterprise continues to impact the world, from Kashmir to Sudan, Baghdad to Hong Kong.

The Archaeology of China

The Archaeology of China PDF

Author: Li Liu

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 499

ISBN-13: 0521643104

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Past, present and future "The archaeological materials recovered from the Anyang excavations ... in the period between 1928 and 1937 ... have laid a new foundation for the study of ancient China (Li, C. 1977: ix)." When inscribed oracle bones and enormous material remains were found through scientific excavation in Anyang in 1928, the historicity of the Shang dynasty was confirmed beyond dispute for the first time (Li, C. 1977: ix-xi). This excavation thus marked the beginning of a modern Chinese archaeology endowed with great potential to reveal much of China's ancient history.. Half a century later, Chinese archaeology had made many unprecedented discoveries which surprised the world, leading Glyn Daniel to believe that "a new awareness of the importance of China will be a key development in archaeology in the decades ahead (Daniel 1981: 211). This enthusiasm was soon shared by the Chinese archaeologists when Su Bingqi announced that "the Golden Age of Chinese archaeology is arriving (Su, B. 1994: 139--140)". In recent decades, archaeology has continuously prospered, becoming one of the most rapidly developing fields in social science in China"--

Edge of Empires

Edge of Empires PDF

Author: John M. CARROLL

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0674029232

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In Edge of Empires, Carroll situates Hong Kong squarely within the framework of both Chinese and British colonial history, while exploring larger questions about the meaning and implications of colonialism in modern history.

The Capitalist Dilemma in China's Cultural Revolution

The Capitalist Dilemma in China's Cultural Revolution PDF

Author: Sherman Cochran

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2014-12-31

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1942242727

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

How can capitalists' motivations during a Communist revolution be reliably documented and fully understood? Up to now, the answer to this question has generally eluded scholars who, for lack of nonofficial sources, have fallen back on Communist governments' official explanations. But the essays in this volume confirm that, at least in the case of the Communist revolution in China, it is finally possible to make new and fresh interpretations. By focusing closely on individuals and probing deeply into their thinking and experience, the authors of these essays have discovered a wide range of reasons for why Chinese capitalists did or did not choose to live and work under communism. The contributors to this volume have all concentrated on the dilemma for capitalists in China's Communist revolution. But their approach to their subject through archival research and rigorous analysis may also serve as a guide for future thinking about a variety of other historical figures. This approach is well worth adopting to explain how any members of society (not only capitalists) have resolved comparable dilemmas in all revolutions—the ones in China, Russia, Vietnam, Cuba, or anywhere else.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes