Main entry:

Mathews, Gordon.

Title & Author:

Ghetto at the center of the world : Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong / Gordon Mathews.

Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Description:

xi, 241 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note on Hong Kong -- Place. Introducing Chungking Mansions ; "Ghetto at the center of the world" ; Why Chungking Mansions exists and why it matters ; The building ; History ; Owners' association ; Business ; My own involvement -- People. Traders ; Owners and managers ; Temporary workers ; Asylum seekers ; Domestic helpers ; Sex workers ; Heroin addicts ; Tourists ; How these different groups interact -- Goods. The passage of goods in Chungking Mansions ; Selling goods ; Taking advantage of buyers ; Copy goods ; Manufacturers and middlemen ; Tricks and travails of a phone stall ; Varieties of traders ; The generation gap among traders ; Techniques of traders ; The lure of China ; The perils of customs ; The significance of goods and traders -- Laws. The omnipresent shadow of the law ; Conflicts within and beyond the law ; The role of police ; Visas and residence rights ; Asylum seekers and the law ; "Real" and "fake" asylum seekers ; The lives of asylum seekers ; The changing treatment of asylum seekers -- Future. Changing imaginations of Chungking Mansions ; How Chungking Mansions transforms people ; Cultural identity ; Global significance ; The future of Chungking Mansions/the future of the world.

Summary:

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 is a world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations--instead it epitomizes the way globalization actually works for most of the world's people.

ISBN:

9780226510194 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780226510200 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
0226510190 (cloth. ; alk. paper)
0226510204 (pbk. ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Chongqing da sha (Hong Kong, China)
Chungking Mansions (Hong Kong, China)
Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum
Multipurpose buildings China Hong Kong.
Guesthouses China Hong Kong.
City dwellers China Hong Kong.
Minorities China Hong Kong.
Immeubles à usages multiples Chine Hongkong.
Maisons d'invités Chine Hongkong.
Citadins Chine Hongkong.
74.21 geography of Asia.
City dwellers
Commerce
Guesthouses
Minorities
Multipurpose buildings
Gästehaus
Kulturanthropologie
Nationale Minderheit
Soziales System
Stadtbevölkerung
Stadsbevolking.
Minderheden.
Stadssociologie.
Hong Kong (China) Commerce.
China Hong Kong
Hongkong

Holdings:

Location: Library main 273637
Call No.: BIB 207324
Status: Available