Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood [Paperback]

Martin Booth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 2006

At seven years old, Martin Booth found himself with all of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in 1952. This is his memoir of that youth, a time when he had access to corners of the colony normally closed to a gweilo, a "pale fellow" like him. From the plink plonk man with his dancing monkey to Nagasaki Jim, and from a drunken child molester to the Queen of Kowloon (the crazed tramp who may have been a Romanov), Martin saw it all--but his memoir illustrates a deeper challenge in his warring parents. This is an intimate and powerful memory of a place and time now past.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this genial, absorbing memoir of life in Hong Kong during his civil servant father's three-year (1952–1955) post there, British poet, novelist and popular historian Booth (Opium; Cannabis; Hiroshima Joe; Industry of Souls; etc.) recreates a time of wonder and recollects Chinese culture as absorbed by a fearless seven-to-nine-year-old boy. Booth makes the newness palpable as he evokes his first experiences with the taste of coconut juice, the glow of phosphorescent plankton and a rocky rickshaw ride. While his conservative father shies away from local culture, impromptu expeditions with his intrepid mother lead to a fortune teller, a leper colony and a Buddhist monastery. With innocence, insouciance and something close to a street urchin's freedom, young Booth soaks it up—a monkey ambush, a funeral procession, a typhoon, an opium den in Kowloon's Walled City—all the while stuffing himself at dai pai dong (street food stalls), hanging about the squatters' encampment, learning Chinese and spending time with characters he was warned to avoid—experiences he drew upon in his later work. No matter that the protagonist is a mere nine-year-old at the memoir's conclusion; this is a pitch-perfect, captivating tale for grownups. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics agree that Booth vividly captures the sounds, sights, and tastes of Hong Kong—from Kowloon’s chaotic alleys to the stunning countryside. Simultaneously a portrait of a place, a childhood, and a marriage, Golden Boy should be savored for its wonderful prose and nostalgic, wise recollections. Booth, who died last year, wrote this book for his two children. Although he recounts his story from a young boy’s perspective, most reviewers were touched by the authenticity of his voice. Despite the noxious scenes Booth paints of his family troubles, Golden Boy is an uplifting and "loving tribute to Hong Kong, which in some ways hasn’t changed at all" (Wall Street Journal).

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (November 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312426267
• ISBN-13: 978-0312426262
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #702,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > History > Asia > Hong Kong
  • #45 in Books > Travel > Asia > Hong Kong

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going Monkey Native, April 17, 2006

By 

Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood (Hardcover)

I'd never heard of English author Martin Booth before. He wrote this personal memoir, recounting 3 years of his childhood in Hong Kong in the early 1950s, just before he recently died of brain cancer. He dedicated the book to his own children, as a way to pass on the story of his life to them. It reads like a novel - one incredible adventure after the next of a boy of 7 let loose on the streets of Hong Kong in the wild years after WWII. It also details the breakdown of the marriage of his mother and father. This is a real treasure trove, a look at the world through the new eyes of a child, but guided by the wise older hand of an older author. I feel like I have traveled and lived in Hong Kong - the sites, sounds, smells - the culture, food, weather, animals, people - all brilliantly alive and real. I also have a better sense of the Chinese and what it means to be Chinese, and a desire to learn more. I only wish Martin had a memoir of his entire life!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving, deeply personal memoir, January 12, 2006

By 

Smiling Kalakela (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood (Hardcover)

I've always been fascinated by Martin Booth's writings about Hong Kong, in particular, his book on triads, which was an inside (and somewhat lurid) look at the Chinese underworld.

By contrast, "Golden Boy" is his memoir: first published shortly after his death (originally under the title "Gweilo"-- once a term used to describe foreigners--with some derision--in southern China). As a young, golden-haired boy amid the bustling Hong Kong of the 1950s, Booth shows how his relationship with friends, neighbors, and even perfect strangers gives the word a whole new meaning as a term of endearment. His memoir of living in Hong Kong is an extremely powerful and rare work. If you have ever lived in Hong Kong, no matter what era, you will be moved by Booth's book and will nod in fond remembrance as Booth perfectly captures the sights, smells, and colors of Hong Kong. I found Booth's mother to be one of the most sympathetic and likeable of people, while Booth's father I wish I could just give a swift kick right in the arse. I don't want to give too much of the book away, but suffice it to say that if you have spent any length of time in Hong Kong, you will realize exactly how the city and its people can capture your imagination forever.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A colorful, adventurous and exotic childhood, February 7, 2006

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Golden Boy: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood (Hardcover)

Running free among the tiny, crowded markets, opium dens and shantytowns of 1952 Hong Kong, British writer Martin Booth had the sort of idyllic, adventurous childhood that is scarcely conceivable now. At age 8 Booth roamed the streets almost at will, confined only by school hours and his mother's direct prohibitions, which were few and usually circumvented at the first opportunity.

