Hong Kong Connection

This is an account of the 'middleman' role Hong Kong has played in China's Open Door Policy. It explains the paradoxical situation by which Hong Kong's role as intermediary in China's commodity trade is becoming more prominent in spite of the fact that since the development of the Open Door Policy in 1979 China has established many direct diplomatic, commercial and transportation links with the outside world. The book makes an important contribution to understanding China's various phases of economic reform and its interactions with global economic markets. Moreover, its arrival is timely, given the forced isolation of China after the events in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 as well as the fact that few years remain before Hong Kong ceases to be a British colony to become part of China. Dr Sung predicts that China's demands on Hong Kong's capacity as intermediary will increase dramatically when this happens.

Securities attorney Susanna Sloane is engaged as a consultant by the Chinese government. While in Hong Kong she is drugged, and unknowingly raped and photographed nude by Henry Wu, a Chinese official. She begins to have bizarre and unnerving psychic episodes. Assisted by a hypnotherapist she discovers how Wu had used her. The secretary of the treasury, Roger Howell, enlists her aid in preventing the Chinese government's manipulation and purchase of oil futures. She travels with Howell to Beijing. They begin an affair. The Chinese hire Susanna to negotiate oil field development in Venezuela. Susanna devises a scheme to benefit both China and the U.S. She returns to Hong Kong to destroy Wu's photos, and, with the aid of the Russian mob, breaks into Wu's apartment. Events spiral out of control and Wu and his housekeeper are killed. The Chinese send investigators to New York to question her, but a high-ranking Chinese general, secretly delighted at the removal of a political rival, stops them.

Since the 1960s, Hong Kong cinema has helped to shape one of the world's most popular cultural genres: action cinema. Hong Kong action films have proved popular over the decades with audiences worldwide, and they have seized the imaginations of filmmakers working in many different cultural traditions and styles. How do we account for this appeal, which changes as it crosses national borders? Hong Kong Connections brings leading film scholars together to explore the uptake of Hong Kong cinema in Japan, Korea, India, Australia, France and the US as well as its links with Taiwan, Singapore and the Chinese mainland. In the process, this collective study examines diverse cultural contexts for action cinema's popularity, and the problems involved in the transnational study of globally popular forms suggesting that in order to grasp the history of Hong Kong action cinema's influence we need to bring out the differences as well as the links that constitute popularity.

As Hong Kong transforms from a colonial dependent territory to a Chinese special administrative region, its international status will be increasingly connected to China's position in the world. the nature of Hong Kong global linkages are shifting as thepo

This is a study of the complex and changing cultural patterns in Hong Kong’s relationship with the neighbouring mainland. From interviews, TV dramas, media representations and other sources, it traces the fading of Hong Kong’s once-influential position as a role model for less developed mainland cities and explores changing perceptions as China grows in confidence and Hong Kong encounters a powerful nation culture in the mainland. Part One (‘Desiring Hong Kong’) examines the history of cross-border relations and movements from the 1970s, focusing on Hong Kong as an object of desire for people in South China. Part Two (‘Consuming South China’), moves to the turn of the century, when, despite increased communications and a ‘disappearing border’, Hong Kong is no longer a powerful role model; it nevertheless continues to be a resourceful node in the chain of global capitalism. This is a timely and provocative discussion of a topical issue, and one written in an approachable style using lively case studies. In contrast with the popular theorization that Hong Kong shows her true colour in “the politics of disappearance”, this book argues that Hong Kong returns with a politics of reappearance in a dense network of ‘fear and excitement’, differentiating and assimilating with the mainland at the same time. It will be of interest to scholars and students in cultural studies, political science, sociology and cultural geography. It will also have some general appeal to policy-makers, journalists, and the concerned public.

A comprehensive study of the lost genre of Hong Kong documentary film