Tea Before the Rain

For better or worse, Hong Kong is not the place it used to be. The book is about what Hong Kong was like before a series of decisive events changed the former British colony, once a cosmopolitan city where East met West freely. The pomp and pageantry of the 1997 handover was only the first act of a theatrical drama that now seems fanciful in the post-2019 reality. This book is a first-person account of the day when History came calling on Hong Kong. “The best non-fiction books combine the epic and the personal,” Canadian author Gordon Pitts writes in a review of Tea Before the Rain in May 2020. “Read this book to understand what Hong Kong is today.” A poignant look back on a fateful day for Hong Kong, where East met West once upon a time in an open society that is now quickly disappearing. The book is a personal narrative of what the author experienced on the day in 1997 when Britain handed the colony back to China. The author interviewed key political figures at the time and attended the change-of-sovereignty ceremony. The 1997 Handover was the grand finale of the clash of two empires in the 19th century, and the curtain-raiser for the looming New World Order in the 21st century. In a May 2020 review of the book, Canadian author Gordon Pitts wrote: "The best non-fiction books combine the epic and the personal. They deftly mix the sweep of history with the sketches of people caught in historys vortex. Tea Before the Rain does that brilliantly for the city of Hong Kong ... Read this book to understand what Hong Kong is today."