"The Second World War left Hong Kong's education system in ruins. However, like the mythical phoenix, a new system arose from the ashes of the Japanese occupation." "Both a history and a policy-process study, A Phoenix Transformed analyses the emergence of a distinctive Hong Kong education system during the first post-war decade and the largely chaotic government policy-making 'by default' which created that system." "In a society preoccupied with basic needs, the survival instincts of both the government and local residents were critical shapers of policy. Many of the forces then at play - industrialization and urbanization, decolonization and localization, the Cold War and the 'China factor', and great uncertainty about the colony's future - remain of fundamental concern to Hong Kong education policy today"--Jacket.