Hong Kong As It Was

出版者:Hong Kong University Press

作者:Edward Stokes

页数:228

出版时间:2009

价格:GBP 40.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9789622099661

具体描述

In September 1946, when the photographer Hedda Morrison reached Hong Kong, it remained little changed from decades earlier. Acclaimed for her images of China taken in the 1930s and 1940s, Hedda Morrison delighted in recording the patterns of everyday life. Now, captivated by Hong Kong and its people, she embraced the colony's diversity. For six months, cameras in hand, Morrison roamed its districts, streets, coasts and valleys.

Within years, much of what Hedda Morrison witnessed in 1946–47 would be swept aside. Yet when she was there Hong Kong life still had its old feel and traditions, with fine colonial precincts, tenement streets, bustling markets, itinerant hawkers, fisherfolk and rice farmers. In this book, Morrison's telling images are complemented by Edward Stokes' essays portraying the postwar years.

Hedda Morrison's photographs are the work of a masterful, artistic photographer. However, fewer than thirty of this book’s photographs had been published before. It was those images, first sighted in a 1946 government report, that led Edward Stokes to begin searching for Morrison's original negatives – which later were discovered at the Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University.

This is a unique record of a now vanished Hong Kong – the most complete pictorial account of how the colony looked during the decades from the early 1930s to the 1950s. Hedda Morrison's photographs will appeal to all who value documentary images and Asian history.

This new edition contains over three-quarters of the photographs from Hedda Morrison's Hong Kong, the original edition of this book published in 2005. The complete English text, which has been widely praised, accompanies the photographs. Reviews of Hedda Morrison's Hong Kong appear below and on the back jacket.

"Hedda Morrison's Hong Kong can be considered a book of great distinction. It is also a sensitively produced record, interpretation and ethnographic memoir of a Chinese place with global significance at a time that few now remember. No one except Hedda Morrison had the time, the skills and the facility to make permanent the memory of a time and place that no longer exist. Edward Stokes has done a masterly job of allowing us to journey back." – Pacific Affairs

"The story of how Edward Stokes unearthed – and documented – over 500 extraordinary negatives of Hong Kong from 1946–1947 is told in this lavishly produced book. However, that story is merely engrossing background to the real story, which is told beautifully by the photographs themselves, with a series of fascinating essays that bring the history of the period to life. Hedda Morrison's photographs cover a mere six months. Yet they document, as never before, a lifestyle largely unchanged from the 1930s to the 1950s." – Asian Art News

作者简介

Edward Stokes is a photographer and writer. An Australian, he grew up in Hong Kong and studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. After some years as a teacher, he turned to photography and writing. He completed five books on Australian themes, three of them with his own photographs. In 1993 Edward Stokes went to live in Hong Kong, where he photographed and wrote a number of books portraying the territory's natural landscape and ecology. These books were published by a not-for-profit body which, with others, he had established in 1997 – the Hongkong Conservation Photography Foundation. Based on its work and publications, together with the same people and others, in 2007 Edward Stokes began research and preparation for the establishment of a new publishing organization – The Photographic Heritage Foundation.

用户评价

这本关于香港历史的书，与其说是一本学术著作，不如说是一部充满温情的家族回忆录。作者似乎将自己对这座城市的理解，编织进了那些泛黄的老照片和尘封的旧物之中。阅读的过程中，我仿佛跟着他一起穿梭回了上世纪中叶的香港街头，空气中弥漫着海水的咸湿和街边小吃的香气。那些关于码头工人的辛勤劳作、唐楼里错综复杂的人际关系，以及早期移民如何在这片土地上扎根的故事，都被描绘得栩栩如生。它没有宏大的叙事视角，而是聚焦于一个个鲜活的个体命运，展现了普通人在时代洪流中的挣扎与坚韧。我尤其喜欢作者对生活细节的捕捉，比如旧时的茶楼规矩、叮叮车上的喧嚣，甚至是某个特定时期流行的小玩意儿，这些零碎的片段共同构建了一个无比真实、可触摸的旧日香港，让人读完后，对这座城市多了一层难以言喻的亲近感和敬意。

