Power and Politics at the Colonial Seaside

Poon analyzes the ways in which British colonists and Chinese leaders, backed by the rhetoric of public health and nationalism respectively, transformed the Hong Kong seaside into a leisure space. This book will be of great interest to historians with an interest in leisure and in Empire and Colonialism.

Shuk-Wah Poon is Associate Professor of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

1. Introduction 2. Politics of Recreation: Colonial Governance and the Bathing Beaches, 1842-1930s 3. Nationalism and Collaboration: Chinese Sports Associations and Sea Bathing in Hong Kong 4. Cross Harbour Swim: Competition and Integration 5. Liberty and Morality of the Body on the Beach 6. Seaside Tourism: Class, Race, and Spatial Reconfigurations of Repulse Bay, 1920-1982 7. Epilogue: From the Seaside to the Swimming Pool