With which are incorporated "The China directory" and "The Hongkong directory and Hong list for the Far East" ...

A timely, well-researched, and vibrant new history of Hong Kong that reveals the untold stories of the diverse peoples who have made it a multicultural world metropolis--and whose freedoms are endangered today. Hong Kong has always been many cities to many people: a seaport, a gateway to an empire, a place where fortunes can be dramatically made or lost, a place to disappear and reinvent oneself, and a mixing pot of diverse populations from literally everywhere around the globe. A British Crown Colony for 155 years, Hong Kong is now ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. Here, renowned journalist Vaudine England delves into Hong Kong's complex history and its people--diverse, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan--who have made this one-time fishing village into the world port city it is today. Rather than a traditional history describing a town led by British Governors or a mere offshoot of a collapsing Chinese empire, Fortune's Bazaar is the first thorough examination of the varied peoples who made Hong Kong. While British traders and Asian merchants had long been busy in the Indian and South East Asian seas, there were many from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds who arrived in Hong Kong, met and married--despite all taboos--and created a distinct community. Many of Hong Kong's most influential figures during its first century as a city were neither British nor Chinese--they were Malay or Indian, Jewish or Armenian, Parsi or Portuguese, Eurasian or Chindian--or simply, Hong Kongers. England describes those overlooked in history including the opium-traders who built synagogues or churches, ship-owners carrying gold-rush migrants, property tycoons, and more. Here, too, is the visionary who plumbed Hong Kong's harbor depths to spur reclamation, the half-Dutch Chinese gentleman with two wives who was knighted by Queen Victoria, and the landscape gardeners who settled Kowloon and became millionaires. A story of empire, race, and sex, Fortune's Bazaar combines deep archival research and oral history to present a vivid history of a special place--a unique city made by diverse people of the world, whose part in its creation has never been properly told until now.

The Rare Materials Collection at the National Library, Singapore, contains more than 11,000 items and spans six centuries of history. The collection comprises books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, correspondence, and more, which together provide us with valuable insights into Singapore’s history. This book presents a diverse selection of almost 50 of the rarest and most priceless items in the collection, including the Mao Kun Map, a recently-acquired Munshi Abdullah edition of the Sejarah Melayu, 19th century lithographs, Japanese reconnaissance maps, correspondence from Raffles, and even a football rule book in Jawi. Each item is described and analysed with an insightful essay and richly complemented with illustrations, helping to bring these stories from the stacks to life and lead us down new avenues of historical understanding.