Unwalled City [Paperback]

Xu Xi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 2001

Hong Kong, 1995. Life is surreal, swift, and out of control, as the city races toward the inevitable moment, the "handover" to China in 1997. Here are lives and loves in a changing world, chronicled by one of Hong Kong's leading novelists. With the publication of her third book, Hong Kong Rose, Xu Xi ranks as the foremost English-language writer to capture the reality of contemporary Hong Kong in fiction. In The Unwalled City her quiet, plainspoken prose ably evokes the tenor of life during those historical years. Resisting the urge to exorcize or "orientalize" the plot, characters or place, Xu Xi has crafted a memorable tale of enduring power.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It is 1995 in Hong Kong, which in two years will be returned to China as part of the handover, and "life is surreal, swift, out of control." But in this aimless novel crammed with extraneous detail ("Water pressure was unusually low, although it never was high") and an abundance of clich‚s ("He hadn't called even though he said he would. Men"), Xi (Hong Kong Rose) focuses so tediously on the pasts of her four main characters that a vivid picture of modern-day Hong Kong never materializes. Andanna is a part-time fashion model and jazz singer trying to endure a split with her musician boyfriend. Vince is a divorcing, middle-aged New York photographer with a penchant for Asian women; one of them is Colleen, a friend of Andanna's who is happily married but "free to date others." Gail, a single mother and senior executive at an investment bank, longs for Vince, but Vince suspects she's his "wife all over." Much of the "action" takes place on the phone (some readers will find this the equivalent of being chatted up by a telemarketer), and habits used to distinguish characters are as trite as cigarette smoking or cola drinking. Granted, many of the characters are vapid by nature, but their shallowness is surpassed only by their treatment: "He was appealing in his sensuality, the way a movie star or stranger could be." The novel has credible aspirations: to explore multiculturalism among the well-off in a land where the line between East and West is perhaps more blurred than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, readers are offered only a glimpse, at best. Agent, Ben Camardi.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The central force of the story is Hong Kong, the place." -- HK-iMail, March 17, 2001

"The characters...sing karaoke and listen to jazz, eat steaks and dimsum, and care more about making money...than politics." -- South China Morning Post, March 24, 2001

"This novel draws it's strength from its atmospheric nature...really is a city in a book." --HK Magazine, May 4, 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Chameleon Press (August 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1387802143
• ISBN-13: 978-1387802142
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write where I live which is the flight path connecting New York, Hong Kong and the South Island of New Zealand. Right now the main nest is a rooftop squat in Hong Kong, my birth city, which is also where my mother at 90 ages gracefully, despite her Alzheimer's, beneath me. I have no offspring to ensure such grace so instead I write, and trust that my books will be the children who will go forth and find me readers to provide solace as I age. Most of my work is fiction -- the novel remains my favorite genre -- although of late the essay is a primary preoccupation. You can meditate, despair and gnash your teeth in an essay the way you can't quite in fiction. Mostly I write about contemporary trans-national life, because I have long felt (and lived) beyond race, nationality, culture, city, country. I liken my life to that of the cuckoo, settling here, there and just about anywhere I can find a temporary angle of repose until the next dream state moves me -- asleep or awake how can we limit where and when we dream? The music that haunts my dreams is jazz. Find me on Facebook or at my website www.xuxiwriter.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Equal, August 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Unwalled City (Paperback)

It is a terrible injustice to the writer, and a mark of shame on a publication as prestigious as Publisher's Weekly that the editorial review of Xu Xi's The Unwalled City be allowed to stand. The cavalier tone of this reviewer's critique betrays the fact that he gave the novel no more than a cursory browse. He condemns the book for being "crammed with extraneous detail." Perhaps if he'd been paying closer attention to those details he might not have identified the red-haired Colleen, one of the two principal caucasian characters in the book, as an Asian woman. He laments the lack of "action" and erroneously claims that "a picture of modern-day Hong Kong never materializes." These observations belie a sensibility more at home with "oriental" cliches and leaves me wondering if he shouldn't ply his trade reviewing kung fu movies and leave the discussion of serious literature to people who know "how" to read. I read The Unwalled City with great curiosity and interest. As in her previous novel, Hong Kong Rose and short fiction collections, History's Fiction and Daughters of Hui -- Xu Xi presents a picture of contemporary Asia; unsentimentalized and void of a cloying exotica. I am always struck by this author's ability to shed light on a culture and a people that few in the West truly understand and to render it in a way that is both accessible and insightful. In The UnWalled City, Xu Xi dares to present Hong Kongers (of all stripes) as real men and women embroiled in contemporary life struggles. If you're looking for lotus blossoms, tea ceremonies, crouching tigers or hidden dragons there's plenty of that to be found elsewhere. But if you crave the genuine article -- Xu Xi has no equal.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous Piece of Asian American Fiction!, August 30, 2001

By 

Mary Goebel-Komala (Findlay, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unwalled City (Paperback)

Xu Xi does an excellent job of capturing the internal experience of living life between the Asian and Western cultures. I am a caucasian-American married to a Chinese man who was born in Hong Kong, and I could really relate to Xu Xi's characters. Their struggles to relate to a culture different from their own was very familiar to me. Her choice to use sexuality and relationships as the setting in which to play out the story was appropriate. After all, romance and sex are our most personal arenas, and the areas where we most poignantly experience culture.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A "white" man's view, August 30, 2001

By 

Lee Hasell (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unwalled City (Paperback)

As a typical "white male" with limited exposure to Asia (having travelled through Hong Kong several times), I find Xu Xi's books bear a resemblance to Bryce Courtney's writings on Africa. Having never been to Africa, I have gained deep insight from Courtney's books. Same with Xu Xi and Hong Kong. In The Unwalled City, Xu Xi captures the essence of the lives of the people of the walled city. It is a fascinating look at how Hong Kong works at many levels, the people and places, the history and future. I was therefore surprised at the Publishers Weekly review as I would think that the reviewer -- most likely more travelled than I -- would have understood the uniqueness of Hong Kong's East/West identity. The book's characters are consistent with the people of the territory, confronting the fear and prejudices of the unknown, allowing this reader a rare insight into such multiculturalism. This is a must read for anyone who has visited or is contemplating a visit to Hong Kong.