City on the Rocks: Hong Kongs Uncertain Future

This substantial volume reveals Hong Kong mainly from current financial and political perspectives. Rafferty, who has been an Asia-Pacific correspondent for The Financial Times and Insitutional Investor , tells an occasionally repetitious story of the colony's people and neighborhoods, its banks and shops and money-making hustle. The shadow of China looms in later chapters as Rafferty discusses the 1984 Joint Declaration wherein Britain yields Hong Kong to China in 1997 (a well-balanced assessment) as well as the aftermath of the Tiananmen Massacre. This complements Jan Morris's Hong Kong ( LJ 2/1/89): where Morris's prose is more lucid, Rafferty's is more statistical; where Morris is more historical, Rafferty is more present- and future-oriented. Enhanced with a good bibliography, this is especially recommended for business-minded readers.
-Elizabeth A. Teo, Moraine Valley Community Coll. Lib., Palos Hills, Ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.