Hong Kong History Made Accessible: John Carroll's Concise History of Hong Kong

With its heady mix of Eastern and Western influences, a colonial past and a new role as gateway to China, Hong Kong continues to fascinate and perplex observers. Professor John Carroll's intention, when he wrote A Concise History of Hong Kong (Rowman and Littlefield/HKUP 2007), was to provide undergraduates and general readers with a short, accessible overview that combined elements of political, social and cultural history. He also wanted to present this history, not solely from a British point of view as many other works have done, but from a more balanced perspective, as well as to look at the legacies - both good and bad - of colonial rule and the challenges and advantages of reintegration with China. Based on the work of other scholars and on Carroll's own research, the book is presented in a very readable way and explores Hong Kong's unique identity. The resulting work is an accessible and engrossing narrative that details the remarkable history of this fascinating place from the early 1800s through to 2005.

Over HKU's first century, other History professors have also devoted time to chronicling the past of this great city and its first university. They include George Endacott, who was responsible in 1946 for the post-war re-establishment of the History Department where he continued to teach for some 16 years, and who wrote the first comprehensive history of Hong Kong titled simply A History of Hong Kong, first published in 1958. Over the past 25 years, Dr Elizabeth Sinn has written important books on the Tung Wah Hospital, the Bank of East Asia and Chinese emigration to California. In 2012 Dr Peter Cunich published the first of a two-part history of HKU, A History of the University of Hong Kong, Volume 1, 1911-1945, to mark the University's centenary and he is currently completing Volume 2. Meanwhile, Dr. K.W. Fung in the School of Chinese is preparing a Chinese history of HKU, Virtues and Intellect in Unity: A Centennial History of the University of Hong Kong 1911-2011.

(Text reproduced from Faculty of Arts 100: A Century in Words and Images.)

Please click on the following link to access the publishers' page:

Rowman and Littlefield: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742534223/A-Concise-History-of-Hong-Kong

HKUP: http://www.hkupress.org/Common/Reader/Products/ShowProduct.jsp?Pid=1&Cid=16&key=9789622098787