Troubling American Women

　　American women have lived in Hong Kong, and in neighboring Macao, for nearly two centuries. Many were changed by their encounter with Chinese life and British colonialism. Their openness to new experiences set them apart both individually and as a group. Equally, a certain "pedagogical impulse" gave them a reputation for outspokenness that sometimes troubled those around them. Drawing on memoirs, diaries, newspapers, film, and other texts, Stacilee Ford tells the stories of several American women and explores how, through dramatically changing times, they communicated their notions of national identity and gender. Troubling American Women is a lively and provocative study of cross-cultural encounters, shedding light on the connections between the histories of Hong Kong and the US, on the impact of Americanization in Hong Kong, and on the ways in which Hong Kong people used stereotypes of American womanhood in popular culture.

　　Troubling American Women will appeal to students and scholars in history, gender and cultural studies and to all readers with an interest in the encounter between China and the West.

作者簡介

Stacilee Ford

　　Stacilee Ford has lived in Hong Kong for 18 years. She teaches history and American studies at the University of Hong Kong and is the author of Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting's An Autumn’s Tale.

List of figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction Women, Nation, and the Cross-Cultural Encounter 1

Chapter 1 “American Girls” in Three Acts Encounters in Nineteenth-Century Macao and Hong Kong 17

Chapter 2 “I’m in the Middle of a War, I’m in the Middle of a Life”Women, War, and National Identity 57

Chapter 3 “A Second Voice of America”Women’s Performances of Nation in Cold War Hong Kong 103

Chapter 4 Home for the Handover Muted Exceptionalisms in Transnational Times 141

Conclusion 179
Notes 183
Bibliography 215
Index 235