Newsletter No. 383

Information in this section can only  be accessed with CWEM password .  若要瀏覽本部分的資料， 請須輸 入 中大校園電子郵件密碼 。 8 No. 383, 19.9.2011 人 事 動 態 PERSONALIA 書 訊 BOOKS Chungking Mansions (CKM) is a labyrinth of cheap sleeps, Indian restaurants, and souvenir stalls spread over five 17-storey blocks in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui. Whether it’s fear or fascination the building arouses, Ghetto at the Centre of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong , written by Gordon Mathews, professor of anthropology at CUHK, will shift your perspective somewhat. The well-researched publication offers an ethnographic portrait of CKM and the people who live in it, work in it and pass through it. They include African traders, Pakistani and Indian proprietors, Chinese owners, tailors, asylum seekers, drug addicts, sex workers and tourists. The book reveals CKM’s inhabitants’ complex connections to the international circulation of goods, money and ideas, and shows how it epitomizes the way Mathews believes globalization works for most of the world’s people. The book comprises five sections. ‘Place’ describes the history and significance of the building, as well as its major permanent players. ‘People’ lays bare the various categories of people who thrive, survive or try to in CKM — traders, owners and managers, temporary workers (legal and illegal), domestic helpers, sex workers, heroin addicts, tourists, and how they interact with each other. ‘Goods’ gives an overview of the passage of goods in CKM, including mobile phones, clothing and watches (authentic and copy), in particular, how it enables their transfer from China to Africa and South Asia. The intricate relationship between Hong Kong law (law enforcers) and asylum seekers, residents, and business owners inside CKM is tackled in ‘Laws’. While the last section ‘Future’ explores issues such as the cultural identities of people from the third world in this first-world city and how the ways in which CKM is viewed by Hong Kong Chinese and by its inhabitants will evolve. 位於尖沙嘴心臟地帶的重慶大廈，樓高十七層，是廉價賓館、印度 餐廳和禮品店密布的迷宮。無論你對它是敬而遠之還是着迷不已， 中大人類學系教授麥高登的新作 Ghetto at the Centre of the World 都能啟發你以新的視角觀之。這本研究資料翔實的著作以民族誌式的筆觸描畫重慶大廈和居住 於其間、工作和穿行於其中的芸芸眾生。他們包括非洲貿易商、巴基斯坦和印度東主、中國業主、 裁縫、尋求庇護的人、癮君子、性工作者和遊客。本書揭示重慶大廈居民與貨物、金錢與意念在 國際上流通的錯綜複雜關係，並揭示這何以是麥高登心目中影響世人最廣泛的全球化的典型。 本書共分五章。「地方」介紹此大廈的歷史和意義。「人物」描畫大廈眾生相。「貨物」概述手提電 話、衣服和手錶（正貨和贗品）等貨物，怎樣從中國經重慶大廈流轉到非洲和南亞。「法律」探索 香港法律（執法者）和重慶大廈內尋求庇護者、住客和商戶之間的微妙關係。「未來」探討來自第 三世界的人在這個第一世界城市的文化認同，以及香港人對重慶大廈看法的演變。 Ghetto at the Centre of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong Author: Gordon Mathews Publisher: Hong Kong University Press Year: 2011