Introduction

Abstract

Against the general background of Hong Kong as a global city, this book focuses on the development of Mui Wo, a 6000-strong rural community located on Lantau Island, which is the largest outlying island of Hong Kong, over the period of 1997–2013. The work offers a dimension to read and understand the community as a site of alternative development in the age of global capitalism. It explores how changes in the configuration of roads and passageways led to the semi-detachment of the town from the city of Hong Kong over the above-mentioned decade, providing little room for profit-making from the perspective of capital. And yet as a result, the rural town was left with the time and space to retain and develop its local practices while offering itself as a welcoming home to people from different backgrounds. The work offers an account of the encounters of these residents, including indigenous inhabitants, long-time local residents and the many foreign nationals and middle-class people who have moved to Mui Wo in recent years. It paints a dynamic picture of their interactions; in many ways, it is a reflection of wider social relations in the context of globalisation. In other words, while focusing on the daily life of a small rural town, the work provides insights and reflections on the globalisation of capitalistic development in contemporary days.