从文学性和叙事技巧的角度来看，这本书的节奏感处理得非常巧妙。它不像传统历史书那样线性推进，而是采用了多线叙事的结构，时而跳跃到殖民政府的决策高层，时而又沉浸于九龙城寨的烟火人间。这种穿插使得历史的厚重感得以稀释，转而呈现出一种流动的、多维度的景观。文字的雕琢达到了极高的水准，一些描述性的段落，其密度和韵味，几乎可以媲美一部优秀的散文集。例如，作者对维多利亚港在不同天气下的色彩变化，对海风带来的独特气味的描摹，都充满了诗意的想象力，让人在阅读过程中，时不时需要停下来，细细品味那凝练的词句。这种将历史事件置于美学框架之下的处理方式，极大地提升了阅读的愉悦感，也让那些原本枯燥的年代变迁，变得富有张力和感染力。

如果非要用一个词来形容这本书的特质，那便是“气韵生动”。它不仅仅记录了“发生了什么”，更着力于描绘“当时的感受如何”。作者似乎对“时间流逝”这一母题有着深刻的理解，他用一种近乎哲学的视角，审视着香港这座城市永恒的变迁与不变。那些关于口音的演变、建筑风格的迭代，甚至于市民心态的变化，都被赋予了强烈的生命力。阅读过程中，我仿佛能闻到旧式理发店里剃须水的味道，听到电车驶过轨道发出的“哐啷”声，感受到那种属于那个特定时代特有的紧凑和野心。这本书的成功之处在于，它没有将历史塑造成一个已经完成的、僵硬的标本，而是将其呈现为一个仍在呼吸、仍在自我重塑的有机生命体，非常引人入胜。

这本书给我带来最强烈的感受是“疏离感”与“共鸣”的拉扯。对于一个对香港文化有一定了解的读者而言，书中提及的许多地标和风俗是如此熟悉，一下子唤醒了许多潜藏的记忆片段，那种“啊，原来不止我一个人这样记得”的共鸣感是极其温暖的。然而，作者对某些特定历史时期的选择性聚焦，也无形中拉开了一层距离。比如，某些政治议题的探讨显得尤为克制和含蓄，这或许是时代的烙印，也可能是作者的创作选择，但正是这种未尽之言，反而留给了读者巨大的想象和填补空间。这种半开放式的叙事，让人在合上书本后，仍旧忍不住要对着窗外沉思，试图将自己未曾经历过的历史片段，拼凑进作者构建的宏大图景中去。

坦白地说，这本书的深度远超我的预期。我原本以为这会是一本较为浅显的怀旧读物，但深入其中才发现，作者对社会结构和经济转型的剖析异常犀利。他并没有回避香港发展过程中的矛盾与冲突——贫富差距的扩大、不同族群之间的摩擦、以及本土身份认同的艰难构建。尤其是在探讨战后工业化浪潮对传统社区瓦解的影响时，作者展现出了一种近乎冷峻的洞察力，用大量的数据和鲜活的案例支撑了自己的论点。这种学术的严谨性与大众化的叙事风格完美结合，使得这本书既有供专业人士参考的价值，也能够让普通读者轻松理解那些复杂的社会动力。它迫使读者去思考，究竟是什么样的力量塑造了我们今天所见的香港，而答案显然不是单一而简单的。

图像证史的尝试。对散佚相片的收集、整理、编辑和再次解读，也多少是一个摄影者对另一个摄影者的责任。

图像证史的尝试。对散佚相片的收集、整理、编辑和再次解读，也多少是一个摄影者对另一个摄影者的责任。

图像证史的尝试。对散佚相片的收集、整理、编辑和再次解读，也多少是一个摄影者对另一个摄影者的责任。

图像证史的尝试。对散佚相片的收集、整理、编辑和再次解读，也多少是一个摄影者对另一个摄影者的责任。

图像证史的尝试。对散佚相片的收集、整理、编辑和再次解读，也多少是一个摄影者对另一个摄影者的责任。