[A]n eloquent close-up account.”—New York Review of Books
“Illuminates every phase, trigger and turning point, skirmish and tactic in what became “a fight for the very soul of the city”.”—South China Morning Post
“It gives a sense of immediacy and lived experience which is powerful and compelling; there is a rawness to passages of the book, and a sense of the unresolved trauma that last summer marked.”—Asian Review of Books
“In smooth, heady prose that blends legal scholarship with the romanticism of a battle for independence, Dapiran shows…a city unhinged, on the verge of breakdown.” —Japan Times
“In City on Fire, Antony Dapiran gives a rousing account of the protest movement from its beginnings in 2014 to the long showdowns in 2019…Dapiran takes readers through the streets, alleyways, and subways of the city alongside the black-clad, yellow-hardhat-wearing, gas-masked protesters. He gets inside their skin, signing in to Telegram, an online social network used by the protesters to organize. Because Dapiran is with the crowds, he describes with great verve how the protesters operate without leaders, instead moving “like water” to pop up and then evade the police.” —Jane Perlez, Foreign Affairs
“Dapiran shows how the protests brought worldwide attention to Hong Kong and civil liberties in an autonomous region. Readers will appreciate how the author places the events of 2019 in the context of earlier episodes in Hong Kong’s history such as the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 1967 riots. This fascinating read is essential for anyone interested in the current affairs of Hong Kong, specifically, and China, generally.” STARRED REVIEW —Library Journal
“Excellent reportage that is of critical importance in understanding contemporary Chinese politics.” STARRED REVIEW—Kirkus Reviews
“Readers interested in Hong Kong's history and politics and the history of social movements will find this engaging, engrossing book to be crucial in understanding the role of political demonstration in contemporary Hong Kong.” —Booklist
“The events that have rocked Hong Kong over 2019 have bewildered and surprised people inside and outside the city. This is a timely, well-informed attempt to make sense of everything that has happened—critically important in view of the confusion, and contention, that this event has caused.”—Professor Kerry Brown, Director, Lau China Institute, King’s College London
“City on Fire by Antony Dapiran, a lawyer and writer, offers a firsthand analysis and description of one of the 21st century's most significant struggles. China's authoritarian interference in Hong Kong was met by a unique and unprecedented popular uprising. This book provides a clear narrative and frontline perspective of a complex issue. It is the most comprehensive book about the Hong Kong protests from a professional observer.”—Ai Weiwei
“[A] gifted writer who tells a compelling story of what the protesters have been up against, what they are fighting for, and how their tactics and goals have evolved over time… This is the definitive account of China’s biggest political crisis since Tiananmen.” —National Review
“[A] nuanced, lively eyewitness account of the 2019 protest surge in Hong Kong that garnered so many headlines around the world.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“City on Fire is Dapiran's follow-up to his earlier book about the Umbrella Movement in 2014. The much-longer sequel is deeply personal, based on riveting first-hand accounts and historical insights on the turmoil that erupted last summer. It is helpful that Dapiran, who is impressively versed in the nuances of Hong Kong's local dialect and culture, was present at both watershed moments.” —Reuters, BreakingViews
“Antony Dapiran’s City on Fire combines relentless on-the-ground reporting with a deep understanding of the city’s political, economic and social undercurrents…Dapiran’s style is energetic and vivid, transporting the reader to the middle of a riot police baton charge or a panicked, tear-gassed crowd capturing the broad community support and new-found solidarity of the movement in a city that had a reputation for being cold and distant.” —Sue-Lin Wong, Financial Times
★ 06/01/2020
In 2019, Hong Kong was rocked by massive protests in response to the government's attempt to pass a bill that would have allowed accused criminals to be extradited to mainland China. Writer and Hong Kong resident Dapiran provides a thorough description of the events, from the murder of Poon Hui-wing in 2018, which was used as a justification for the extradition bill, to the district council elections in November 2019, which was an overwhelming victory for pro-democracy parties. Although the extradition bill was eventually withdrawn, the protests continued in part due to dissatisfaction with the undemocratic methods in which Hong Kong's Chief Executive and Legislative Council are elected. Dapiran shows how the protests brought worldwide attention to Hong Kong and civil liberties in an autonomous region. Readers will appreciate how the author places the events of 2019 in the context of earlier episodes in Hong Kong's history such as the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 1967 riots. VERDICT This fascinating read is essential for anyone interested in the current affairs of Hong Kong, specifically, and China, generally. Readers looking for a more academic take on a similar topic should consider Ngok Ma and Edmund W. Cheng's The Umbrella Movement.—Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX
★ 2020-04-20
Australian lawyer and journalist Dapiran, a longtime resident of Hong Kong, gives a commanding firsthand account of the recent—and ongoing—protests there.
The author opens by first noting how freely Hong Kong police were in deploying tear gas to counter the seemingly unending chain of demonstrations that enveloped Hong Kong in 2019—in November, at a rate “approaching two rounds for every single minute of the day”—and how bravely the demonstrators fought back. As with the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989, the protests were touched off by a seemingly minor event, the question of whether an accused murderer sheltering in Hong Kong should be extradited to Taiwan, where he had committed his crime. That event gave rise to a broad-based discussion of whether the government in Beijing would observe the jealously guarded rights of the former British colony. “The year 2019 may be remembered as the year that defined post-handover Hong Kong; China’s answer to that question will determine whether 2019 will also be remembered as the last year of Hong Kong as it once was,” Dapiran writes. Beijing talks a good game of honoring those rights while taking an active role in trying to sway elections and inserting undercover soldiers and police on the streets, all the while attempting to avoid a Tiananmen-like crackdown at the cost of its international high standing. Dapiran argues that the 2019 protests were the continuation of the earlier “Umbrella Movement” of 2014. By implication, the author, who breathed in plenty of tear gas himself while monitoring them, suggests that the protests are likely to begin anew until Beijing honors the terms of the “One Country, Two Systems” model with which it has been trying to woo Taiwan to reunify—and he would seem to endorse the protestors’ claim that they “were freedom fighters not only for their own city, but for the world.”
Excellent reportage that is of critical importance in understanding contemporary Chinese politics.
