Town Talk: enhancing the ‘eyes and ears’ of the colonial state in British Hong Kong, 1950s–1975

Abstract

This article offers a longer perspective on the origins and effectiveness of reforms of colonial governance in Hong Kong. It shows that the colonial state shifted from increasingly ineffective indirect rule to using a covert bureaucratic opinion poll, Town Talk, to assess public opinion. The article argues that this bureaucratic device increased the organizational capacity of the colonial state and, in so doing, enabled a constructed form of ‘public opinion’ to influence policy formulation in a state-controlled manner without democratization. This mechanism was used as an imperfect substitute for representative democracy. These reforms enhanced a ‘non-political’ sense of citizenship among the Hong Kong Chinese but failed to bridge a communication gap between an unelected government and the people over whom it ruled.

Therapeutic governance in Hong Kong’s anti-narcotics war, 1959–1980s

“…These measures were often aligned with the large-scale social reforms on housing, medicine, and social services in the late 1960s and 1970s to add credibility to colonial governance as well as to function as a bargaining chip in negotiations with China about the handover. 8 This study joins the ongoing discussion about social welfare and argues that the colonial government constructed a new form of therapeutic governance by launching the anti-narcotics war and medicalizing addiction as a mental health problem. The colonial state, once an advocate of the opium trade, rebranded itself as a protector of citizens by curing and transforming addicts into useful and productive subjects.…”

Entertainment, Chinese Culture, and Late Colonialism in Hong Kong

“…Before the 1960s, state-society communication remained limited. 26 The 1966 riots made local senior civil servants agree that the government had to further legitimate and justify colonial rule. 27 In particular, the riots revealed youth grievances, the communication gap between the state and the people, and the need to cultivate people's sense of identity.…”