Author | Alice Poon (潘慧嫻) |
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Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Subject |
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Genre | non-fiction |
Published |
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ISBN | 978-0-97387600-0 (first edition, hardcover) |
Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong | |||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 地產霸權 | ||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 地产霸权 | ||||||||||||
Jyutping | dei6 caan2 baa3 kyun4 | ||||||||||||
Cantonese Yale | deih cháan ba kyùhn | ||||||||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Dì chǎn bà quán | ||||||||||||
Literal meaning | real estate/property hegemony | ||||||||||||
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Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong (Chinese: 地產霸權; lit. 'real estate hegemony'[1] or "property hegemony"[2]) is a book written by Alice Poon Wai-han[3] (traditional Chinese: 潘慧嫻; simplified Chinese: 潘慧娴; Jyutping: pun1 wai6 haan4; pinyin: Pān Huìxián), a former personal assistant of Kwok Tak-seng, the late co-founder of Hong Kong-based conglomerate Sun Hung Kai Properties.[3] She also worked for another Hong Kong-based conglomerate, Kerry Properties.[4] The book was about some real estate tycoon families of the former British colony,[5] especially Li Ka-shing family, Kwok Tak-seng family, Lee Shau-kee family, Cheng Yu-tung family, Pao Yue-kong family and Kadoorie family, who controlled "property-cum-utility/public services conglomerates" of Hong Kong.[6][7]
The book was written in Richmond, British Columbia.[8] Poon resided in Steveston,[9] a neighbourhood in the city.
According to a book review, as of December 2010, in less than 6 months of publishing, the Traditional Chinese edition had been re-printed 7 times to the 8th print.[10] The first Traditional Chinese edition also contained revised and updated materials that did not appear in the first English edition.[7]
After the publication of the Traditional Chinese translation, it popularised the Chinese book title 地產霸權 as a term to describe the real estate tycoons of Hong Kong, according to Hong Sir in his column in Apple Daily.[11]
The original English edition was reviewed by Canada Book Review Annual (CBRA) as a Canadian book.[8] CBRA "was founded to provide Canadians with an evaluative guide to all the English-language and Canadian-authored scholarly, reference, trade, children's, and youth books published in Canada each year."[12]
The Traditional Chinese translation was also reviewed by Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily in 2011, with title Dào dǐ shì shéi zài kòng zhì xiāng gǎng ? (lit. 'Who Controls Hong Kong?').[7][13] Since Nanfang Media Group, the publisher of Southern Metropolis Daily, is a state-owned media, the review was also interpreted by a Shenzhen-based academician, as an opinion from the central Chinese government regarding the tycoons themselves.[13] According to the book review, the Simplified Chinese edition had some chapters censored.[7]
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