Dr. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History at UC Irvine, discusses his new book, Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink (New York: Columbia Global Reports, 2020).

Wasserstrom frames Hong Kong's 2019/2020 protests, and the new National Security Law, in a wider historical narrative: from its colonial "founding" under the Treaty of Nanking (29 August 1842) to the 1997 Handover. The latter was itself prefaced by tense negotiations between Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping in the drafting of the Basic Law. 

Temperate and moderate, Wasserstrom makes parallels to the controversial "T"s - Taiwan, Tibet, Tiananmen - even as he traces the limits of these analogies.

Wasserstrom also takes us through his drafting process, from revising its historical analogues to retitling the book. Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink  beautifully blends fire and water, and nearly two centuries of history, into a pocket-sized primer.