Date 4.7.2024
Location Hong Kong
Prof. Cecilia L. Chu has been awarded the prestigious 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 International Planning History Society Book Prize (IPHS Book Prize) for her book, Building Colonial Hong Kong: Speculative Development and Segregation in the City.
The IPHS Book Prize is a prestigious award that celebrates major scholarly works that have advanced the understanding of planning history worldwide over the past two years. This is the second major international book award that Prof. Chu has received for her monograph, after having won the 2023 Best Book in Non-North American Urban History Book Award last year.
Book Title:
Chu, Cecilia L. Building Colonial Hong Kong: Speculative Development and Segregation in the City. Planning, History and Environment Series, Routledge, 2022.
Citations from award committees:
“Engaging a broad, interdisciplinary, and geographically comparative body of literature, Chu moves beyond her [study of Hong Kong ] to make bigger claims about the relationships and tensions among liberal property markets, racist exclusion, cultural representations, and various "improvement" schemes within urban colonial contexts.” (Urban History Association)
“[The book’s] exploration of the interplay between British colonial governance and the political practices of native propertied classes offers new insights into Hong Kong’s development…The breadth and depth of the scholarship will make Building Colonial Hong Kong a reference work for future researchers interested in the urban and planning history of colonial cities.” (International Planning History Society (IPHS)
Citations from peer reviewed journals:
'This is a stellar, insight-filled, and beautifully written analysis of the built environment of one of the world’s most remarkable and still-politically-charged metropolises: ‘the fragrant harbour’ (Xianggang) or, as most know it, Hong Kong.… those with an interest in Hong Kong’s evolution – from a colonial entrepôt to a Chinese city … will learn key lessons from an extremely perceptive scholar, who writes with clarity and insight.' (Jeff Cody, Built Environment)
'Building Colonial Hong Kong is necessary reading for scholars and students of colonial urbanization and planning … Chu’s book is of significance to a much wider audience, who will find in colonial Hong Kong provocative and disquieting similarities to many of the challenges faced by contemporary planners around the world.' (Nick R. Smith, Journal of the American Planning Association)
'Chu’s book is a subtle and significant work in urban colonial history, exposing the speculation and self-interest that drove Hong Kong’s economy and that shaped so many lives through its physical production.' (Chris Cowell, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians)
More information about the book can be found on the publisher’s webpage.
