Turning Over a New Leaf: The British Government, the Cultural Revolution, and the Ethnic Chinese Community in Britain, 1967–1968

This article seeks to explain the transnational development of Maoism in the attempt to legitimise the Cultural Revolution and the 1967 Hong Kong Riots to Britain’s ethnic Chinese populace. Based primarily on a survey of ethnic Chinese in Britain undertaken by the Hong Kong government in 1967, both the British and Hong Kong governments were forced to respond to the transnational expansion of Maoism, transmitted by the People’s Republic of China and embraced by certain members of Britain’s Chinese community who faced inequality and discrimination under British rule. This Maoist agitation in turn forced Britain to commit to the welfare of its Chinese community and foster the idea of a Hong Kong identity that was distinctive from Maoism.