Ghetto at the center of the world : Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong / Gordon Mathews.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mathews, Gordon.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chongqing da sha (Hong Kong, China).

Multipurpose buildings--China--Hong Kong.

Multipurpose buildings.

Guesthouses--China--Hong Kong.

Guesthouses.

City dwellers--China--Hong Kong.

City dwellers.

Minorities--China--Hong Kong.

Minorities.

Hong Kong (China)--Commerce.

Hong Kong (China).

China--Hong Kong.

Physical Description:

xi, 241 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Summary:

Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong's tourist district, is home to a remarkably motley group of people. Traders, laborers, and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there, and even backpacking tourists rent rooms in what is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet. But as Ghetto at the Center of the World shows us, the Mansions is a world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations-instead it epitomizes the way globalization actually works for most of the world's people. Through candid stories that both instruct and enthrall, Gordon Mathews lays bare the building's residents' intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas. Book jacket.

Contents:

Note on Hong Kong

Place. Introducing Chungking Mansions ; "Ghetto at the center of the world" ; Why Chungking Mansions exists and why it matters ; The building ; History ; Owners' association ; Business ; My own involvement

People. Traders ; Owners and managers ; Temporary workers ; Asylum seekers ; Domestic helpers ; Sex workers ; Heroin addicts ; Tourists ; How these different groups interact

Goods. The passage of goods in Chungking Mansions ; Selling goods ; Taking advantage of buyers ; Copy goods ; Manufacturers and middlemen ; Tricks and travails of a phone stall ; Varieties of traders ; The generation gap among traders ; Techniques of traders ; The lure of China ; The perils of customs ; The significance of goods and traders

Laws. The omnipresent shadow of the law ; Conflicts within and beyond the law ; The role of police ; Visas and residence rights ; Asylum seekers and the law ; "Real" and "fake" asylum seekers ; The lives of asylum seekers ; The changing treatment of asylum seekers ; Future. Changing imaginations of Chungking Mansions ; How Chungking Mansions transforms people ; Cultural identity ; Global significance ; The future of Chungking Mansions / the future of the world.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226510194

9780226510200

0226510190

0226510204

OCLC:

663773378