By: Malcolm Jack
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Malcolm Jack was brought up and schooled in Hong Kong before returning to university in the UK. As a child, he learned Cantonese at the same time as English. He has had a career both as a public servant and a writer. His writing includes books, articles, reviews on history, literature, philosophy, and politics, as well as travel works on Portugal, and most recently, on South Africa. He is a frequent visitor to Hong Kong.
I have never been to Hong Kong neither have experienced that generation, but Malcom Jack paints an evocative picture of his life in Hong Kong. The characters are absolutely wonderful, some are quirky and amusing to follow and to learn how they made such a strong impact on Malcolm Jack's life.
A fascinating view of life in Hong Kong from multiple perspectives. Would highly recommend.
Sir Malcolm's evocative survey provides a most enjoyable introduction to the impressive clutch of authors who in their memoirs or autobiographical fiction recorded the last fifty years of colonial Hong Kong.
In "My Hong Kong" we are taken on a whirlwind tour from the lofty fortress of the Peak to the noisy bustle of the back streets of Kowloon. Through the eyes of Malcolm Jack's chosen writers the vibrant, sometimes seedy city comes to life in its splendour and its squalor. Highly recommended read from the author who was brought up in Hong Kong.
I found this a charming and instructive introduction to Hong Kong. With a deceptively light touch, Malcolm Jack traces developments in Hong Kong through the voices of various writers. Each figure is introduced to us and then a work is explored for what it has to tell us about the city. The result is a dazzling range of perspectives. An additional virtue of the book is, of course, that it introduces us to an enticing bibliography of further reading.
My Uncle Malcolm's book is his unique experience and this insightful. Nostalgic and romantic- love, loss and everything in between. A historic slice of Hongkong and it's complex history and people jump out of every page. The reading list and quotes use bring home the complex identities of those who lived and left this magical place. I am relishing every page and it's helping me with my own identity - Eurasian. This is my family's experience, and it is in part dedicated to my Grandmother Olga who encouraged me to paint. I am so inspired by this book I am currently working on a series of paintings. This book is comforting, intriguing and close to my heart. Bravo, outstanding, a must read. The proceeds go to the homeless of Hong Kong.
This very readable and atmospheric book is a survey of “how writers have seen Hong Kong and struggled with its identity from the 1950s to 1997”. It aims to capture the colourful reality of the Fragrant Harbour through considering a series of fictions depicting the “complex criss-cross pattern of relationships across the ethnically mixed colony”. Among the questions raised are ‘What is it to be Chinese?’ and ‘What is it to belong?’. ‘My Hong Kong’ is part literary criticism, part social history and partly perhaps an oblique autobiography, as Jack grew up in Hong Kong in the 1950s. It is an appealing introduction to the world of Hong Kong, coloured by nostalgic reflection.
Hong Kong is, or at least was, one my favorite cities, so anytime I find something intriguing to read about HK I buy it.
Mr. Jack grew up in Hong Kong, and unlike so many other authors that write about a plethora of subjects on a purely theoretical basis, he lived through the times he describes. The author takes us through a journey as viewed through the lens of other contemporary authors between the 1950s to the end of the British colonial period in 1997. It reminds me of a few years ago when I went to Hanoi, in that it is like stepping back into time.
Oddly enough, Mr. Jack mentioned that some people had their doubts (back in 1997) as to whether or not a "One Country Two Systems" approach could work and we now know clearly that it cannot.
