This article examines colonial statecraft and state–society relations in a pivotal period for Hong Kong. Using historical methods and archival evidence, it overcomes the limitations in existing research, which is often theoretically driven and reliant on published
sources. The article reveals that the Hong Kong masses were made structurally invisible by the Movement of Opinion Direction (MOOD), a polling exercise introduced by the reformist colonial state. The public were unaware that their views were disseminated
to policymakers and that they affected policy formulation: this was covert colonialism. The article investigates confidential MOOD reports generated by the Home Affairs Department from 1975 to 1980, demonstrating why and how the colonial administration
constructed public opinion. By disclosing what these secret files reveal about changing public attitudes towards the colonial government, the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the article also provides new insights into public receptions of the state’s reforms and potential threats to the colonial regime in the 1970s.

Chinese migrations and the development of overseas Chinese communities have aroused scholarly concerns over the past two decades. Their scale, scope and varied features stun and perplex many scholars. Among the linguistic terms about contemporary Chinese transnationalism, the term piao (drifting) rises to prominence and characterizes the new logics of migration. This article is a case study of the educated mainland Chinese youth in Hong Kong, locally coined as ‘gangpiao’ (Hong Kong Drifters). I argue that there are two contradictory logics inherent to this form of sino-centric transnationalism. It testifies to the production of neo-liberal subjectivity, practices, and desires in compliance with China’s authoritarian capitalism, on the one hand, and critical internationalism in defiance of the state power, on the other. The former is a disengaged form of cosmopolitanism while the latter serves as an alternative but risky way of political engagement.