Ghetto at the Center of the World

出版者:University Of Chicago Press

作者:Gordon Mathews

页数:256

出版时间:2011-6-30

价格:USD 19.00

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780226510200

具体描述

There is nowhere else in the world quite like Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong’s tourist district. A remarkably motley group of people call the building home; Pakistani phone stall operators, Chinese guesthouse workers, Nepalese heroin addicts, Indonesian sex workers, and traders and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there—even backpacking tourists rent rooms. In short, it is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet.

But as Ghetto at the Center of the World shows us, a trip to Chungking Mansions reveals a far less glamorous side of globalization. A world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations, Chungking Mansions is emblematic of the way globalization actually works for most of the world’s people. Gordon Mathews’s intimate portrayal of the building’s polyethnic residents lays bare their intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas. We come to understand the day-to-day realities of globalization through the stories of entrepreneurs from Africa carting cell phones in their luggage to sell back home and temporary workers from South Asia struggling to earn money to bring to their families. And we see that this so-called ghetto—which inspires fear in many of Hong Kong’s other residents, despite its low crime rate—is not a place of darkness and desperation but a beacon of hope.

Gordon Mathews’s compendium of riveting stories enthralls and instructs in equal measure, making Ghetto at the Center of the World not just a fascinating tour of a singular place but also a peek into the future of life on our shrinking planet.

作者简介

Gordon Mathews is professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Global Culture/ Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket and What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds, coauthor of Hong Kong, China: Learning to Belong to a Nation, and coeditor of several books.

读后感

做完思维导图后突然不想细写一篇长文了……那就给思维导图写个总结吧。 麦高登给重庆大厦的比喻很巧妙，“世界中心的边缘地带”，确实如此。不仅是地理位置上的“位于繁华尖沙咀中的一座破旧大楼”，更是贫富意义上的“降落在第一世界中心的突兀的第三世界”。来自边陲国家的中...  

在讨论全球化造成的飞地的时候，容易关注两极而非中段。的确，全球化议题中更能引发人们讨论兴味的总是高精尖技术的共享，或关怀维度爆表的底层贫民窟。 不大记得是《落脚城市》还是哪一本相关书籍里都有说到，极端底层的贫民窟现象已然成为第三世界国家的一种重要...  

去过几次香港，但彼时年少，只是跟着大人逛景点和购物点，对于重庆大厦仅仅略有耳闻却未曾造访。然而，对于重庆大厦的光怪陆离，我在一定程度上能够感同身受。我在书中提到的天秀大厦住了十几年，从懵懂记事到远走高飞。虽身处其中多年，我其实一直是个局外人，从未理解他们的...  

一直很想读这本书，一边听着宅男帮忙升级好电脑后的欢乐的歌声，一边在其虹口小仓里火眼晶晶发现了这本书，周日在家一口气读完了。这本书介绍的重庆大厦是一座残旧的大楼，商住两用，拥有大批南亚及非洲的住户，有来来往往的商人，有兢兢业业的非法劳工，有慵懒的避难者...  

知道这本《Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong》还是在好几个月之前。当时刚刚决定要跨专业申请人类学的硕士，在网路上遇见了一位国内硕士在读（非人类学专业）的姐姐。她说自己也对CUHK的ANT感兴趣，给我推荐了一些书，特别提到Gordon Mathews...  

用户评价

全球化、他者、劳工、性别、权力

为毛作者车轱辘话来回说？其实这里要是抛开他为了凑字的嫌疑，讲重庆大厦的历史发展未来人群还挺有趣的。但其实少一半就可以说完因为翻来覆去而倒了胃口。

有幸跟着gordon mathews游了一遍重庆大厦，第一回摸清楚每层的用途，觉得好像比以前单纯了一些，当然，仅仅是一些。

香港土生土长的南亚人也会遭到相当的歧视，他们在重庆大厦赚钱，盘算着某一天移民英美加。 远逝的天堂Kottak提到“外来者对外界的人和事总是表现出最强烈的厌恶”（没列出文献出处）。你说这会不会是因为大部分人其实都是近几十年大陆的移民，上海人，福建人。。。 这是香港的问题呢，还是整个华人世界都这样？

全球化、他者、劳工、性别、权力