The World of Suzie Wong

A blurb on the back cover of my copy of The World Suzie Wong compared it to the work of W. Somerset Maugham. This is a dreadful mistake. About the only similarity between Suzie Wong and the works of Maugham is that Suzie's protagonist, Robert Lomax, starts out on a Malayan rubber plantation. From that plantation he moves to Hong Kong to pursue an interest in painting. And, here, Mason creates a work of fiction that is of Hong Kong, not just set in Hong Kong. That is the difference. Maugham's work, often focused on British colonial administrators in the Far East, used his exotic settings as mere backdrops. They never intertwined into the nature of his characters. Suzie Wong does. It focuses on the world of non-expats, the world of bar show more girls, "coolies," shop owners, rickshaw drivers, and hotel clerks. As such, it separates itself from Maugham's universe in a fashion much more similar to Conrad's work on pieces such as Almayer's Folly or Lord Jim.

Finally, I have come to this novel late. It has been many, many, many years since I first saw the film version, with Nancy Kwan and William Holden. And the images from the film still are fresh in my mind. But so good is Mason's writing in Suzie Wong, that I soon had those images driven from my mind by the very real world of 1950s Hong Kong he creates in the novel's pages. As such, the novel maintains its own vitality and, in the end, somewhat desperate desire to see how Suzie and Robert's lives played out after the final page. show less

In the 1950s, a British artist moves into a hotel in the Wanchai district of Hong Kong. The place is inhabited by "bar girls" (Chinese prostitutes) whose customers are mainly sailors from the ships that dock in Hong Kong harbour. Although he befriends all the girls, he becomes particularly interested in Mee-ling Wong who has renamed herself Suzie.

Old-fashioned, with some of the prejudices of the times, but written in a very sensitive and moving way. A famous novel of Hong Kong.

I enjoyed this book. The author wrote a good story with some nice philosophical points in the text. The characters are likeable and believable.

One of my favourites - read years ago, so I am not quite sure about the decisive points any longer. In any case the book made me want to live about a - well, in my case :-) - restaurant or bar or such. Which I did for some years (and liked it).
Read it. It is a good novel place in Hong Kong in the 1950s.

Der englische Maler Robert Lomax lebt in den 1950ern in einem Stundenhotel in Hongkongs Hafenviertel Wan Chai. Die dortigen Mädchen dienen ihm als Inspiration. Eines der Mädchen sticht heraus: Suzie Wong.

Vor der Kulisse Hongkongs nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg hat Richard Mason eine bittersüße Liebesgeschichte mit spannenden Wendungen geschaffen. Herausragend sind Masons zeitgenössische Schilderungen der damaligen Kronkolonie Hongkongs (sowie des portugiesischen Außenpostens Macao). Meisterhaft versetzt er den Leser in die exotische Athmosphäre der ständig wachsenden Stadt am Perlfluss-Delta mit allen kolonialen Widersprüchen, der Armut und Prostitution. Masons Werk ist ein absolutes Muss für Hongkong-Besucher.