Hong Kong Metamorphosis

Book excerpt: Apart from eleven years in England for school, university and National Service, and a three-year 'overseas posting' as Hong Kong Commissioner in London, Denis Bray has lived all his life in Hong Kong and China. The metamorphosis is of the man himself as he grew up from childhood, through adolescence to become an administrator in Hong Kong for thirty-five years. It is also the story of Hong Kong's emergence from near death after the Second World War to become one of the major cities in Asia. The story is told as an autobiography, from growing up in China to the occasional brief occupation of the Governor's seat. In the early days, 'administration' was rather a grand word to describe the daily grappling with novel problems never before encountered. In fact, it is difficult to detect any onset of routine. In this life, as in the life of Hong Kong itself, change and challenge were the only constants.