Bus

Abstract

Written in November 2001 in homage to Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style, this charming work of flash fiction presents nine vignettes about riding a Tsim Sha Tsui-bound bus in post-handover Hong Kong. Xi Xi’s narrator closely observes the interior of the bus, from the videos playing on the TV monitor to the posters on the placards at the bottom of the stairwell, as well as the other passengers who get on and off, including an elderly woman, an elderly couple, people chatting on their cell phones, and an Indian woman and her child. The story offers readers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary working-class people in contemporary Hong Kong, touching upon topics such as race and gender. The tenth section is an English translation of a Chinese translation of one of Queneau’s chapters. It tells the story of a narrator on a Paris bus who witnesses a bizarrely dressed man accusing a blue man of pushing him every time someone gets off the bus. “Bus” demonstrates Xi Xi’s predilection for intertextuality, showcasing her fondness for responding to foreign literary works and transplanting them to Hong Kong.