Share <Embed>

Buy New

$17.92

List Price: $19.00
Save: $1.08 (6%)

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

This item ships to France. Want it Tuesday, July 10? Order within and choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

Select delivery location

Buy Used

$10.71

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Select delivery location

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by Super Fast Super Reliable

Fulfilled by Amazon

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Add to Cart

$17.22
+ $29.80 shipping

Sold by: allnewbooks

Add to Cart

$24.64

Sold by: Wordery USA

Add to Cart

$24.88

Sold by: SpeedyHen

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong Paperback – June 30, 2011

by Gordon Mathews (Author)

29 customer reviews

See all 4 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$14.86

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$17.92

$17.22

$6.13

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 reveals a far less glamorous side of globalization. A world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations, Chungking Mansions is emblematic of the way globalization actually works for most of the world’s people. Gordon Mathews’s intimate portrayal of the building’s polyethnic residents lays bare their intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas. We come to understand the day-to-day realities of globalization through the stories of entrepreneurs from Africa carting cell phones in their luggage to sell back home and temporary workers from South Asia struggling to earn money to bring to their families. And we see that this so-called ghetto—which inspires fear in many of Hong Kong’s other residents, despite its low crime rate—is not a place of darkness and desperation but a beacon of hope.

Gordon Mathews’s compendium of riveting stories enthralls and instructs in equal measure, making Ghetto at the Center of the World not just a fascinating tour of a singular place but also a peek into the future of life on our shrinking planet.

Frequently bought together

Total price: $39.54

Buy the selected items together

This item:Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong by Gordon Mathews Paperback $17.92
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) by Philippe Bourgois Paperback $21.62
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Philippe Bourgois

73

Paperback
$21.62
Javier Auyero

8

Paperback
$17.56
Shanshan Du

3

Paperback
$32.40
Serena Nanda

23

Paperback
$48.80
Jason Y. Ng

7

Paperback
$11.94
Deborah Tannen

113

Paperback
$11.98

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hong Kong's Chungking Mansions is the most notorious flophouse in Asia. . . . The shabby tenement is today as much about global commerce as tourism. What the building should be renowned for, argues Gordon Mathews in his fluid and enjoyable field study "Ghetto at the Center of the World", is the ingenious way 'low-end globalists' eke out profits from petit arbitrage. . . . It reads like a first-rate business book."--Wall Street Journal

"In this wonderful book Gordon Mathews takes on an intriguing project: daily life as it is lived, articulated, dreamed, denied, regretted, and defended in a rather rundown but very public building in Hong Kong. The residents of Chungking Mansions are economically blocked from the rest of the city and often racially discriminated against, so how do such marginalized people survive, much less prosper? This is the conundrum at the heart of "Ghetto at the Center of the World". Mathews tackles it by providing a vivid description of the people who live their lives in the building's dimly lit hallways, restaurants, and shops, and by analyzing the larger material and political forces at work. The resulting account is as informative and revealing as it is entertaining."

--William Jankowiak, author of Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City

About the Author

Gordon Mathews is professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Global Culture/ Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket and What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds, coauthor of Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation, and coeditor of several books.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: University of Chicago Press; unknown edition (June 30, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226510204
ISBN-13: 978-0226510200
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 29 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #610,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #21 in Books > History > Asia > Hong Kong
- #311 in Books > Travel > Asia > China > General
- #1063 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology > Urban

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Be the first video

Your name here

Customer Reviews

Write a customer review

See all 29 customer reviews

Read reviews that mention

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Solari

An incredible account of the hidden side of globalization

February 5, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Ghetto at the Center of the World is an incredible book about an incredible place. Chungking Mansions is a 17-storied building in Hong Kong that has become an international trade hub because of it’s low prices and central location, gathering at any given time about 4 thousand people in it’s guest houses, stores and restaurants. It is one of the most cosmopolitan places on Earth, the author counted no less than 129 nationalities in the three years of research for the book.

One of the central concepts of the book is the one of “low-end” globalization, described thus by the author: “Low-end globalization is very different from what most readers may associate with the term globalization—it is not the activities of Coca-Cola, Nokia, Sony, McDonald’s, and other huge corporations, with their high-rise offices, batteries of lawyers, and vast advertising budgets. Instead, it is traders carrying their goods by suitcase, container, or truck across continents and borders with minimal interference from legalities and copyrights, a world run by cash. It is also individuals seeking a better life by fleeing their home countries for opportunities elsewhere, whether as temporary workers, asylum seekers, or sex workers. This is the dominant form of globalization experienced in much of the developing world today.”

“It is amazing how much can be obtained in Chungking Mansions, from lodging to a haircut to halal barbecue, to whiskey of all price ranges, to sex, to computer repairs, to TV remotes, to spy cameras installed in pens and glasses, to stationery, to groceries, to laundry service, to medicines, to legal advice for asylum seekers, to spiritual sustenance for Christians and Muslims. As one well-read informant explained, “There is a self-sufficient ecosystem in Chungking Mansions.” One might never leave the building for weeks or months on end, since virtually all that one might need is in the building itself.”

The book brings a fascinating ethnography about how these different nationalities and cultures manage to live side by side. Racism exists and is rampart, specially from the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese against South Asians and Africans, but grievances are largely put aside in the everyday struggle to make money. It is not a Disney-perfect relationship, but a human and imperfect one, with highs and lows.

