Tsuen Wan: Growth of a "New Town" and Its People

Tsuen Wan was one of the first of Hong Kong's "New Towns": rural areas in the New Territories transformed since the end of the Second World War by growth and immigration into modern urban centers. James Hayes describes Tsuen Wan's development from the perspective of a government administrator on the scene, witness to the results of the great post-war influx of squatters from neighboring China, to the relocating of traditional villages, the leveling of hills and filling of bays, and the gradual development of local representation in government decision making. Transformation presents a first-hand recounting of the momentous and yet commonplace events that tell so much about how Hong Kong and its environs have made the transition to modernity.