In this topical study Nicklas Junker closely examines five major events in Hong Kong’s modern history and gives the reader new insight into the emergence and development of the region’s identity. Using the descriptions of historical events in Chan Ho-Kei’s novel The Borrowed as a starting point, this study looks at the 1967 riots, corruption in 1977, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident, the epochal handover of the territory to China in 1997, and the SARS epidemic in 2003. It offers a detailed survey of documents relating to these historical events, analysing and exploring how each event has impacted the Hong Kong public’s understandings of its ‘place identity’.