Foreign devils : expatriates in Hong Kong / May Holdsworth ; with additional text by Caroline Courtauld.
Material type: TextPublication details: Hong Kong ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.Description: xiv, 298 p. : ill. ; 24 cmSubject(s): LOC classification:- DS796.H757 H639 2002
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book: Standard | Hewitson Library, Presbyterian Research Centre | England Collection | DS796.H757 H65 2002 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 15-327 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Machine generated contents note: 1 'Braveheart' in China -- 2 Merchants -- 3 Ministers and Mandarins -- 4 Some of the Governors -- 5 Money Makes the World Go Round -- 6 Cops and Robbers -- 7 Missionaries -- 8 The Quality of Life -- 9 Fish Climbing Up a Tree -- 10 Trailing Spouses and Single Women -- 11 A Small World -- 12 Healthy Pleasures.
"Throughout Hong Kong's history, local people have dreaded, misunderstood, loved, and laughed at the foreigners in their midst. At first they found those strangers threatening and called them 'foreign devils', but today the term fan gweilo or simply gweilo is more often uttered in a neutral, ironic, or even an affectionate way." "Based on interviews and memoirs, Foreign Devils presents a picture of the lives of expatriates in Hong Kong. Their recollections - candid, quizzical, touching, serious, and not so serious - are concerned as much with the great events and dramas of the day as with the delights and annoyances of ordinary life. Each found his or her own way of engaging with the place - the Governor agonizing over decisions for the future Special Administrative Region no less than the single mother of adopted Chinese babies. They are all participants in the story of modern Hong Kong, which developed out of the matchless synergy of Western enterprise and Chinese ingenuity. The historical panorama would have been much less colourful without their commitment, talents, humour, and even, occasionally, their skulduggery." "This potpourri of reminiscences offers an authentic record of a period which saw expatriates change from being part of a dominant and privileged clique into a diffuse presence in a cosmopolitan city. It will delight anyone who has ever met, known, or been a foreign devil, as well as everyone who has ever visited Hong Kong."--BOOK JACKET.
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