Book Reviews
1231
While Bao has written a book that speaks to readers beyond traditional audiences for queer studies, he has not abandoned the approaches that have been so useful in understanding gay identities. Although the book occasionally delves into poststructuralist debates that could confuse some readers, when Bao writes in his distinctively clear voice he reaches most widely, demonstrating well how attention to social construction rather than outward appearance can help us see dynamics others might miss. He highlights, for instance, the important class difference in queer identities that has received less attention than it should – given the Marxist lens through which he views queer China this should not be surprising. The stories told throughout the book are more of continuity than change. He argues, quite convincingly, how constraints on articulations of the “self” under Mao have continued today, with an increasingly ambivalent public conception of the “self” in postsocialist China. Bao does not compartmentalize Chinese queer studies. Rather, he helps us understand the particular histories and contexts that have created an identity that, like any gay identity in any given country, has its idiosyncrasies. This makes the account satisfying for China scholars, and appropriately broad and applicable to those outside China studies. The book’s diverse chapters reveal Bao’s ambition, and his ability to deploy a wide range of approaches to answer difficult questions. Each is incredibly rich with empirics and analysis; some (like chapter four) are bursting with material, which can leave readers wanting more space for it to be digested and analysed. While the book holds together well as a single volume, individual chapters could be easily assigned to students, both to learn about particular topics but also the approaches used to understand them. Indeed, in many respects, those who would not typically read a book like this are exactly those who should. It explains complex issues and approaches in a manner that is truly accessible to a wide range of readers. This might be the book’s greatest contribution – to expand the knowledge and understanding of queer people in China outside traditional disciplinary and methodological boundaries. TIMOTHY HILDEBRANDT T.R.Hildebrandt@lse.ac.uk
A Death in Hong Kong: The MacLennan Case of 1980 and the Suppression of a Scandal NIGEL COLLETT Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 2018 xxxi + 499 pp. HK$278.00; $45.00 ISBN 978-962-937-347-4 doi:10.1017/S0305741018001571
Was it murder or suicide? This was one of the questions a Commission of Inquiry into the death of police Inspector John MacLennan was tasked to answer in 1980. He had been found in his locked flat, shot five times. Nigel Collett’s book is the first exhaustive study of the circumstances surrounding MacLennan’s death and the context in which Hong Kong’s colonial government sought to cover up a scandal. The incident itself is significant for it pointed to the need to reform the British-imposed laws outlawing homosexuality because they encouraged blackmail that allowed triads to control government officers to the detriment of the community. The commissioner of the Commission (Justice T. L. Yang, later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong) also chaired the Law Reform Commission’s subcommittee on homosexual Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Run Run Shaw Library, City University of Hong Kong, on 29 Apr 2019 at 05:48:34, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741018001571