The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir

nonfiction/memoir - essays about changes in Hong Kong (1997-2020), growing up/education in Hong Kong, mental health (depression, PTSD after violence against protestors)

I liked some of this and found it pretty readable--interesting to read about a sense of belonging (or lack thereof), and mental health care system challenges in other countries, etc. The "narrative" (if you can call it one) got a lot less readable towards the end, with the essay about the writer's existential crisis about writing for Hong Kongers in English, without pandering to the colonialist Westerners, but also ultimately still having to make a living selling your writing to the West--a valid point, sure, and I don't even mind the sprinkling of untranslated Chinese show more characters throughout the text, but surely this doesn't take 26 pages to explain.

Worth a read, if you manage to muddle through the first couple essays, and skip a couple of other essays, but if you are looking for a readable narrative memoir this may not be your best choice. show less

Cheung’s memoir gives me a much more realistic view of what Hong Kong was like before and after the return of the island to China. She shows us why Hong Kong residents choose to stay rather than flee. Cheung was 4 years old when the British returned the city to China. Her coming-of-age story seems to be that of the city’s coming of age. Frustrated and coping with depression, Cheung paints a stark picture of life under communist rule. She continually confronts readers with the resistance to injustice. The underground places Cheung takes her readers shows a Hong Kong I knew nothing about.