Download PDF Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, by Gordon Mathews
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Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, by Gordon Mathews
Download PDF Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, by Gordon Mathews
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Review
"Hong Kong's Chungking Mansions is the most notorious flophouse in Asia. . . . The shabby tenement is today as much about global commerce as tourism. What the building should be renowned for, argues Gordon Mathews in his fluid and enjoyable field study "Ghetto at the Center of the World", is the ingenious way 'low-end globalists' eke out profits from petit arbitrage. . . . It reads like a first-rate business book."--Wall Street Journal"In this wonderful book Gordon Mathews takes on an intriguing project: daily life as it is lived, articulated, dreamed, denied, regretted, and defended in a rather rundown but very public building in Hong Kong. The residents of Chungking Mansions are economically blocked from the rest of the city and often racially discriminated against, so how do such marginalized people survive, much less prosper? This is the conundrum at the heart of "Ghetto at the Center of the World". Mathews tackles it by providing a vivid description of the people who live their lives in the building's dimly lit hallways, restaurants, and shops, and by analyzing the larger material and political forces at work. The resulting account is as informative and revealing as it is entertaining."--William Jankowiak, author of Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City
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About the Author
Gordon Mathews is professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Global Culture/ Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket and What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds, coauthor of Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation, and coeditor of several books.
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Product details
Paperback: 254 pages
Publisher: University of Chicago Press; unknown edition (June 30, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780226510200
ISBN-13: 978-0226510200
ASIN: 0226510204
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.0 out of 5 stars
30 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#572,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Ghetto at the Center of the World is an incredible book about an incredible place. Chungking Mansions is a 17-storied building in Hong Kong that has become an international trade hub because of it’s low prices and central location, gathering at any given time about 4 thousand people in it’s guest houses, stores and restaurants. It is one of the most cosmopolitan places on Earth, the author counted no less than 129 nationalities in the three years of research for the book.One of the central concepts of the book is the one of “low-end†globalization, described thus by the author: “Low-end globalization is very different from what most readers may associate with the term globalization—it is not the activities of Coca-Cola, Nokia, Sony, McDonald’s, and other huge corporations, with their high-rise offices, batteries of lawyers, and vast advertising budgets. Instead, it is traders carrying their goods by suitcase, container, or truck across continents and borders with minimal interference from legalities and copyrights, a world run by cash. It is also individuals seeking a better life by fleeing their home countries for opportunities elsewhere, whether as temporary workers, asylum seekers, or sex workers. This is the dominant form of globalization experienced in much of the developing world today.â€â€œIt is amazing how much can be obtained in Chungking Mansions, from lodging to a haircut to halal barbecue, to whiskey of all price ranges, to sex, to computer repairs, to TV remotes, to spy cameras installed in pens and glasses, to stationery, to groceries, to laundry service, to medicines, to legal advice for asylum seekers, to spiritual sustenance for Christians and Muslims. As one well-read informant explained, “There is a self-sufficient ecosystem in Chungking Mansions.†One might never leave the building for weeks or months on end, since virtually all that one might need is in the building itself.â€The book brings a fascinating ethnography about how these different nationalities and cultures manage to live side by side. Racism exists and is rampart, specially from the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese against South Asians and Africans, but grievances are largely put aside in the everyday struggle to make money. It is not a Disney-perfect relationship, but a human and imperfect one, with highs and lows.The book is very well researched and organized in chapters dedicated to the place, the people, the goods, the laws and the future. It is one of the books that really made me feel like I have traveled to this fascinating place. Highly recommended.
Chungking Mansions is an infamous building in Hong Kong. It is a labyrinth of exotica, adventure , and otherness. In many ways it is a shadowy unknown place to many who live in Hong Kong and the countless travelers it attracts yearly. What is for sure is that we want to know more about it. Specifically more about the eclectic array of people that walk and work in its corridors each day. This fine work by Gordon Mathews satiates this curiosity quite fully.Exploring the history of the building, its many personalities, the goods and businesses that pass through, and the new transformations, Gordon Mathews produces a landmark text. This work is particularly compelling because it addresses some misconceptions about Chungking Mansions, namely its safety and criminality and redresses these issues. It shows us that the building is intricately placed in what Mathews terms `low end globalization'. Millions of phones sold in this building sold by Pakistani tradesmen can be traced to the streets of Lagos. Illegal workers support their families in Calcutta by washing dishes or handing out flyers for the many restaurants in the building. Sex workers save money to start businesses back in their home countries. The most contemporary feature of the building is the rise in African traders passing through, this phenomenon is explored in detail and provides context for the transformations visible in the streets around Chungking Mansions.Another important contribution this text offers is that of acknowledging asylum seekers in Hong Kong and showing their particular struggles in the territory. Many of these asylum seekers who have fled torture or the threat of political assassination frequent Chungking Mansions and contribute to an understanding of the place as a bourgeois location. The truth being that whilst the building is populated with people from disparate parts of the world, they are often the middle class entrepreneurs of their countries, and many of the businesses in Chungking Mansions themselves can be comfortably profitable.Mathews is astute in pointing out that the fortunes and future of Chungking Mansions are tied to global caprices. Changes in visa regulations, the Olympics, and even 9/11 have changed the people and business practices that occupy Chungking Mansions. These factors reconfirm another important point that the author makes, whilst Chungking Mansions is in Hong Kong, it is not `of' Hong Kong. As such this book will tell you much about the building, much about trade with China, and much about low end globalization, it will tell you less however about Hong Kong. After all Chungking Mansions is an island of otherness in this city, a ghetto at the center of the world.
Excellent study of a truly unique place such as Chungking Mansions, with an affectionate view of its inhabitants and their stories and great insight and analysis of the symbolic role of the Mansions as crossroads of the world. If you have visited the building and experience its unique atmosphere, this book will help to complete the picture and deepen your understanding.
I read this book several months ago, but found it so compelling I often continue to visualize the descriptions of life and business in one of the scrappiest, most marginal, and yet most optimistic places in the world. I heartily recommend this book as an antidote to both familiar developing-country tomes and weary first-world cynicism.L. A. Starks, Author of 13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy
This is a beautiful and accurate ethnography of the people who bring the Chungking Mansions to life. Unfortunately, the author slightly marred what would otherwise be a perfect piece of writing with grossly uninformed comments against "neo-liberalism" towards the end of the book. Despite this flaw, this book is a must read if you want to learn more about globalization in general or Hong Kong in particular.
I remember passing Chungking Mansions while in Hong Kong years ago and feeling less than safe there - even though Hong Kong in general feels like a very safe city. Wanted to learn more about it, and this book fit the need. Although the book felt academic and and seemed repetitive, I did learn plenty about Chungking Mansions and it's inhabitants.
Professor Mathews lived in the Mansion part time for three years and he traveled with his subjects to Africa for the sake of research. Wow! It's not just a book on the Chungking, it is a book about Hong Kong's position in the world.
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