This is the first systematic study of the experience of the Hong Kong servicemen in the British armed forces during the colonial period. It puts the Hong Kong servicemen in the contexts of Hong Kong history, the history of overseas Chinese, the history of the British Empire, and the military history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It details the agency of Hongkongers, who were often portrayed as victims or beneficiaries during the two world wars and the Cold War, and highlights the relevance of Hong Kong in the modern history of East Asia. The author also looks at how the intertwined issues of class and race played out among these servicemen, who came from a variety of ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds. The study reveals the complexity of the colonial Hong Kong society by illustrating the interplay between the colonizers and the colonized of different classes and ethnicities, and informs the ongoing discussion about colonial Hong Kong by providing concrete examples of the collaboration between ethnic groups.

The Speaker

Dr Chi Man KWONG was born and raised in Hong Kong and had completed his doctorate degree in Cambridge, United Kingdom. His interest lies in military history in East Asia.

Apart from his recently published Hongkongers in the British Armed Forces,1860-1997, Dr Kwong is also the author of Old Soldiers Never Die (老兵不死：香港華籍英兵), Road to Liberation (重光之路：日據香港與太平洋戰爭), and the co-author of Eastern Fortress, among many other of his publications. He is now the Associate Professor at the Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University.

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