How to Select a Chief Executive: and Other Metaphors of Hong Kong Politics

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Author/ Jennifer Eagleton

ISBN: 9789083557007

My Hong Kong life is about the same age as the Hong Kong Administrative Region, as I arrived in October 1997 a few months after the hand-over to China. With interest, I watched how Hong Kong spoke of the subtle and not so subtle transitions this radical change in circumstances wrought. It makes me want to know more, in a theoretical sense, how language is used strategically to get messages across overtly or covertly. In this case, how to get across to the Hong Kong public.

Trying to explain Hong Kong’s unique and complex political system, to those who may not be familiar, can cause eyes to glaze over and minds to wander. Current books on Hong Kong's political situation are formed heavily by political science and legal texts, which are dense in every sense of the word. Metaphors on the other hand, describe things more comprehensively, economically, effectively, and with more forcefully impact than it is possible in literal language. In How to Select a Chief Executive, the metaphors often refer to interesting Hong Kong cultural quirks, chasing it with a dose of politics.

Metaphors are extremely effective linguistic tools in that they work to integrate pragmatic, mental, and linguistic knowledge, as well as incorporating ideology, culture, and history. Metaphors can be pressed into service for labelling actors, attributing characteristics, altering perspective, or advancing arguments.

Illustrator/ Shok Han Liu

Cover design/ Ceci 

Publishing and Distribution/ Art and Culture Hong Kong International

First edition, September 2025

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