Rooted in my city

Rooted in My City: Hong Kong Literature from the Postwar Years to the 2000s

To understand Hong Kong literature, you must start with this book!
The development of Hong Kong literature is not based on a rejection of the "non-local," nor is it a simple process of creation from nothing. In fact, it is characterized by a complex interplay of contradictions and disjunctions. The local and the non-local together constitute the complexity of Hong Kong literature's local consciousness. This dialectic of mobility and rootedness forms the core of this book, "Rooted in Our City: Hong Kong Literature from the Postwar Period to the 2000s," which reviews and discusses Hong Kong literature from the postwar period to the 2000s.
Chen Chi-te's "Roots in My City" is a systematic exposition based on the framework of literary history. The main writers discussed include Wang Yun (Zhang Wenbing), Zhao Zifan, Zhang Yifan, Ruan Lang, Cao Juren, Xu Jing, Li Kuang, Shu Xiangcheng, Yang Jiguang, Ma Lang, Cai Yanpei, Liu Yichang, Xixi, Liang Bingjun (Ye Si), Deng Alan, Luo Feng, Dong Qizhang, Pan Guoling. , Xie Xiaohong; also included Fu Gongwang, Huang Yu, Sha Yu, Ye Lingfeng, Chen Junbao, He Da, Tang Junyi, Lin Yiliang, Xiahou Wuji (Qi Huan), Sima Changfeng, Wu Xubin, Songmu (Cai Zhenxing), Dai Tian, ​​Ma Jue, Kunnan, Lu Yin, Chen Guanzhong, Ye Hui, You Jing, Ma Guoming, Li Bihua, Xin Qishi, Guo Lirong, Zhong Lingling, etc.
The works discussed in the book begin with the left-wing poetry of Huang Yu and Fu Gongwang in the early post-war period, the novels of Zhao Zhifan, Ruan Lang, Xu Jing and others in the 1950s, and end with Dong Qichang's "The History of Time: The Light of Dumb Porcelain" and Chen Guanzhong's "Afterwards: A Journal of Local Culture" in 2007; it also analyzes the contemporary significance and literary historical position of publications such as "Overseas Chinese Daily: Student Weekly", "70s Biweekly", "Crossing the Boundary", "Hong Kong Literature (Bimonthly)", and "Today: Hong Kong Culture Special" from the perspective of newspaper research. The topics explored include left-wing poetry, anti-communist novels, realist literature, modernist literature, as well as concepts related to dialect poetry, self-transformation, and new democratic literature. It is a stage-by-stage summary of the results of Chen Zhide's twenty years of uninterrupted research on Hong Kong literature.
In his book Roots in My City, Chan Chi-tak discusses the differences in Hong Kong literature as distinct aspects of local consciousness. From the 1930s to the 2000s, across a variety of works of varying eras and styles, Hong Kong literature's local consciousness took different directions in different eras. Local consciousness is not synonymous with affirmation of local people and events; it can also include negation and criticism of locality. In response to the unique circumstances of modern Chinese history, understanding the individual developments of Hong Kong literature, and even Taiwanese literature, is crucial for understanding the larger picture of modern and contemporary Chinese literature. Therefore, localism is not narrow; rather, it is a path to universality. As argued in the debates on national forms during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, local identity is not in conflict with national identity.

2019-06-28

聯經

632

9789570852813