A poignant look back on a fateful day for Hong Kong, where East met West once upon a time in an open society that is now quickly disappearing. The book is a personal narrative of what the author experienced on the day in 1997 when Britain handed the colony back to China. The author interviewed key political figures at the time and attended the change-of-sovereignty ceremony. The 1997 Handover was the grand finale of the clash of two empires in the 19th century, and the curtain-raiser for the looming New World Order in the 21st century.In a May 2020 review of the book, Canadian author Gordon Pitts wrote: and "The best non-fiction books combine the epic and the personal. They deftly mix the sweep of history with the sketches of people caught in history's vortex. Tea Before the Rain does that brilliantly for the city of Hong Kong... Read this book to understand what Hong Kong is today. and "