Let There Be Light: How Electricity Made Modern Hong Kong

The success of twentieth-century Hong Kong was driven by electricity, which enabled export-driven economic growth, a vibrant civil society, and urban modernity. Mark L. Clifford's book "Let There Be Light" explores how a power company and its founder jumpstarted Hong Kong's postwar economic rise, nationalized electricity companies, and had implications for citizen activism, government involvement, and state controls on private businesses. Electricity transformed daily life, allowing for education, lighting, and commercial activities.

Format: Hardback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 18 July 2023
Publisher: Columbia University Press

The remarkable success of twentieth-century Hong Kong was driven by electricity, a powerful force that transformed the city's economy, society, and culture. The British colonys stunning export-driven economic growth, its status as a Cold War capitalist dynamo, its energetic civil society, and its alluring urban modernity are all stories of electricity's transformative power.

Let There Be Light, a groundbreaking history of electrification in Hong Kong, delves into the intricate relationship between electricity, power, and the city's development. Mark L. Clifford, the author, traces how a power company and its visionary founder jumpstarted Hong Kong's postwar economic rise and set in motion far-reaching political and social change.

Clifford examines Hong Kong's attempt to nationalize electricity companies, the debates over the power supply, and the implications for citizen activism, civil society, government involvement in housing and social issues, and state controls on private businesses. He explores the effects of electrification on both grand politics and daily life.

In the geopolitical struggle of the Cold War, Hong Kong became an explicitly anti-Communist showcase of production and consumption. Its bright lights and neon signs stood in contrast to the darkness and drabness of neighboring China. Electricity transformed people's everyday lives, allowing children to study at night, streets to be lit, and shops in a self-consciously commercial mecca to stay open late.

Let There Be Light offers new perspectives on twentieth-century Hong Kong, revealing electricity as a catalyst of modernization. The book sheds light on the complex interplay between power, politics, and society in a city that has undergone significant transformation over the past century. It is a must-read for anyone interested in Hong Kong's history, politics, and culture.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231201681