All over the world, there are people on the other side of middle age, who enjoyed life in one or other of Britain's colonies during the Empire.

Which as you know, occupied a vast swathe of the globe. (No, I'm not going to repeat the old clichés about maps coloured pink, or suns not setting). But there are a lot of people who lived in luxury not shared by their counterparts in the native population, and who may—or may not have—nostalgic memories of a lifestyle vastly different to wherever they ended up after their colonial home gained independence. Whether they were in India during the Raj, or Malaysia, or Egypt in the Middle East, or any number of countries in Africa or the Caribbean, they tended to live beside but apart from the local culture. Like expats, but perhaps with an added sense of entitlement. Not always, I hasten to add. No one could accuse that George Orwell's Burmese Days (1934) of a sense of colonial entitlement. It was an exposé of corruption and bigotry, and a bitter portrayal of colonial society.

Some who grew up in the colonies transitioned from their experience to an adult awareness of the issues that surround colonialism. In Oleander, Jacaranda (1994) Penelope Lively wrote vividly about her ashamed astonishment that as an adult she could not bear to witness the ubiquitous poverty and squalor in Egypt, but had never even noticed it as a child though it was all around her. "How did I not see it? she asked herself... OTOH June Porter wrote a memoir about her time swanning about in India during the Raj... it was called Can a Duck Swim? (2013), and you can see my thoughts about her insouciance here.

The Kowloon Kid, a Hong Kong Childhood is interesting because so few authors tackle the mixed emotions arising from a colonial childhood. There must be thousands of them, not just from when the Colonial Office sent its staff out hither and yon. There were also families like Brown's who had commercial interests in the colonies as well. Brown's father had a construction business which did very well in postwar Hong Kong's boom, and presumably provided a lot of employment and contributed to development generally. So though born in Australia, Brown spent the formative years of his childhood in Kowloon from 1963 to 1969.

Brown is a columnist for a lifestyle magazine and is Arts Editor of The Courier Mail in Queensland, so he has a breezy, entertaining style. Although the book is mostly about childhood fun and mischief and his growing anxiety about his father's drinking which burgeoned amid the social life of Hong Kong, he does also contend with the realities of colonial life. He notes, without being heavy-handed about it, that although he should, he knows next-to-nothing about their household staff, people who included his amah and the driver who were part of his daily life. And although he was only a child at the time, he alludes to a Communist uprising in 1967:

On July 8, 1967 armed villagers from the People's Republic attacked a border police post at Sha Tau Kok, killing five policemen. Reports of uniformed people moving towards a major crossing point in force sent the colony into a panic. Britain's crack Nepalese troops, the Gurkha Rifles, led by Major General Ronald McAlister, ended the siege of the police station and protected the border throughout the troubles. They were tough. I know because we used to play their children at soccer and even the kids were tough. We doubled up our shin pads for those matches. (p.175)

[Brown's light-hearted memoir is not the place for historical analysis, but I found myself wondering what China's motivation might have been. They could not seriously at that time have thought of taking on the British Empire, even though it was weakened after the war. This incident makes me think of the way China has responded to the current situation in Hong Kong by massing armed forces near the border. It conveys a clear message: look what we could do if we wanted to. We might not win, but we can make you feel very insecure, and over time, that might be enough to break you.]

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/09/13/the-kowloon-kid-a-hong-kong-childhood-by-phi... ( )