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Indelible City

Dispossesion and Defiance in Hong Kong
By Louisa Lim
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Check link for latest rating. ( 1,461 ratings, 225 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Indelible City by Louisa Lim offers an evocative exploration of Hong Kong's complex history and identity. Through a blend of personal narrative and historical insight, Lim delves into the city's colonial past, political turmoil, and the spirit of its people fighting for autonomy. Her vivid storytelling highlights the vibrant culture and persistent quest for justice and recognition that define Hong Kong.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you have a deep interest in exploring the complex history and political evolution of modern Hong Kong through personal narratives, historical insights, and vivid storytelling. The author provides a richly detailed account that blends memoir with reportage, offering a fresh perspective on the city's identity and its place in the world.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

An award-winning journalist takes to the protest-riven streets of Hong Kong to write this startling landmark account of the island city’s complex past and precarious future.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The story of Hong Kong has long been obscured by competing myths: to Britain, a ‘barren rock’ with no appreciable history; to China, a part of Chinese soil from time immemorial that had at last returned to the ancestral fold. To its inhabitants, the city was a place of refuge and rebellion, whose own history was so little taught that they began mythmaking their own past.

When protests erupted in 2019 and were met with escalating suppression from Beijing, Louisa Lim—raised in Hong Kong as a half-Chinese, half-English child, and now a reporter who had covered the region for a decade—realised that she was uniquely positioned to unearth Hong Kong’s untold stories.

Lim’s deeply researched and personal account is startling, casting new light on key moments: the British takeover in 1842, the negotiations over the 1997 return to China, and the future Beijing seeks to impose. Indelible City features guerrilla calligraphers, amateur historians, and archaeologists who, like Lim, aim to put Hong Kongers at the centre of their own story.

Wending through it all is the King of Kowloon, whose iconic street art both embodied and inspired the identity of Hong Kong—a site of disappearance and reappearance, power and powerlessness, loss and reclamation.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Louisa Lim's Indelible City is lauded as a vibrant and deeply personal exploration of Hong Kong's identity and history, blending memoir and reportage. Critics highlight its engaging narrative that captures the city's spirit and its complex history amidst colonial and political struggles. The book is recognised for its vivid portrayal of Hong Kong's resilience and cultural identity, serving as an evocative and essential contribution to understanding both its past and present tensions.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781922458513

Publisher: Text Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 May 2022

Country: Australia

Imprint: The Text Publishing Company

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 320

Collections

Asian History History & Archaeology History & Military Louisa Lim Non-Fiction Penguin Books

About the Author

Louisa Lim is the author of The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited (2014), which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. She covered China and Hong Kong for a decade as a correspondent for the BBC and NPR, and has reported for the New York Times, Washington Post and Guardian. Raised in Hong Kong, she lives in Australia with her two children and teaches at the University of Melbourne.

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