Spatial Stories and Intersecting Geographies: Hong Kong, Britain, and China, 1890-1940

This book provides a fresh account of the literary and journalistic connection between Hong Kong, China, and Britain, and the different forms of literary production and cross-cultural encounters that emerged from 1890 to 1940. Through close reading of literary texts written by Hong Kong, British, and Chinese writers, as well as archival research of under-explored periodicals, historical and biographical materials, it critically examines the various forms of transnational encounters, networks, and fissures in these places that were historically connected since the second half of the nineteenth century. By putting established and under researched writers of different cultural backgrounds together for analysis, this book engages with multiple perspectives and counterpoints when exploring different and intersecting cultural and historical contexts, as well as the various symbolic and actual print worlds that emerged during this transformative period. It also aims to redirect attention to Hong Kong as one of the key locales to consider questions of representation, modernity, transnational movement, colonial and postcolonial politics, and various literary and cultural responses to local and global issues. Drawing on literary and cultural theories, spatial theories, and critical perspectives in cultural geography and urban studies, this book demonstrates the significance of everyday spaces in shaping individual experiences and perceptions. It shows that these spaces are major sites of contested representations in selected literary texts as well as key locales through which questions of identity, race, colonial politics, spatial boundaries and their limits, are explored, negotiated, and debated.