Publisher's Synopsis
Since 1997, the once symbolic infrastructure of British imperialism has seemingly become eyesores of the new Hong Kong authority. In the post-colonial era, is the transformation of former colonial structures an act of de-colonisation, or is it the 'debut' of neo-colonialism? Buried with the ruins, it is the complicated and contradictory representations of the annihilated colonial heritage. The Queen's and Star Ferry Pier complex was where colonial governors disembarked from the Royal yachts when they reached the colony, as well the spot that hosted the city's first wave of social movement directed towards colonial suppressions in the 1970s. The attempt and success of the post-colonial authority to transform colonial spaces and the public who is reluctant to take actions when losing their 'site of memory' are seen as driven by different forms of 'colonial legacy'. This book inspects the legacy's texture, by disentangling the interrelation between material history, historiography, identity, architecture, and civic awareness.
