Projecting Britishness to Hong Kong : the British Council and Hong Kong House, nineteen-fifties to nineteen-seventies

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Historical Research

Publication Date

11-1-2012

Volume

85

Issue

230

First Page

691

Last Page

709

Abstract

This article examines post-war British cultural diplomacy in Hong Kong, focusing on the British Council and Hong Kong House. Drawing on colonial office, British Council and Hong Kong government archival collections, it argues that neither the British nor Hong Kong governments placed a high priority on promoting British cultural values to the Hong Kong Chinese. Moreover, even this limited emphasis declined after the late nineteen-sixties, reflecting both Britain's retreat from what John Darwin calls the 'empire project' and the emergence of a more pronounced Hong Kong local identity.

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2281.2012.00611.x

Print ISSN

09503471

E-ISSN

14682281

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2012 Institute of Historical Research

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Additional Information

Earlier versions of this article were presented to the 2010 ‘Crossroads’ conference of the Association for Cultural Studies, and to the history department seminar at Hong Kong University.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Hampton, M. (2012). Projecting Britishness to Hong Kong: The British Council and Hong Kong House, nineteen-fifties to nineteen-seventies. Historical Research, 85(230), 691-709. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2012.00611.x

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