Those who've read my past reviews will undoubtedly have heard me mention the affinity I have for my birthplace of Hong Kong, despite being physically so far removed, living thousands of miles away here in Los Angeles. Having grown up immersed in 2 very different cultures, I've always felt as though I have one foot planted in the East and the other in the West, and it is this blending of two worlds that has shaped my identity over the years. Given this dynamic, the past 5 months have been, without a doubt, extremely difficult, as I watch a city I've loved for decades slowly crumble and descend into unspeakable chaos. Seeing image after image of streets I once walked on, shops I once visited, MTR stations I once passed through, now become an unrecognizable mess…on top of that, having to worry about the safety of various relatives living in HK currently, many of whom reside in the heavy protest areas – it's been heartrending to say the least.
It is against this backdrop that I picked up Leslie Shimotakahara's second novel Red Oblivion – a fictional story written way before the protests occurred, yet amazingly timely in the way it sheds light on the conflicted relationship between Hong Kong and Mainland China. The city described in the book is the Hong Kong I am most familiar with – whether it's the locales or streets, the structure of buildings, the people and their way of life, the social and entertainment aspects, etc., elements that make up the "uniqueness" of the HK cultural identity were touched upon in the story, which I definitely appreciated, since it's rare for HK-set stories to cover these aspects. Getting to "revisit" the HK of old and indulge in the nostalgia of the past, even for only a brief moment, brought back warm memories, yet at the same time, in light of current events, the experience felt both surreal and bittersweet.
While many of the cultural references and descriptions of Hong Kong in the narrative were spot-on and blended into the story relatively well, the same unfortunately cannot be said of the plot and characters, which I felt were lacking. From a plot perspective, I actually felt the story was too clichéd and predictable — there were moments where the plot felt formulaic to the point that I felt like I was watching one of those run-of-the-mill HK soap operas that the local television station over there is famous for. The characters too, came across one-dimensional and, at times, even bordered on stereotypical, to the point that I found it difficult to connect to any of them on an emotional level. In fact, there was a point where I actually found the main character Jill annoying. Perhaps because of my deeply-rooted familiarity with HK and having grown up immersed in its unique culture, I have a different sensibility to HK-related stories than most others probably would – for me, the biggest flaw with this book is that the story lacked depth, both in terms of the flow of the plot (at times it felt like the author was trying too hard to "check off the boxes") and also development of the characters. From the Author's Note, I understand that the author herself isn't from Hong Kong, but her husband is – the inspiration for the patriarch in the story was actually her father-in-law, whom she had the opportunity to visit with during the last few months of his life and hear him recount his experiences as a youth in China during the Cultural Revolution…these stories, combined with the author's own research, served as the backbone for the portion of the story set in Mainland China. Overall, this was a decent effort and it's a book I'm glad I read, but I feel that the story had the potential to be so much more, especially from an emotional and inspirational standpoint.
I actually read majority of this book earlier in the week, during the few days when the siege at HK's Polytechnic University was all over the news — alternating between reading about the HK of old and revisiting the historical origins of its fraught relationship with the Mainland, and then looking up and seeing on the news the scenes of protesters battling the police, it was a jarring reminder for me that, regardless of how the current situation in HK plays out in the end, the one thing that is certain is that, sadly, the city will never be the same again.
Received ARC from Dundurn via Edelweiss.
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