作者藉著解讀香港卧底電影的情緒和結構，從而進一步解讀香港百多年來的殖民地歷史。作者指出，臥底形象和 “無間道” 的故事已不只是單純的電影，事實上它們已成為當前香港政治話語的一部份。主權交接後的首任特區政府，致力排斥英治時期人物，因為他們被疑為前政府留下的臥底。2004年因所謂 ‘愛國論’ 而激發的表態交心熱潮，又使政治效忠及雙重身份的有關矛盾迅速激化，再加上甚至連中央駐港機構 ‘中聯辦’ 亦被揭發有間諜案發生，當今狩獵臥底的行為，事實上並不只是一項文化隱喻。回歸後當政七年的董建華政府，施政頻頻失誤。在2003年七月一日激發五十萬人大遊行之後，一組將董建華嘲弄為一名臥底的笑話，也在坊間迅速流行起來。原因是他雖然實行保守路線，卻正因為他那種無法想像的無能，成為凝聚公憤的對象，反諷地一時激發起香港前所未有的追求民主熱潮。

In this powerful and provocative book, Prasenjit Duara uses the case of Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in northeast China from 1932-1945, to explore how such antinomies as imperialism and nationalism, modernity and tradition, and governmentality and exploitation interacted in the post-World War I period. His study of Manchukuo, which had a population of 40 million and was three times the area of Japan, catalyzes a broader understanding of new global trends that characterized much of the twentieth century. Asking why Manchukuo so desperately sought to appear sovereign, Duara examines the cultural and political resources it mobilized to make claims of sovereignty. He argues that Manchukuo, as a transparently constructed "nation-state," offers a unique historical laboratory for examining the utilization and transformation of circulating global forces mediated by the "East Asian modern." Sovereignty and AUthenticity not only shows how Manchukuo drew technologies of modern nationbuilding from China and Japan, but it provides a window into how some of these techniques and processes were obscured or naturalized in the more successful East Asian nation-states. With its sweepingly original theoretical and comparative perspectives on nationalism and imperialism, this book will be essential reading for all those interested in contemporary history.