Hong Kong’s postwar economic boom was spearheaded by the manufacturing industry, notably the textile and garment sector. Yet the whole industry was already in decline by the late 1970s. The economy was rapidly dominated by the financial and real estate sectors. This drastic transition begs the question of how both capital and labour responded to the radical change which was no less dramatic than the earlier transition from an entrepot to an industrial economy. This seminar will look at the investment shift of textile manufacturers to real estate development. It will highlight the unintended consequences of government policies (under the slogan of laissez faire) that set out originally to coordinate textile exports but subsequently shaped such investment shift.
Tak-Wing Ngo is Professor of Political Science at the University of Macau. He formerly taught at Leiden University and was the IIAS Professor of Asian History at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research focuses on political economy, government-business relations, informal governance, and economic history. His most recent publications include Global China’s Shadow Exchange (Cambridge University Press, 2024). His is currently the editor of China Information and a co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary Asia.
This seminar is organized by the Department of History and is co-sponsored by the Centre for Chinese Research and the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative.