James Hayes is a scholar of the Hong Kong region and its people. In his thirty-two years of government service he served in the New Territories almost half the time, and was Regional Secretary New Territories, heading the District Administration there in 1985-87. His publications include Friends and Teachers Hong Kong and Its People 1953-87 (Hong Kong University Press, 1996) and The Hong Kong Region Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside (1977, reprinted by Hong Kong University Press, 2012).