Joanna Yiu, Grass root fighters: Hong Kong stevedores and colonial governance over the Chinese before 1945《群力勝天：戰前香港碼頭苦力與華人社區的管治》, 2015

About the book:

This monograph reconstructs the history of Hong Kong stevedores, as a group of Chinese population, and to observe its close connection with colonial governance over the Chinese population in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong as a trade port has been relying on the human power of stevedores (addressed as coolies in Chinese language) to achieve economic prosperity. Stevedore was one of the core occupations of the Chinese lower class, which also highlighted its significance of representing the Chinese people. As an active group in colonial Hong Kong, stevedores struggled with government policies for better living and working conditions, again and again. The history of these ‘coolies’ can indicate the ground of government policies in particular stage. The research covers period from 1844 to 1945, by studying lives and work of stevedores, the research examines how this lower class of Chinese population interacted with the colonial government in different stages, and explores a variety of approaches for knowing about the stories of Hong Kong people in the past, and to provoke a reflection on the values and social justice of our home city.

About the author:

Joanna Yiu is a teaching fellow of Thei, she teaches modules of humanities and Hong Kong history. As influenced by her teachers during Mphil and PhD studies, her research interests are in social and cultural history of Hong Kong and modern China, as well as in museum curatorship and heritage studies.