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.
There is nowhere else in the world quite like Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong’s tourist district. A remarkably motley group of people call the building home; Pakistani phone stall operators, Chinese guesthouse workers, Nepalese heroin addicts, Indonesian sex workers, and traders and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there—even backpacking tourists rent rooms. In short, it is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet.
But as Ghetto at the Center of the World shows us, a trip to Chungking Mansions reveals a far less glamorous side of globalization. A world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations, Chungking Mansions is emblematic of the way globalization actually works for most of the world’s people. Gordon Mathews’s intimate portrayal of the building’s polyethnic residents lays bare their intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas. We come to understand the day-to-day realities of globalization through the stories of entrepreneurs from Africa carting cell phones in their luggage to sell back home and temporary workers from South Asia struggling to earn money to bring to their families. And we see that this so-called ghetto—which inspires fear in many of Hong Kong’s other residents, despite its low crime rate—is not a place of darkness and desperation but a beacon of hope.
Gordon Mathews’s compendium of riveting stories enthralls and instructs in equal measure, making Ghetto at the Center of the World not just a fascinating tour of a singular place but also a peek into the future of life on our shrinking planet.
一月底从香港诚品书店买回这本书 断断续续看到最近才终于看完 第一次看完一本竖行繁体的书 而且还非常厚 确实是有点辛苦的 因为不太习惯所以常常这一行看完了找不准哪是下一行 但是好在这是一本有趣的书 尽管是一位人类学教授经过几年的调查与记录写出的一本学术著作 ...
評分重庆大厦的出名:20C 70‘s被写进《孤独星球》,成为西方嬉皮士和背包客的逗留地。 基础数据:17层高,每晚4000人留宿,129个国家 撒哈拉以南地区20%的手机都是从重庆大厦发货过去的 P2:香港在70年代是工业生产的中心,在80年代末成为中国货品集散地。同一时期,异于内地的香...
評分在讨论全球化造成的飞地的时候,容易关注两极而非中段。的确,全球化议题中更能引发人们讨论兴味的总是高精尖技术的共享,或关怀维度爆表的底层贫民窟。 不大记得是《落脚城市》还是哪一本相关书籍里都有说到,极端底层的贫民窟现象已然成为第三世界国家的一种重要...
評分去过几次香港,但彼时年少,只是跟着大人逛景点和购物点,对于重庆大厦仅仅略有耳闻却未曾造访。然而,对于重庆大厦的光怪陆离,我在一定程度上能够感同身受。我在书中提到的天秀大厦住了十几年,从懵懂记事到远走高飞。虽身处其中多年,我其实一直是个局外人,从未理解他们的...
評分作为一个努力成为背包客的人,外出旅行时,通常会选择青年旅舍。 在去香港之前,我在BOOKING上搜索了很久。非常多的民宿价格并不贵,一晚在150港币左右,就可以享受到拥有独立的卫生间、电视机、单人床的房间。同样的设施,在一般的酒店至少要800港币左右。 为什么这些民宿如...
從人類學和社會學的角度看重慶大廈,提齣瞭很有趣的low-end globalization觀點,全世界都有ghetto,但隻有它是一座大廈。
评分真希望八十年代時能去看看。這個群體很容易被大眾、媒體汙名化,而他們卻無從為自己辯解。而即使是大部分在異國他鄉打拼的他們,似乎也要比被趕齣帝都的北漂們幸運得多。
评分總的來說,感覺像一篇巨型的專欄文章,理論意涵弱得很,不知道問什麼中英文版的評分都那麼高。全書分“地人物法”四個部分,很malinowskian,雖然錶麵上恰恰在強調重慶大廈的全球/多點聯係。另一方麵,文筆很好,對neoliberalism的溫和同情也算是對幾乎已經演變成hegemonic discourse的左翼敘事的反抗。
评分車軲轆話堆齣來的一團和氣,可惜瞭如此討巧的主題,哎我還是看王傢衛的電影去好瞭。
评分實在是欣賞不來這種提供視角而非問題的民族誌。感覺復古到boas時代瞭→_→
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