The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-06)

SUNDAY, MARCH 6 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E17

sure cooker city. And it is, per-

haps, richest in small moments

such as when, on hearing about a

friend’s flag-waving enthusiasm

for the Chinese motherland, the

author wonders, “How do you

love a mother you have never

known?”

By 2020, Cheung writes, it was

clear that China’s promise of uni-

versal suffrage for Hong Kong

residents — a promise made at

the time of the handover — was a

lie. It is easy to succumb to defeat-

ism, yet Cheung doesn’t. Her

memoir conveys a delicate mix of

hope and caution.

Sharmila Mukherjee lives in Seattle.

book world

ty and the meaning of home in a
nearly uninhabitable city of tiny
apartments and stratospheric
rent.
But the heart of the narrative is
the story of Cheung’s own coming
of age. She was 4 years old in 1997
when the British handed the city
over to China. Abandoned by her
mother, she was raised by her
elderly, tough-as-nails grand-
mother. “When I fall over,” Che-
ung recollects, “she buries a silver
ring inside the yolk of a boiled
egg, wraps a cloth around it, then
rubs it over my bruises to help
blood circulation.” Enthralling
details like these give readers a
window into a way of life rooted
in ancient Chinese traditions.
Growing up alienated and se-
verely depressed, Cheung experi-
enced political awakening during
the Umbrella Movement of 2014
and channeled her rebellious na-
ture into creative endeavors. A
profound insight in the book is
that resistance to injustice is an
affirmation of life.
Cheung takes readers to off-
beat “underground” places, such
as smoke-filled rooms hidden
deep within industrial buildings
in the gritty Kowloon district.
These are secret sites of unau-
thorized private gigs hosted by
artists and musicians forging an
alternative to government-fund-
ed art. She discovers springs of
life in these joints: proactive re-
sistance based on creativity rath-
er than anger. We meet musicians
like Tomii Chan, who pursues
music rather than fulfill his fam-
ily’s wish for him to secure a
full-time day job. Cheung also
reports on leftist bookstores, ca-
fes, record shops and bars where
journalists, artists and protesters
congregate.
Some readers may feel that
Cheung’s portraits of people are
often without psychological acu-
ity or that the narrative tells
about, rather than shows, Hong
Kong’s free spirit. But this mem-
oir is such a meticulous docu-
mentary of creativity in a pres-

CHEUNG FROM E16

Karen Cheung: H onk Kong protesters

struggle to preserve t heir w ay of life

SUM LOK-KEI

At the heart of author

Karen Cheung’s

depiction of Hong Kong

is a coming-of-age story.

She describes a political

awakening during the

Umbrella Movement of

2014. H ong Kong, she
      declares, i s changing
      extensively under
      pressure from
      gentrification and
      China’s authoritarian
      crackdown on the city.

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