The book is very well researched and organized in chapters dedicated to the place, the people, the goods, the laws and the future. It is one of the books that really made me feel like I have traveled to this fascinating place. Highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

PeeJ

The island of Chungking Mansions

July 17, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Chungking Mansions is an infamous building in Hong Kong. It is a labyrinth of exotica, adventure , and otherness. In many ways it is a shadowy unknown place to many who live in Hong Kong and the countless travelers it attracts yearly. What is for sure is that we want to know more about it. Specifically more about the eclectic array of people that walk and work in its corridors each day. This fine work by Gordon Mathews satiates this curiosity quite fully.
Exploring the history of the building, its many personalities, the goods and businesses that pass through, and the new transformations, Gordon Mathews produces a landmark text. This work is particularly compelling because it addresses some misconceptions about Chungking Mansions, namely its safety and criminality and redresses these issues. It shows us that the building is intricately placed in what Mathews terms `low end globalization'. Millions of phones sold in this building sold by Pakistani tradesmen can be traced to the streets of Lagos. Illegal workers support their families in Calcutta by washing dishes or handing out flyers for the many restaurants in the building. Sex workers save money to start businesses back in their home countries. The most contemporary feature of the building is the rise in African traders passing through, this phenomenon is explored in detail and provides context for the transformations visible in the streets around Chungking Mansions.
Another important contribution this text offers is that of acknowledging asylum seekers in Hong Kong and showing their particular struggles in the territory. Many of these asylum seekers who have fled torture or the threat of political assassination frequent Chungking Mansions and contribute to an understanding of the place as a bourgeois location. The truth being that whilst the building is populated with people from disparate parts of the world, they are often the middle class entrepreneurs of their countries, and many of the businesses in Chungking Mansions themselves can be comfortably profitable.
Mathews is astute in pointing out that the fortunes and future of Chungking Mansions are tied to global caprices. Changes in visa regulations, the Olympics, and even 9/11 have changed the people and business practices that occupy Chungking Mansions. These factors reconfirm another important point that the author makes, whilst Chungking Mansions is in Hong Kong, it is not `of' Hong Kong. As such this book will tell you much about the building, much about trade with China, and much about low end globalization, it will tell you less however about Hong Kong. After all Chungking Mansions is an island of otherness in this city, a ghetto at the center of the world.

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Facu

Excellent Study of Chungking Mansions and its role in the globalized world

March 22, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Excellent study of a truly unique place such as Chungking Mansions, with an affectionate view of its inhabitants and their stories and great insight and analysis of the symbolic role of the Mansions as crossroads of the world. If you have visited the building and experience its unique atmosphere, this book will help to complete the picture and deepen your understanding.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

L. Starks

A Business Book That Reads Like a Novel

February 16, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I read this book several months ago, but found it so compelling I often continue to visualize the descriptions of life and business in one of the scrappiest, most marginal, and yet most optimistic places in the world. I heartily recommend this book as an antidote to both familiar developing-country tomes and weary first-world cynicism.

L. A. Starks, Author of 13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy

5 people found this helpful

Comment

December 20, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a beautiful and accurate ethnography of the people who bring the Chungking Mansions to life. Unfortunately, the author slightly marred what would otherwise be a perfect piece of writing with grossly uninformed comments against "neo-liberalism" towards the end of the book. Despite this flaw, this book is a must read if you want to learn more about globalization in general or Hong Kong in particular.

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Most recent customer reviews

Robert Balue

Book only states a couple of points and they are ...

Book only states a couple of points and they are repeated throughout the entire text. This book is weak!

Excellent reading! I passed by the Chungking Mansion few ...

Excellent reading! I passed by the Chungking Mansion few years ago and wondered what is this anachronism doing here!?

Published 1 year ago

A. J. A. Haddon

Chungking Mansions

It's ok and an interesting read, although the book goes on a bit and could have dome with a bit more careful editing!

Published on January 27, 2016

breadbutterjam

brilliant and fascinating

this book is very well researched and captivating to read

Published on November 2, 2015

PA buyer

Interesting insights

Some interesting insights but a lot of repetition. As someone who has visited Hong Kong, it provided a lot of insight into what happens behind the scenes.

Published on September 7, 2015

Amazonian

Very Well Written

Professor Mathews lived in the Mansion part time for three years and he traveled with his subjects to Africa for the sake of research. Wow!Read more

Published on June 17, 2015

Elliot Watson

As a book, fantastic.

I've been to Chungking Mansions a number of times, and have heard the varied myths, rumours and some truths about what goes on within its seventeen floors.Read more

Published on May 4, 2015

louisa ling

Regret buying

Bought this book expecting personal stories of residents, dark quirky details of the going-ons in the building; however, it reads like someone's thesis in sociology.

Published on November 25, 2014

Sam

Must read for sociology majors

Assigned for class and I have to say it was one of my favorites this year. Extremely interesting and thought provoking.

Published on April 19, 2014

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

Set up a giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Ian Lambot Ed.

12

Hardcover
$79.75
2

JP Oversized
$52.99
Jackie Pullinger

19

Paperback
$66.31
Jason Y. Ng

7

Paperback
$11.94
Ian Lambot

19

Paperback
21 offers from $210.00
1

JP Oversized
$55.00

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: hong kong history, chicago travel, cities of the world, chicago guide

Buy New

$17.92

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Buy Used

$10.71

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Other Sellers on Amazon

Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong Paperback – June 30, 2011

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Read reviews that mention

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Buy New $17.92

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Buy Used $10.71

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong Paperback – June 30, 2011

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Read reviews that mention

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Buy New

$17.92

Buy Used

$10.71