Description
Book SynopsisLet There Be Light is a groundbreaking history of electrification in Hong Kong. Mark L. Clifford traces how a power company and its visionary founder jumpstarted the British colony’s postwar economic rise and set in motion far-reaching political and social change.
Trade ReviewLet There Be Light is a cultural, business, and political history of the world’s single most indispensable technology—electricity generation—in a great city that it helped create. This elegantly written, deeply researched, and thoughtful book offers, in microcosm, a global vision of development, finance, and state engagement with the economy. -- Thomas W. Laqueur, author of
The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal RemainsAn insightful and vivid history. Mark Clifford challenges the conventional view of Hong Kong as a laissez-faire state. He shows instead the complex and successful collaboration between its government and its most important industry—electricity. At the center stands Lawrence Kadoorie—a colonial British capitalist at the door of communist China, a Jewish entrepreneur in a city riven with antisemitism. This is a valuable history of business and of technology—and of Hong Kong’s and China’s rise. -- Jonathan Kaufman, author of
The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern ChinaBeautifully written and rich in fascinating detail,
Let There Be Light tells the history of China Light & Power—a company that shaped modern Hong Kong. With scholarly rigor and a journalist’s flair for storytelling, Clifford chronicles the central role a company and its people played in building one of the world’s great cities. An impressive achievement and essential reading for anyone interested in electricity markets, Hong Kong history, or the relationship between businesses and governments more broadly. -- David Sandalow, author of
Guide to Chinese Climate PolicyTable of Contents1. Private Light and Colonial Power
2. In the Beginning: China Light & Power, 1900–1940
3. War, Occupation, and New Possibilities, 1941–1946
4. “The Problem of People,” 1947–1958
5. Electricity as a Political Project, 1959–1964
6. “Die-Hard Reactionary” in the Expanding Colonial State, 1964–1973
7. “Intelligent Anticipation” for “1997 and All That,” 1974–1982
8. Sing the City Electric
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
