Features

Essays of Kwun Tong

4 Mar 2009

 

Essays of Kwun Tong

Nicole Chabot, Hongkong Polytechnic University, US$5.80

Essays of Kwun Tong is a compilation of, well, impressions about one of Hongkong’s first urban areas – the musings of the author after she participated in a project on sustainable urban development.

Although the preface describes Chabot’s work as “personal” and a departure from the “traditional offerings of academia”, somehow one gets the impression of a writing style that is cold and lacks a sizable dose of emotion.

Complete with a map and an appendix containing detailed statistics about Hongkong, it feels more like a research paper than anything else. With an almost scientific tone, Chabot discusses her observations while tirelessly describing them with her extensive, but sometimes unfamiliar vocabulary.

First, discover some of the most popular places in Hongkong to indulge in beef brisket noodles and its ability to draw thousands of patrons each day. Following that, witness the conception and birth of an up-and-coming art movement in the district that one day promises to rival similar revolutions in New York city’s TriBeCa and London’s East End. Finally, visit a place where the sword of tradition battles globalisation – represented by an imposing shopping mall – in a losing clash of two civilisations.

Each chapter is a snapshot of what Kwun Tong was, is now and also a hint of the future, a rolling reel of film about loss and progress. One can either treat it as a mini-guidebook to experience “real” Hongkong and life as the locals lead it, or view it as a chilling reminder of the fragility of a country’s (or in this case, Special Administration Region’s) heritage.

Brimming (and sometimes, overloaded) with painstaking detail and information, it is obvious though that a lot of effort was put into the production of this 45-page flyweight of a book.

To be honest, Chabot’s treatment of the subject was a little too scholarly for my liking, but the amount of informative content did make up for any shortcomings.

He Ruiming


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