Booth's father, Ken, was posted to Hong Kong as a mid-level functionary in the provisioning of the British army. While young Booth and his mother, Joyce, were drawn to the culture and beauty of the place immediately, Ken remained resolutely standoffish, the epitome of the clichéd British colonial.

Booth began this book near the end of his life at the request of his children, after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Though there's undoubtedly a certain amount of nostalgia in these vivid memories, it's not all dazzle and wonder. In a place so teeming with refugees, there are many stories of cruelty and tragedy. Several fires engulf the squatter shantytowns of impoverished Mainland Chinese who had already lost everything in their flight from the communists. And, more personally, Booth's parents seldom exchange a civil word.

His father comes across as a humorless, small-minded bigot, a man who detests England, but encases himself in his British identity, despising all that's foreign. His mother, who had lost her father young and known much sadness and privation, blossoms in Hong Kong. She learns Cantonese, cultivates Chinese friends from all walks of life, and takes Martin all over the island to Chinese festivals and Russian bakeries and old colonial hotels for tea.

But Martin's real education is all on his own. On their first day in Hong Kong, a friendly officer introduces him to shrimp and gives him some advice: "As long as you are in Hong Kong, whenever someone offers you something to eat, accept it." A naturally adventurous boy, Martin has recourse to this advice numerous times. Once a boy in the hotel, after teaching him how to fly beetles on a string, offers him a boiled one to eat: "It tasted slightly muddy, yet the overriding flavour was like the smell of stagnant freshwater ponds mixed with smoked fish."

His willingness to eat anything and go anywhere makes him many friends among the street stalls in the city. His age and instinctive respect for other cultures allows him entry to places where foreign adults cannot go, while his blond hair, seen as a bringer of luck, makes him a welcome attraction.

During the three years of his father's posting, the family lived in several different areas and Martin explored every nook and cranny, on foot at first, then by tram as well. When the Booths moved to their first flat, his mother warned him against Kowloon's nearby Walled City, a place of the criminal Triads, opium dens and prostitution, though he was not to know that until later.

Naturally he makes a beeline for the place at his first opportunity and is soon befriended by a young Triad member who takes him to places his mother would blanch to discover, including a weapon filled meeting place. He keeps many such secrets from his mother - like the whereabouts of the crazy homeless Russian lady with the uncut diamonds - though he senses his mother's approval of his avid curiosity.

Booth beautifully recaptures the child's sense of newness, whether it's his first magical excursion on the streets at night or the revelatory moment when the silent waiter in a tea shop filled with birds and old men turns out not to be rude or disapproving, but a soldier who lost his tongue to the Japanese.

Whatever the wonder and joy of his childhood explorations hilarity and wonder seldom exist without tragedy or at least cruelty. Remnants of the war abound, from the stories of soldiers and former prisoners, to ruined buildings and the skeletons of Japanese soldiers killed in revenge. His parents' acrimony pervades the most enchanting memories, like splashing in the phosphorescent sea with his mother while his father stands on the shore hectoring them to go.

By the end of his father's posting, Joyce is wild to stay in Hong Kong. " `I don't want to go back,' " my mother said emphatically, breaking our silence. `England is dreary, colourless, down-in-the-mouth. Lifeless. Just look at this.' She turned and faced distant Lan Tau, the rays of the setting son fingering between the mountains. `How can I live in Rumford or Woking or Basingstoke after this?' "

Though the memoir ends with them leaving for England, the Booths do come back and Martin completes his growing-up in this magical place, an experience which infused his writing - eight non-fiction books, including "Opium: A History," 11 novels, and five books of children's fiction. Readers of this enchanting memoir will certainly seek out this Booker short-listed writer's ("The Industry of Souls") other work.

-- The Portsmouth Herald