Hong Kong's rise from obscure fishing port to world city is usually put down to good colonial rule by Britain. This book challenges such a view and shows how the city's success was shaped by the ruling elite, business class, compradors, social activists and other native Hong Kongers. Rewriting Hong Kong's history from the bottom up, the chapters investigate vital, but hitherto obscured aspect's of the colony's rise. They cover the Chinese collaboration with the colonial regime, legal discrimination and intimidation, rural politics, social movements, government-business relations, industrial...