The writing of history used to concentrate on narrative, analysis or theory. The historian stayed out of sight. This book is part of a more recent trend. Here, Susanna Hoe discusses her relationship to her material, the processes of research and writing, and her characters. She does so by exploring and sometimes comparing, the lives of Chinese and western women who have lived in China, Hong Kong and Macau, and links them not only to herself but also to contemporary women’s issues, human rights and colonialism. Chinese Footprints is about the practice of history. The approach and style make it both accessible and teachable. The characters include 1930’s civil and women rights campaigners Shi Liang, China’s Minister of Justice 1949 to 1959, Agnes Smedley and Stella Benson, autobiographical writer Xiao Hong, revolutionary Soong Ching Ling, traveller Ella Maillart, philanthropist Clara Ho Tung, and Clara Elliot, who was part of the story of Hong Kong’s cession to Britain in 1841.