Contact us on (02) 8445 2300
For all customer service and order enquiries

Woodslane Online Catalogues

9781501787638 Academic Inspection Copy

Savage

The Making of Modern Dogs in British Hong Kong
Description
Author
Biography
Google
Preview
Savage explores the dark side of colonial modernity through canine eyes, showing the many ways that dogs involuntarily contributed to the modernization of twentieth-century Hong Kong. Catherine S. Chan follows the piecemeal transplantation of British animal humanitarianism as pedigree dogs accompanied hardening class differences, dog meat became a contested racial issue, and dogs were roped into the long list of undesirables fabricated in the so-called golden era of reforms following the social disturbances of the 1960s. Chan reveals a fragmented civilizing project that constructed dogs as dangerous, filthy, and unnecessary nuisances in a burgeoning city, rationalizing the slaughter of tens of thousands of dogs alongside paradoxical criticism of the native population for animal cruelty and the promotion of British animal humanitarianism. Departing from anthropocentric perspectives in understanding the use of Britishness in the molding of modern cities, Savage restores the presence and agency of dogs to encourage a rethinking of the patchiness of British colonial governance and the long-lasting repercussions that modernity can have on our relationship with animals.
Catherine S. Chan is Research Assistant Professor of History at Lingnan University. She is the author of The Macanese Diaspora in British Hong Kong.
Google Preview content