In the underground economy of Cold War-era Hong Kong, gold was fluid, its sparkling rivers joining smugglers and refugees, businesses and law.
For his doctoral research, Binghamton University graduate student Ka Shing So traces these streams, piecing together a hidden history with police records, court cases and more.
“At that time, Hong Kong was a black-market center in Asia and in the world,” said So, an international student. “A lot of gold enters Hong Kong and eventually ends up in a legitimate channel to global markets.”
So earned his bachelor’s degree in Chinese history at City University of Hong Kong, followed by his master’s in history from Binghamton in 2024.
He was initially interested in sociology and particularly world-systems theory; the theory’s main proponent, Immanuel Wallerstein, was affiliated with Binghamton’s Sociology Department from 1976 to 2000, and the Binghamton University Libraries Special Collections has an archive of his papers.
After learning about Binghamton through Wallerstein’s work, So decided to apply for graduate school at the University. He had initially considered researching railway history in contemporary China but encountered obstacles in accessing needed resources. That inspired a shift to his current topic: smuggling in Hong Kong after the end of the Second World War.
“That’s also challenging because I cannot access something like a diary for smugglers,” he explained. “I need to rely on government documents, such as police records and court cases, which are very rich in providing what I need.”
Smuggling was common during the Cold War after China’s new communist regime instituted an embargo with the United States and the West. At the same time, Chinese troops were involved in the Korean War, increasing the need for plastic, food, ammunition and other supplies — an illicit trade that went through Hong Kong, then a British colony.
During that period, Hong Kong used the British pound, although American dollars also flourished there due to formal trade. Gold was a sort of unofficial currency, imported and sold in the city by traders and smugglers.
“Gold is a big commodity in a global context and particularly in Asia. There’s a cultural meaning; people purchase gold to preserve value in case they need to move away,” he said.
The underground gold trade connected a diverse group of people, So found. In addition to the smugglers, there were law enforcement officers who pursued them and occasionally collaborated by taking bribes or smuggling themselves.
Migrants and refugees brought the gold into Hong Kong, selling it to banks and pawn shops, which may not have permits to sell gold in the city. In turn, these middlemen might then sell it to high-end jewelry stores or to factories that needed it for the manufacturing process.
The bulk of So’s sources are in Hong Kong, but other records exist in places such as London, Singapore, India or Australia.
“The project is taking a very different shape from what I first envisioned,” he said. “At first, I wanted to focus on the smugglers because that’s interesting, a bit like a movie. But when I followed the smuggling, the one question I keep asking myself is, ‘Where does this go?’”
