Urban Humanities through Hong Kong Literature and Film

The Materiality of Crisis

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

919 kr

Kommande

Through a lens of literary urban studies, Ann Tso offers fascinating insight into perceptions of Hong Kong as a city in crisis in contemporary film, novels, and memoir.Through close readings of six pivotal works spanning three decades, Tso reveals how cultural creators encode dissent within the mundane. Divided into two parts, the first explores cannibalism within Hong Kong’s apartment plots through film. Part two examines discordant urban sounds in literature through Madeline Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016) and Karen Cheung’s The Impossible City (2022). Tso demonstrates that while comprehensive surveillance reshapes cultural narratives, the resulting silencing effect does not necessarily encourage apathy and asocial behaviours. Instead, Hong Kong can express itself through its silence; its stubborn possession of mundane objects evocative of pasts ostensibly erased but mutely present.Rigorously researched, this interdisciplinary book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of literary urban studies, spatial literary research, urban humanities, speculative realism, and Hong Kong studies.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-11-16
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor156
FörlagTaylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN9781041112174

Tillhör följande kategorier

Film inom Kultur
Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Sociala grupper och identitet inom Samhälle och politik

AcknowledgmentsExcessive and Extensive: Introduction to the Citiness of a City in Crisis1. The Deconstructed Pork Bun: Herman Yau’s The Untold Story (1993)2. ‘Hoarding’ in the Hong Kong Apartment: Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood for Love (2000), Fruit Chan’s Dumplings (2004), and Nate Ki Tse Ka-kei’s Back Home (2023)3. Resonant Lacunae in Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016); Or, the Elliptical Ties between China’s Past and Hong Kong’s Present-Future4. Dissonant Urban Sounds and Temporalities in Karen Cheung’s The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir (2022)Conclusion: Towards an Elliptical Narrative of Global Urban CrisesIndex

‘Ann Tso’s new book provides an invaluable framework for understanding cities riven by conflicting histories and cultural identities, with a particular focus on Hong Kong. Developing concepts of ‘citiness’ and ‘crisis objects’, she illuminates how Hong Kong’s dissonant post-handover identity manifests in contemporary film and literature. This book provides not just an illuminating perspective on Hong Kong but also a new theoretical paradigm for narrating urban crisis.’– Stephen Joyce, Associate Professor in Media, Communication, and Culture, Aarhus University