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HK$ 138 GB£ 13.99 US$ 17.95
ISBN 978-988-79639-8-1
After the serious disruptions to sea and air post caused by covid, there are now much higher freight charges for importers to cope with, but a good stock of books are generally available. In the UK blackwells.co.uk or hive.co.uk are UK based, UK tax paying businesses.* Please order from your local bookshop or, from one of these firms.
In the US, Bookshop.com operates as a BCorp - not for profit firms.
Also available from the publisher, Blacksmith Books, who will send worldwide.
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Adapted from the Introduction to Women, Crime and the Courts. Hong Kong 1841-1941
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My interest in this topic was piqued even before I knew that I'd definitely be writing the book that became Policing Hong Kong - an Irish History. For some years I had been unravelling the stories about my relatives and their townsfolk who were in Hong Kong from the mid-1860s until just after its reoccupation by the British in 1945. They were ordinary men and women, from farming stock, not poor by the standards of the time, but without any silver spoons to smooth their way. But I soon became aware how interconnected lives were here - with other westerners and the longer-term residents from Macao, and with the Chinese community all around them, especially as 'my folk' lived not on the privileged upper reaches of the Peak, but in the very midst of the town itself. I tried to find out how all these other people lived, what their life experiences might be, and in what ways their living in a British Crown colony brought contrasts to the lives of their families in China or Macao.
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Because the group I was then studying were mainly policemen, and there turned out to be quite a lot of them, I kept stumbling across crimes they investigated that had been committed (or not) by women. Here, at last, was a partial answer to my question about the lives of all women in the colony during its first century. True, we’re learning about them, both Chinese and western, when things go wrong, and sometimes dreadfully so. But even the reports about trivial little misdemeanours or transgressions give a glimpse of what was happening day to day. And these crimes were reported - although they were a tiny fraction of the total, newspapers regarded ‘women criminals’ as good copy, so we hear about them, and often with a little more detail than those of their menfolk. So I make no apology for including the brawl for water, the attempt to purchase a few sweets with dodgy five cent coins or the prosecution for illegally hawking a small tray of cakes. They and their ilk have their place in the wider story. But so too do the sickening kidnappings and frenzied murders ...
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The front cover design is a picture of Gilman's Bazaar by Charles Wirgmann from 1854, coloured by Ruth Bannister, used with the generous permission of Wattis Fine Art. The cover design is by Cara Wilson.
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Women, Crime & the Courts featured as
the cover story for SCMP Magazine on 28th March
2021. Accompanied by Adolfo Arranz's atmospheric
illustrations, the excerpts from the book tell of a
violent murder in 1901 and the heartless kidnapping
of a young woman a year earlier. The first story is
deeply sad - whether or not Wong Po had committed
the dreadful crime, she was not destined to live long.
But Tong Kui's case does, at least, have a happier
ending. This link brings up a pdf version of the article.
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The full Introduction is here and for a taste of the
stories try Gwulo's first newsletter of 2021.
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* Did you know? Blackwells and Hive both give discounts
Blackwells to students and members of the SOA, Hive to
students and people over 60 yrs. Worth having!
