“In this wonderful book Gordon Mathews takes on an intriguing project: daily life as it is lived, articulated, dreamed, denied, regretted, and defended in a rather run-down but very public building in Hong Kong. The residents of Chungking Mansions are economically blocked from the rest of the city and often racially discriminated against, so how do such marginalized people survive, much less prosper? This is the conundrum at the heart of Ghetto at the Center of the World. Mathews tackles it by providing a vivid description of the people who live their lives in the building’s dimly lit hallways, restaurants, and shops, and by analyzing the larger material and political forces at work. The resulting account is as informative and revealing as it is entertaining.”
William Jankowiak, author of Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City

“Chungking Mansions is a microcosm of globalization but with a special twist: it shelters and nurtures the small-time players who inhabit the lower tiers of transnational capitalism. Postcolonial Hong Kong remains a platform for suitcase entrepreneurs who travel the world in pursuit of profit and business connections. The Mansions may seem seedy and dangerous to the titans who run Hong Kong, but, as Mathews’s account makes clear, it is a paradise for business travelers on a minimal budget. Anyone who seeks insights into the soft underbelly of global capitalism should read this book.”
James L. Watson, coauthor of Village Life in Hong Kong

Ghetto at the Center of the World
Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong
by Gordon Mathews