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Stanley Kwan, the architect of one of the world’s leading economic indicators, the Hang Seng Index, will help launch his memoirs, The Dragon and the Crown, at the Charles Lee Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto on Thursday, December 11, 2008.

The Dragon and the Crown – Hong Kong Memoirs is the personal story of Stanley Kwan and a fascinating account of 20th century Hong Kong: from entrepot to international financial centre; from a British colony to become part of 21st century China.

“Stanley Kwan is the master of the telling detail as he recounts the saga of his extended family, torn between capitalist, colonial Hong Kong and the Chinese Communist revolution,” writes Jan Wong, author of Red China Blues and Beijing Confidential. .

“Kwan’s own odyssey is gripping as a survivor of the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, wartime interpreter for US troops, creator of the influential Hang Seng Index and, ultimately, target of Communist China’s velvet-gloved attempt to recruit sympathizers among Hong Kong’s rich and famous.”

The book launch will feature a panel discussion on periods of Hong Kong history in which Kwan was an eyewitness to. Joining Kwan will be Senator Vivienne Poy, Professor Bernardl Luk, and Jan Wong. The event is co-sponsored by Asian Institute at the University of Toronto, Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library, and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

Stanley Kwan emigrated to Canada in 1984 and now lives in Toronto. The book is co-authored with his niece Nicole Kwan, a former banking executive in Hong Kong. The Dragon and the Crown is published by Hong Kong University Press www.hkupress.org and distributed in Canada by University of British Columbia Press www.ubcpress.ubc.ca.