Ghetto at the Center of the World

by Mathews, Gordon

• ISBN13: 9780226510200
• ISBN10: 0226510204
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780226510217
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-30
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
• More Book Details
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Summary

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 thereeven backpacking tourists rent rooms. In short, it is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet. But asGhetto at the Center of the Worldshows 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 ghettowhich inspires fear in many of Hong Kong's other residents, despite its low crime rateis 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, makingGhetto at the Center of the Worldnot just a fascinating tour of a singular place but also a peek into the future of life on our shrinking planet.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Prelude: A Note on Hong Kong	p. 1
Place: Introducing Chungking Mansions	p. 7
ôGhetto at the Center of the Worldö	p. 13
Why Chungking Mansions Exists and Why It Matters	p. 16
The Building	p. 21
History	p. 33
Owners' Association	p. 38
Business	p. 41
My Own Involvement	p. 50
People: Traders	p. 57
Owners and Managers	p. 66
Temporary Workers	p. 74
Asylum Seekers	p. 78
Domestic Helpers	p. 83
Sex Workers	p. 85
Heroin Addicts	p. 87
Tourists	p. 90
How These Different Groups Interact	p. 94
Goods: The Passage of Goods in Chungking Mansions	p. 105
Selling Goods	p. 108
Taking Advantage of Buyers	p. 112
Copy Goods	p. 114
Manufacturers and Middlemen	p. 118
Tricks and Travails of a Phone Stall	p. 120
Varieties of Traders	p. 123
The Generation Gap among Traders	p. 128
Techniques of Traders	p. 131
The Lure of China	p. 135
The Perils of Customs	p. 137
The Significance of Goods and Traders	p. 147
Laws: The Omnipresent Shadow of the Law	p. 151
Conflicts Within and Beyond the Law	p. 153
The Role of Police	p. 157
Visas and Residence Rights	p. 165
Asylum Seekers and the Law	p. 169
ôRealö and ôFakeö Asylum Seekers	p. 173
The Lives of Asylum Seekers	p. 178
The Changing Treatment of Asylum Seekers	p. 190
Future: Changing Imaginations of Chungking Mansions	p. 195
How Chungking Mansions Transforms People	p. 198
Cultural Identity	p. 202
Global Significance	p. 207
The Future of Chungking Mansions/The Future of the World	p. 215
Notes	p. 219
References	p. 225
Index	p. 231
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