 First edition (US) | |
| Author | Paul Theroux |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Michaela Sullivan |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin (US) Hamish Hamilton (UK) |
Publication date | 1997 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print, Audio & eBook |
| Pages | 243 |
| ISBN | 0-395-86029-6 |
Kowloon Tong (1997) is a novel by Paul Theroux about Neville "Bunt" Mullard, an English mummy's boy born and raised in Hong Kong. The story is set in the days leading up to the handover to China of Hong Kong from the British.
Bunt is made an offer for his textile factory by the shady Mr Hung from the People's Republic of China, and has no choice but to accept, when it is made clear that Mr Hung knows all about the part of Bunt's life that he has kept secret from his mother Betty, namely his frequenting of the "blue hotels" of Kowloon Tong and furtive sex with one of his workers, Mei-Ping.
Reception was mostly positive. Richard Bernstein in the New York Times wrote "Mr. Theroux's novel is a tingly, spicy, melancholy story reminiscent of the novels of Graham Greene, and its most salient feature is the spiritual smallness, the plain bad taste of its characters". [1] The Wall Street Journal praises Theroux's satirization of British colonialism in his previous novels and in Kowloon Tong he "finds a natural target in the arrogant Betty but an even bigger one in the ruthless Mr. Hung. Bunt is skewered as well, but we are made to feel considerable pity for him, caught between the irresistible force of China's menacing emissary and the immovable object that is his mother". [2] Donna Seaman in Booklist contends that "Theroux's taut and suspenseful unraveling of Bunt's little world is absolutely riveting, capturing, as it does, the haunting sound of the last nail being pounded into the coffin of the British Empire". [3] Barbara Hoffert in the Library Journal writes "The insipid Bunt and his coarse, avaricious mother are almost unbelievably awful, but in his ruthlessness Mr. Hung is even worse. The result can be pretty dispiriting, but this chilling little novel must be read to the end to catch the full effect of Bunt's breathtaking weakness. Whether it is read as a political fable challenging Britain's colonization and abandonment of Hong Kong or a morality tale about the worst in human nature, this is grim, note-perfect in its descriptions, and, one fears, absolutely honest." A more critical note is struck by Kirkus Reviews which concludes "This hybrid story is infused with a powerful sense of menace (and an unfortunate whiff of racism) and manages a doggedly convincing characterization of its complex protagonist. But there are several long stretches during which nothing much happens, and Theroux overindulges a penchant for lengthy summaries in place of developed scenes. As a result, the book feels uneven, and sometimes hurried. A strongly imagined melodrama with a lot on its mind, but not the novel it might have been." [4]
Paul Edward Theroux is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue The Great Railway Bazaar (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast, which was adapted for the 1986 movie of the same name and the 2021 television series of the same name.
Kowloon is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It has a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of 43,033/km2 (111,450/sq mi) in 2006. It is one of the three regions of Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Island and the New Territories, and is the smallest, second most populous and most densely populated.
The Hong Kong Museum of History is a public museum that preserves Hong Kong's historical and cultural heritage. It is located next to the Hong Kong Science Museum, in Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is a public liberal arts university with a Christian education heritage in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Kowloon East is the eastern part of Kowloon, covering the Wong Tai Sin and Kwun Tong District, with Kowloon City District occasionally included.
Chinese Box is a 1997 movie directed by Wayne Wang and starring Jeremy Irons, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung and Michael Hui.
Kwun Tong is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in Kowloon, and is the easternmost and southernmost district in Kowloon. It had a population of 648,541 in 2016. The district has the second highest population in Hong Kong, after Sha Tin District, while the income is below average. Kwun Tong District borders Sai Kung District to the east, Wong Tai Sin District to the north, and Kowloon City District to the west. To the south is Victoria Harbour, and the Eastern District directly across on Hong Kong Island.
The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony, which began in 1841.
Kowloon City District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the city of Kowloon and cut through by Boundary Street. It had a population of 381,352 in 2001, and increased to 418,732 in 2016. The district has the third most educated residents while its residents enjoy the highest income in Kowloon. It borders all the other districts in Kowloon, with Kwun Tong district to the east, Wong Tai Sin district to its northeast, Sham Shui Po district to its northwest, and Yau Tsim Mong district to its southwest.
Chan Kam-lam, GBS, JP is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing the Kowloon East constituency. He is also a core member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the largest pro-Beijing party in Hong Kong.
Waterloo Road(窩打老道) is one of the principal north-south thoroughfares of Kowloon, Hong Kong. It stretches from Yau Ma Tei to Kowloon Tong.
Establishment Day, formally the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day, is celebrated annually on 1 July in Hong Kong, China since 1997. The holiday celebrates the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The similarly-named holiday in Macau occurs on 20 December, the day of its handover from Portugal.
Hong Kong 97 is an unlicensed shoot 'em up video game developed and published by HappySoft, a doujin game developer, for the Super Famicom. It was released in Japan in 1995, being sold as floppy disks. Designed by the Japanese game journalist Kowloon Kurosawa, who said the game is a satire of the video game industry, Hong Kong 97 was made in seven days with the help of his friend.
St. George's School in Hong Kong opened in 1955 to serve the educational needs of the growing population of British armed forces personnel and civil servants in the colony. It closed in 1996 in preparation for the 1997 handover of Hong Kong. A new school, the Australian International School Hong Kong, now sits partly on the Norfolk Road site vacated by the St. George's closure.
Articles related to Hong Kong include:
Kowloon is an urban area that is part of Hong Kong.
Hollywood Hong Kong is a 2001 Hong Kong film directed by Fruit Chan, with screenplay written by Kei To Lam. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice International Film Festival. It is the second instalment of his "Prostitute trilogy" which Chan directed from 2000–02. The other two movies in the trilogy are Durian Durian (2000) and Three Husbands (2018).
The 1994 Hong Kong District Board elections were held on 18 September 1994 for all 18 districts of Hong Kong and 346 members from directly elected constituencies. It was the last district-level elections in the colonial period before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It was the first elections to be held after the abolition of the appointed seats as proposed by the new electoral arrangements, as the last step of the democratisation by the then Governor Chris Patten before the handover.
The Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions (HKFLU), established in 1984, is the second largest trade union in Hong Kong, after the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, having 82 trade unions and more than 60,000 members in total. The federation was established in 1984.
Chan Yat-san, MBE, JP was a prominent Hong Kong politician and rural leader. He was a New Territories indigenous inhabitant and chairman of the powerful Heung Yee Kuk, and was dubbed the "King of the New Territories".