A timely well-researched and illuminating” (The New York Times Book Review) new history of
Hong Kong that reveals the untold stories of the diverse peoples who have made it a
multicultural world metropolis—and whose freedoms are endangered today. Hong Kong has always
been many cities to many people: a seaport a gateway to an empire a place where fortunes can
be dramatically made or lost a place to disappear and reinvent oneself and a melting pot of
diverse populations from around the globe. A British Crown Colony for 155 years Hong Kong is
now ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. Here renowned journalist Vaudine England delves into
Hong Kong’s complex history and its people—diverse multi-cultural cosmopolitan—who have made
this one-time fishing village into the world port city it is today. Rather than a traditional
history describing a town led by British Governors or a mere offshoot of a collapsing Chinese
empire Fortune’s Bazaar is a winning portrait of Hong Kong’s vibrant mosaic” (Publishers
Weekly). While British traders and Asian merchants had long been busy in the Indian and South
East Asian seas many people from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds arrived in Hong
Kong met and married—despite all taboos—and created a distinct community. Many of Hong Kong’s
most influential figures during its first century as a city were neither British nor
Chinese—they were Malay or Indian Jewish or Armenian Parsi or Portuguese Eurasian or
Chindian—or simply Hong Kongers. England describes those overlooked in history including the
opium traders who built synagogues and churches ship owners carrying gold-rush migrants the
half-Dutch half-Chinese gentleman with two wives who was knighted by Queen Victoria and the
gardeners who settled Kowloon the mainland peninsula facing the island of Hong Kong and
became millionaires. A story of empire race and sex Fortune’s Bazaar presents a
fresh…essential” (Ian Buruma) formidable and important” (The Correspondent) history of a
special place—a unique city made by diverse people of the world whose part in its creation has
never been properly told until now.
