Gordon Mathews - Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

GORDON MATHEWS is professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds and Global Cultural/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket, among other books.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2011 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2011

Printed in the United States of America

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-51019-4 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-51020-0 (paper)

ISBN-10: 0-226-51019-0 (cloth)

ISBN-10: 0-226-51020-4 (paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-51021-7 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mathews, Gordon.

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

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-51019-4 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-51020-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-226-51019-0 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-226-51020-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Chungking Mansions (Hong Kong, China) 2. Multipurpose buildingsChinaHong Kong. 3. GuesthousesChinaHong Kong. 4. City dwellersChinaHong Kong. 5. MinoritiesChinaHong Kong. 6. Hong Kong (China)Commerce. I. Title.

DS796.H78C48 2011

951.25dc22

2010036533

All photos are the authors own except as noted here. courtesy of Maggie Lin; and maps courtesy of Alice Hui. The cover photo, by Shin Kusano, depicts Chungking Mansions as photographed from its third floor looking skyward.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

GHETTO

at the Center of the World

GORDON MATHEWS

The University of Chicago Press

Chicago and London

To the people in Chungking Mansions

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong government have made this research possible through an RGC Earmarked Research Grant, Chungking Mansions as a Global Building, project ID 2110148. This book would not have been written without this funding, which has ultimately come from Hong Kong taxpayers hard-earned dollars. I hope that those of you from Hong Kong who read this book will not feel that your money has been wasted. I might add, to answer a question occasionally addressed to me in Chungking Mansions, that the Hong Kong government has had no input as to any of my research findings and has had no say over anything I report in this bookthese findings are strictly my own.

I owe a great debt to my research assistants, recent graduate or undergraduate students in anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who have provided an extraordinary amount of work, often above and beyond the relatively meager wages I paid them: Im not doing this for the money, I was told, and indeed they werent. My assistants have been Inez Siu, Jojo Ng, Jo Yung, Ingrid Tang, Amy Fung, Yip Ping, Jose Rojas, Ocean Chan, Simon Tu, and Maggie Lin. Jose, Maggie, Ocean, Amy, and Ingrid, in particular, have provided essential research help, investigating areas beyond those that I myself was able to investigate. Christian Lo, Catherine Wong, Elaine Hui, Luisa Mok, Claire Chan, and Yang Yang, while never formally working for this project, also provided aid.

I am indebted to the Incorporated Owners of Chungking Mansions, particularly Mrs. Lam Wai Lung, its chairperson; Joe Ng, of its membership committee; and David Leung and Anthony Wong, its managers. They have been unstintingly generous; I owe special thanks to Mrs. Lam and to Anthony Wong, who patiently answered my unending questions. My research assistants and I are grateful to the security guards at Chungking Mansions for their information and help. I am indebted to Christian Action and its staff, operating on the sixteenth and seventeenth floors, Block E, Chungking Mansions. Lisa Lee, Sarah Cornish, Jonathan Harland, Sharmila Gurung, Jonnet Bernal, Julia Mayerhofer, and other staff who have served there enabled me to become involved in the lives of asylum seekers by providing space and encouragement for our weekly class over the past four years.

There are an extraordinary number of people who have spoken to me and to my research assistants within Chungking Mansions or concerning Chungking Mansions, and who have helped us in multitudes of ways. Many of these people I or my assistants know only through their first names, or surnames; some prefer to be fully identified, while others seek to be identified only partially. I alphabetize on the basis of first name where possible, except for some Cantonese names with the surname first. People who have aided us include Abacha (Sany Garba), Abannawa, Abdi, Abdullah, Abiola, Abraham Orume Nangia, Abrar Ahmad, Ahmed, Aladdin, Alex, Ali, Ali Baba, Alsaneidi Abu Zaid, Amin Ezat, Anda, Andy, Asad Ali, Aman, Mr. An, Anderson, Anne Quain, Aqmad, Aris, Asghar, Austin, Auto Sam, Awais, Awais Ejaz, Ayishah, Baron, Ben, Ben Hui, Bettina, Biggy, Bilbab, Billy, Binai, Biola, Bissnu, Bobby, Boniface, Bore, Brian, Bupe, Chain, Mr. Chan, Chantel, Charlotte Walsh, Mrs. Cheng, Cheung Yuk-man, Chiboy, Chibuzor, Chidi, Chikibei, Chimako, Christian Lo, Cliff Atkins, Coco, Connie P. Y. Tang, Cosmo, Dan K., Daniel, Danielle Stutterd, Danny, Darpan, David, Dede, Deltaman, Dhillon, Dhom, Diallo M. Ali, Dixon, Edgar, Ejaz, Elias Zakir Hussein, Emmanuel, Enock, Eqbal, Eva, Ezra, Fatih, Fatuma, Fawaz, Fayez, Fezel, Fred, Fritz, Ms. Fung, Ganeth, Gege, George, Godwill, Golem, Gurdev Singh, Gurdu, Gurjit, Gurung, Hamid, Haseeb, Hawg, Helal, Henry, Henry Wilson, Him, Hunayam, Hermias, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Baker, Ishaan Tharoor, Ishmael, Ismael, Jack, Jack Chander, Jack Qiu, Jacob, Jacqueline Tsui, James Joseph Keezhangatte, Jamir, Jean, Jean-Louis Schuller, Jeylani, Jhonny, Jimmy, Joe, John, John Lyarua, Jonathan Yip and his mother, Joseph, Joy, Julian, Julius, Kandiah, Kasmin, Kelvin Chan, Khem Gurung, Kingston, Kit Lam, Kumari, Mr. Lam, Lanka, Larry, Lawrence Au Kwong-yui, Mr. Li, Lucky, Mahmood, Majeed, Manan, Manuel, Mark, Martin, Mama, Mary, Mrs. Mary, Mahmet, Mahmood, Mashan, Masheed, Matthew, Max, McToby, Michael from Ghana, Michael from Hong Kong, Mike, M. M. Khan, Mohammed, Moon, Moses, Mukasa, Muna, Mustafa Alzainy, Nathan, Nelson, Nicholas, Nimaga Aguibou, Obinna, Ovie, Papa and his wife, Papi, Paul, Pauline, Peter, Peter Lau, Phoebe Tsui, Piera Chen, Mr. Poon, Qanni, Rahman, Raiz, Raj, Raja, Rajesh, Rakesh, Ramos, Ramsey, Ransom, Raya, Rita, Robert, Roland, Ron Clayborn-Dyer, Roy, Sabita, Sachu, Said, Salem, Sally, Sanda, Santa, Shabih, Mr. Shah, Shane, Sibi Malamin, Simon, Simon To, Sinh, Stan Dyer, Steve, Steve Goldman, Suba, Sulamen, Sunny, Tabah, Thaddius, Thomas, Tim Elwell-Sutton, Mr. To, Toby, Tony, Tsaijer Cheng, Tseheye, Tseten Kutsabpa, Mrs. Tsui, Ulfat, Vicky, Victor, Mr. Wang, Watson, Wazed Ali, William, Mr. Wong, Mr. and Mrs. Yip Woon-ming, Xuxi, Yogesh, and Zed.

Please forgive me if you do not see your name here. I seek to preserve the anonymity of some of those who appear in this book, particularly those whose full accounts are included. Nonetheless, the above list, although regrettably partial, indicates my debts. To all the people I came to know in Chungking Mansions, the hundreds of people who took their time to speak with me and tell me about their lives, whether your name is listed here or not, I owe you, andI dedicate this book to you.