Retired expat police officer's book tells of life on the beat in 1970s Hong Kong
Retired officer Chris Emmett has written a revealing book about what it was like being a policeman in the city decades ago
Everything changes and everything stays the same.
That's what struck Briton Chris Emmett yesterday when he returned to Hong Kong for the first time since retiring from the police force in 1998 after a 28-year career.
Now living in the rolling green hills of the Yorkshire Dales in England, the 66-year-old former senior superintendent is here to promote a book that recalls his early years as a policeman in Hong Kong during the 1970s.
"I was surprised how little it had changed," he said, referring to Wan Chai. "I thought this area was a big business centre now, that Hong Kong would have grown out of it but maybe it's my age; if I was 22 and not 66, maybe I would feel different about it," he joked.
"But the prices have changed, it used to be HK$2 for a beer."
Titled , Emmett's book is a behind-the-scenes look at life on the beat from his first days of arriving in Hong Kong.
The 262-page memoir offers a perspective on the life of an expatriate policeman, a view that is becoming rarer as the number of overseas officers in the force dwindles; there are expected to be fewer than 100 by 2015.
