Hong Kong Books

A collection of Xi Xi's short fiction regarding life in the untamed and fascinating Hong Kong of the 1980s. This work puts you squarely in the middle of Hong Kong during negotiations between the British & Chinese government. In the first half of the 1980's, the Chinese and British governments negotiated Hong Kong's future, inducing fierce soul-searching and intimate scrutiny of society and the general population.

Xi Xi skillfully shows us by contrast and in-depth perception the real and imagined, the new and the ancient, the infringement of Western culture and local traditions; and she has created stupefying narratives telling of the expectations, dreams, desires, hostility and apprehension that the Hong Kong citizens found themselves inextricably snarled in during this climactic time in their history.

Xi Xi has used her text in conjunction with the pictures of Rene Magritte. In doing so, she has blended an interpretation of images Belonging to modern Western tradition with a uniquely contemporary Hong Kong interpretation.

Most other books written posturing and speculating about the handover will be long forgotten after the event occurs. The lovely and particular way with which Xi Xi has written her work will guarantee that it remains a valuable resource in defining the history of Hong Kong for decades to come. Leslie Blanchard

Editor A Writer's Choice Literary Journal

Where it settles
In our hearts
In our heads
Rocked tirelessly: We a liquid cradle make, each rock, a child running wrinkled fingers out to touch his new-found eyes opening in pronounciation of our sky.

Honestly, I collect these books cause they're by far the best. You will not be let down. It's worth the money (or even more, considering the bargain you're getting here on Amazon!).


I'm a real, true, sincere reviewer. If I like a product, and I think I got a bargain, I do the favor, and write the review.

This travel book is fantastic....I have several National Geographic Traveler Guides and wish they made them for everywhere. I have always used Lonely Planet exclusively but have been switching over to these guides instead in places that are covered by National Geographic. I work for an airline so I travel a lot, and these really are the best. They sometimes miss a few little details that Lonely Planet has, but the problem with Lonely Planet is there is often too much information and not enough photos/descriptions. The National Geographic books have tons of photos so you know what you want to see, and give great route and detailed itinerary descriptions so you don't miss anything along the way. You must have this book if you are going to Hong Kong! If you are backpacking you might still need the Lonely Planet, but if you are just traveling through or are visiting on business or pleasure buy this book.

This is a great book, with photographs from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. The Nile in Egypt is what we are used to see photographed, so it is interesting to see other sides of this great river. The photos are simply stunning!

James Clavell was a WONDERFUL Writer (yes, with a capital W) and NOBLE HOUSE was a gift he left to us!

Through his eyes we visit Hong Kong in the 1970's. Clavell, like a virtuoso connaisseur of the human condition he is, manages to interweave a multitude of stories into a continuous carpet of a city living fast, taking risks, winning and loosing but never giving up.
Heads of huge conglomerates on the verge of foundering - yet never letting go of their rival's throat; dirt-poor Chinese maids striking it rich by a sudden turn of their joss; photographer-Wo and his trophy collection; drug-running smugglers asking for favors-you-can't-refuse; cold war spy networks riddled with double and triple agents; an American stock-market runner trying his hand in raiding Hong Kong companies; ladies getting "pillowed", men getting wooed, fortunes made and lost in the 10 days these all take place. Will the Noble House survive?

To quote Balzac, behind every great fortune lies crime. To prove him right, Noble House is but a thinly veiled reference to Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd, a real company. Anticlimactically for an historic British company operating in China, it is nowadays incorporated in Bermuda - and trying to forget its opium-running past (like so many City of London companies respectable today yet founded on drugs and dead natives).

All these stories are presented masterfully, without ever loosing the reader's interest or dropping the ball of building tension. There were less than a dozen writers who could do this - starting with Homer.

My copy was so worn I had to replace it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

PS:
There is a 1988 TV mini series based on this book - of comparable merit. (The mini-series are currently available only on VHS). The major casting was excellent (having suave Pierce Brosnan and beastly John Rhys-Davies go head-to-head was a stroke of genius). Although it run for 6 hours total, it barely scraped the surface of the complex story-lines. Truly beautiful production.
Nevertheless, my advice is to first read the book and only THEN watch the TV version.

I have read the book and it has many intereting pictures especially if you know what Hong Kong looks like now. Also it depicts what life was like. In all a high quality interesting book.

A highly readable but scholarly book. Should not be a reader's first book about Chinese art, but is very useful for, say, college art history at any level.

In what I found to be the most useful chapter, "Significant Criteria for Period Style," Stanley-Baker manages to isolate exactly what attributes belong to Song, Yuan, and Ming paintings. Her observant writings that link the physical with the spiritual (e.g. breathing space in relation to mountains in landscape paintings) are wonderful in their simplicity. Her essays will certainly enrich the connoiseur's love of Chinese art.

I see this book as indispensable to the student of Chinese art and highly recommended to the amateur of same.

Perhaps the best place to read a good overview of Asian film for a beginner. It also helps that the editor has chosen a who's who of writers to do bits on different topics.

One Country, Two Systems of Hong Kong in the coming year of 2003!
No doubt, it is the very good concept to maintain Hong Kong to have the good demo structure after back to China since 1997.

However, Hong Kong has been changed rapidly in these five years even in political, economical or financial climates. If you are the Hong Kong People, how do you think and run in the next decade. China and Hong Kong are the co-competitor in business and financial development after the WTO and Globalization in 2002.

Hong Kong is still have the business chances or models to compete with Shanghai or other Pearl River Delta (PRD) Regions ? That is the major concerns for every citizens in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is not the same as before... Don't play back your minds to 1990's.

Thinking on your future, Looking for your new fashions of business models or even need to re-fresh your minds.

Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and China is the Great China Business Region! But how to join them into the one country and four systems business zones, reckon it is also the major question for every business people in globe.

No doubt, Hong Kong is facing the deepest deflation in 2002. And How the Hong Kong People can stand up again in the coming decade? And Can the Hong Kong SAR Government help their citizens to solve all economic crisis in coming Five years?

Hong Kong's major concerns are Freedom, Human Rights and Laws.
Hong Kong is not the China's System. They are standing at the sytem of Capitalism.

Hope Hong Kong's citizens can work hard on every day.
Forget all the past crisis..
Thinking more on positive development in 2003.

Don't be afraid and keep up your warmer's hearts.
Reckon Hong Kong can be lighted up again in Globe and even better than the history in 1990...