Hong Kong: A Recommended Reading List

Abstract

TO CURATE A reading list of ten to fifteen Hong Kong books that will inspire the international reader of literature is no easy task. For one thing, ten to fifteen is an arbitrary range, and for someone who has devoted so much time and her writing to her birth city, I am keenly aware there are many other titles that could and even should be on this list. But to curate is a curious task, and what I’ve selected might be best defined by this OED example: We are conscious of the debt we owe to those who built what we are now privileged to curate (1985, M. Diamond). A brief word on selection and presentation criteria: only four of the fifteen titles are translations of Chinese literature. Hong Kong’s literature has a short history, and translations of literary work are sadly lacking . At this time, Chinese is still not quite the global language that English is, and in time, we can only hope that this translation oversight will be rectified. Likewise, only four titles are poetry; the rest are prose. It is worth noting that there are significantly more volumes of poetry than literary prose works, and a list of only poetry titles would be a worthwhile one for a poet to curate. Generally , I have chosen work that best showcases the true character of the city through perspectives that are local/global. Some titles are not necessarily the most well-known Hong Kong books in the genre. However, anglophone publishing has favored books by foreigners that are often exoticized depictions , more genre than literary. The list is chronologically arranged by English-language publication date and begins in the mid-twentieth century, which is when, I feel, a truly Hong Kong literature first began to emerge, although the earliest books are by Chinese foreigners who were temporary residents. For obvious reasons, I did not include any of my own titles. Han Suyin A Many Splendored Thing (1952) Fiction – Novel This story of an interracial adulterous affair is one of the least sentimental portraits of postwar Hong Kong. Based on the author’s actual experience (she was a Eurasian medical doctor), it is also a feminist view of the modern Chinese woman. C. Y. Lee The Virgin Market (1965) Fiction – Novel This surprising novel by the Chinese author of the better-known Flower Drum Song is a rare and insightful look at an out-ofwedlock Eurasian red-haired girl raised in Hong Kong’s fishing folk boat community. Leung Ping-kwan City at the End of Time Trans. Gordon T. Osing with the author (1992 / 2012) Poetry If Hong Kong has a poet laureate, it would be the late “PK” or “Ya Se” as he was known. His work is canonical. He honors the Cantonese language and investigates the city from many angles. Nury Vittachi Only in Hong Kong (1993) Nonfiction – Satire This Sri Lankan comic author is a longtime resident who chronicles the comedy of bilingualism, colonialism, and Hong Kong’s mercantile character. Simon Elegant A Chinese Wedding (1994) Fiction – Novel Of the myriad novels by journalists, sinologists , foreign residents, and visitors—some Hong Kong A Recommended Reading List by Xu Xi COVER FEATURE HONG KONG 74 WLT SPRING 2019 good, many indifferent, and the majority dreadful—this one stands out as one of the most sympathetic explorations of an EastWest marriage, primarily from the foreign woman’s point of view. It is also an excellent portrayal of the complexity of being a “typical” Hong Kong Chinese man who is westernized but not. Plus, it beautifully details Cantonese food culture in the wedding banquet. Xi Xi My City: A Hong Kong Story Trans. Eva Hung (1994) Fiction – Novel No book celebrates the city the way My City does. Surreal, fantastical, wry, and deliciously detailed, no writer gets inside Hong Kong’s head and heart quite the way Xi Xi can. Ackbar Abbas Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (1997) Nonfiction – Cultural Studies Twenty-two years later, this book remains the most prescient and incisive commentary on the cultural and political reality of Hong Kong. Louise Ho New Ends Old Beginnings (1997) Poetry To date, this...