Evanescent Isles: From My City-Village

An unusual book of quirky essays, some deeply personal. Xu Xi writes from within, of Hong Kong’s vanishing culture and sensibility as it transforms itself into a space that is 21st Century China. She zooms in on her own life in the city on family, friends and a professional history as both business executive and author, on moments that offer wry observations of the shifting world around her. She casts her eye on films, pop stars, public transportation, and muses on the political, without losing sight of the distinctly apolitical culture that evolved through a history as the former British colony and Chinese “Special Administrative Region” after the 1997 “handover.” Like letters to a dying lover, the tone shifts – at times comic or nostalgic, at others angry or despairing, at still others in raptures of delight – in a voice that is utterly Hong Kong. There is no other book like it.