Book review: Eastern Fortress, by Kwong Chi-man and Tsoi Yiu-lun
Hong Kong's development and decline as an "Eastern Fortress" for the British military has been comprehensively explored in this solidly researched, long-overdue survey history. Robust, wide-ranging use of archival material closely informs the subject but - unlike many such works - this is not a dry recitation of who fired what at whom, and when.
by Kwong Chi-man, Tsoi Yiu-lun
HKU Press
Hong Kong's development and decline as an "Eastern Fortress" for the British military has been comprehensively explored in this solidly researched, long-overdue survey history. Robust, wide-ranging use of archival material closely informs the subject but - unlike many such works - this is not a dry recitation of who fired what at whom, and when.
Unexpected yet fascinating information comes through in odd corners: a photograph of the "Geisha House", as the official British military brothel on Stonecutter's Island was known, reminds us of the vital importance of providing facilities for all aspects of garrison life, especially in the days when venereal disease was rampant, and cures either partial or unknown.
But there are shortcomings. Discussion of pre-British-era military encampments in the broader Hong Kong region would have provided important context. While contemporary Hong Kong is an artefact of the British presence, pre-existing fortifications directly connect the early 19th-century rise in European maritime supremacy to the colony's establishment in 1841-42, and readers should have been told something about them.
Examination of the British military drawdown in Hong Kong, both after final withdrawal from Singapore and Malaysia in 1970-71, and throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, is another glaring omission. Hong Kong remained linked militarily to Brunei during this period, and some examination would have offered a regional perspective. As it stands now, the work tapers off part-way through Britain's late-1960s East of Suez withdrawal policy, which dramatically scaled down the military presence across Asia, and offers little further understanding of what came next as the 1997 handover approached, and why.
The advance towards 1997 is a particularly significant omission, as the Defence Land Agreements concluded between London and Beijing were among the few aspects of the Joint Declaration, and subsequent Joint Liaison Group negotiations, that went smoothly. Likewise, some sense of the contemporary scene would be helpful; military sites still used by the People's Liberation Army could have been easily documented.