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Hong Kong in the 1920s was a city of contradictions. It was a city of abundant opportunities, but it was also a city of crimes and grievances. It was then the only Chinese city (apart from Macau) that was formally colonized, but it was also a city where, in the words of Governor Cecil Clementi (1925-30), "Chinese studies should be instituted . . . for no other reason than promulgating the glory of Chinese culture." Such contradictions, of course, cannot be resolved in an accidental lecture, but they certainly deserve to be further reflected on.

Leo K. Shin is Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies as well as Convenor of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. A former reporter for The Hong Kong Standard, he now regularly teaches a course on the history of Hong Kong.