Hong Kong Studies Reader Series

This book explores the challenges to news professionalism and media autonomy stemming from the state, market pressure, the digitalization of communication, and a polarized civil society in Hong Kong. China is tightening its control over post-handover Hong Kong, which includes press freedom. Harsh market competition, coupled with shifting readership from mainstream media to digital platforms, is squeezing the business viability of media organizations. The polarization of civil society in post-handover Hong Kong had degraded consensual values upon which news professionalism relies. Journalists have had to reorient news professionalism and media power in the midst of state-society tension, market pressure, and the shifting communication mode driven by digitalization. These are the key questions for Hong Kong media. This dynamic intervention will be of interest to journalists, scholars of civil society, and scholars of Asian politics.

This book aims at providing an accessible introduction to and summary of the major themes of Hong Kong history that has been studied in the past decades. Each chapter also suggests a number of key historical figures and works that are essential for the understanding of a particular theme. However, the book is by no means merely a general survey of the recent studies of Hong Kong history; it tries to suggest that the best way to approach Hong Kong history is to put it firmly in its international context. 

Hong Kong Identity: A Scholarly Record is an empirical analysis of the city’s territorial identity politics. Placing the discussion firmly within comparative politics literature, this book endeavours to present the case study of Hong Kong’s territorial identity politics to both the local and international community.

The book empirically traces the historical-political development of the “Hongkongers” identity from 1841 to 2020, with a focus on its evolution into a “collective action frame” since the mid-2010s. Through a number of original data collection—telephone surveys, extended interviews, macro-organisational analysis, organisational surveys, and protest event analysis—this book empirically addresses the research questions of who, why, and how people protested. It guides readers to understand and interpret Hong Kong’s territorial identity politics in a comparative and theoretical way.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of comparative politics. Experienced political researchers in Hong Kong will find this book illuminating; while comparative political scholars worldwide would also find it a handy introductory text to the critical case of Hong Kong. This book is also an excellent resource for instructors and students of Asian Studies, China Studies, and Hong Kong Studies.