Constructing a laissez-faire narrative of industrialization: Hong Kong at the 1970 World Expo

In 1970, the Hong Kong pavilion at the World Exposition in Osaka offered a narrative of free trade and laissez-faire. It was a narrative that came to impact all subsequent interpretations of the territory’s economic development right up to the present day. This article examines the circumstances behind the pavilion and analyses the ideas and interests involved in creating the narrative. It argues that this narrative was a particular interpretation of Hong Kong’s development and contrary to existing understandings, it was not natural but rather actively constructed in response to an unstable international context that threatened economic development. Drawing on local archives, the article further argues that the narrative presented at Expo ’70 came to be appropriated by economists not only in explanation of Hong Kong, but also to support neoclassical theories of national economic development.