Europeans in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is the most European city in Asia. It was not only built by British rule and the energy and entrepreneurship of Chinese but also by people from continental Europe, The citizens of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal and have made an enormous contribution to the city.

They built churches, schools, hospitals, companies and institutions that still thrive today. Catholic orders from France and Italy saved the lives of tens of thousands of young Chinese girls who would otherwise have been allowed to die. A French bacteriologist found the cure to the bubonic plague that ravaged the city in 1894. A Hungarian Jesuit in Hong Kong was the world's top China watcher for three decades. Germans built trading companies that helped to make the city the top commercial port in East Asia.

Mark O'Neill recounts the extraordinary story of these Europeans. He mixes history with personal accounts by priests, business people, an art specialist, an expert in fine food and wine, a trilingual singer and a legendary disc jockey. He profiles the institutes that enable Hong Kong people to learn French, German, Spanish and Italian and the international schools that use these languages. Today the city continues to provide Europeans with opportunities and an excitement they cannot find at home. Their love affair with Hong Kong is unabated.