Book Reviews

Reviewed by John Cairns

A thoughtful guy not shy about exposing what happens between his ears, first-time author Jason Ng fills much of Hong Kong State of Mind, 37 Views of a City That Doesn't Blink (2010, Blacksmith Books, 220 pages) with impressions and conclusions about his home city. No ordinary place, Hong Kong looks peculiar on nearly every level and almost always stirs strong emotions.

Also a lawyer and freelance writer contributing to lifestyle magazines, Ng often engages in online journalism, notably with a biweekly column, As I See It (at http://jasonyng.blogspot.com). For the book, he selected 37 of his best essays.

As he explains: “Hong Kong is a remarkable place. It is a place of possibilities, contradictions and endless quirks that, like a lover's whispers, make us smile from the bottom of our hearts. Our city deserves a book to celebrate its splendors and poke fun at its flaws. It deserves hundreds of them.”

He points to many of Hong Kong's quirks. For example:
-- Mercedes outnumber taxi cabs:
-- partygoers count down to Christmas, not just to New Year;
-- yet there's a noticeable absence of Christmas spirit (“those magical moments when everyone suddenly becomes a little friendlier and more generous”);
-- huge billboards for fortune tellers and cram-school tutors compete with breathtaking skylines; and
-- successful adults brag about their secondary schools, even decades later.

Hong Kong has more peculiarities than the book ever mentions. The author easily could write another volume.

At times, Ng reminds his readers of important realities. “In a city devoid of a social safety net, aren't we all just one bad investment decision away from ending up on the street?”

Annoyingly, Ng insists that Kowloon makes an unworthy, grubby relative to Hong Kong Island. “…is Kowloon really Hong Kong's ugly stepsister? To the snooty Hong Konger, the Kowloon skyline is decidedly boring and never photographed. For the most part, the peninsula is unexcitingly flat, lacking the dramatic amphitheater-like topography on the Hong Kong side.... Kowloon is also devoid of any interesting architecture, unless you count the windowless, bathroom tiles-covered Cultural Centre and a planetarium that resembles a shiny bald head. Compared to their Hong Kong cousins, Kowloon folks are known to be somewhat rough around the edges in their manners, a prejudice my mom instilled in me when I was a boy.”

The author may be astonished that many people in Kowloon don't feel that way. Arguably, Tsim Sha Tsui ranks as the city's most lively, dynamic and fascinating district. Plenty of shoppers prefer Mongkok to Causeway Bay.

When belittling Kowloon, Ng admits to seldom going there. “My record of harbor-crossing to the Kowloon side (averages) four or five times a year. I go there mostly for a concert at the Cultural Centre or an occasional singing gig at Harbour City.” This raises not only eyebrows, but also questions about his qualifications even to discuss both sides of Victoria Harbor.

But any doubts about Ng's merits vanish like the view from the Peak on a smoggy day when readers reach a chapter titled “The Butcher's Atonement”. It's about the Beijing Massacre on June 4, 1989, when People's Liberation Army soldiers killed thousands of protesters, mostly students. The author stresses the need to remember and educate new generations about the shame such atrocities bring to China. Clearly, he's a man of principle and daring. Hong Kong and China need millions more people much like him.

Only in Hong Kong can people under Chinese-mainland sovereignty freely mourn for the students brutally murdered in 1989. To do so, tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents, including Ng, attend an annual candlelight vigil in a massive urban park.

When Ng writes about the Hong Kong media, most readers will nod in agreement. “Besides having to satisfy a sensation-hungry public, the Hong Kong press is suffering from a case of disappearing backbone. Ever since the 1997 handover, civil liberties in our city have been ebbing away in all aspects of life, but none more disconcerting than the freedom of expression. The erosion is never as overt as a violent crackdown or jailing of dissenters (those only happen inside China), but rather in the more subtle, tortuous form of self-censorship.”

This often-impressive book turns feeble when Ng switches his attention to “the places we go”. He veers badly off-topic by devoting the final sections not to “the city that doesn't blink”, but to other locations (like Tokyo, Taipei, New York, Seoul and Bangkok) where he has traveled.

At least this long detour points out that Hong Kong people make disagreeable tourists. “Our tourists are decidedly rough in their table manners, talking loudly with their mouths open and pointing their cutlery at each other. Some of them act aggressively toward the soft-spoken, non-confrontational locals, barking orders as if the entire country were their live-in maids at home.... In trying to exert their superiority over the locals, these jai-dam (literally, black-hearted) visitors end up insulting themselves and shaming their own kind.”

At times, the book's excellent illustrations overshadow its words. When first flipping through the pages, I noticed a drawing of some lychee fruit that made me instantly hungry. What better proof of the artist's skill? The illustrator, Lee Po Ng, had a long career creating artwork for many of Hong Kong's Chinese newspapers. Eventually, he immigrated to Canada. Now he teaches art and practices calligraphy in Toronto. By no coincidence, he's also the author's father. Yes, creative talent does run in families.

Born in Hong Kong, the author later lived in Italy, the United States and Canada before returning to his birthplace in 2005. He reckons the nomadic past gives him a knack to see Hong Kong (and its foibles) as both an insider and outsider, but thousands of Hong Kong people can make similar claims.

As Ng mentions and most of his seven million neighbors in crowded Hong Kong realize, their city remains remarkably easy to love and hate at the same time. Hong Kong State of Mind helps to enlighten us about the valid reasons for such mixed feelings.

Approval rating: 77 per cent.

For more information: www.blacksmithbooks.com

(May 16, 2011)

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