Xi Xu, History's Fiction: Stories from the City of Hong Kong

Amy Lai (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Ed. by John Thieme, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.4.2: Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian and Myanmar Writing and Culture.

Dates

First circulation or publication 2001

Places

Hong Kong (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

Xu Xi’s fifth book is entitled bilingually in Chinese-Cantonese as Heunggong yahn dik duen liksi (Hong Kong people’s short history), and in English as History’s Fiction: Stories from the City of Hong Kong. The first version of the title, by indicating the short period since the city has come into real existence following the British colonisation in the mid-nineteenth century, does not tell us that the book is really composed of thirteen short stories divided into four decades (The Sixties, The Seventies, The Eighties, and The Nineties). The second version of the title emphasises its storytelling narrative, but diverts our attention to the “fictitiousness” of the stories, away from the p…

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1482 words

Citation: Lai, Amy. "History's Fiction: Stories from the City of Hong Kong". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 January 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12476, accessed 04 May 2024.]

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