© Columbia University Press
City of the Queen: A Novel of Colonial Hong Kong
Paper, 312 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13457-6
$19.95
/ £11.95
August, 2005
Cloth, 312 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13456-9
$30.00
/ £17.50
"Hong Kong's swift evolution from fledgling, opium-infested colony to sparkling financial power is... the essence of the story." — Margaret Flanagan, Booklist
"With its intriguing story line...the translators have done a nice job of bringing out the essence of a colony in transition." — Library Journal
"Shih's internationally acclaimed English translators... Have put together a version that is literary and maintains all necessary plot continuity." — Jeffrey C. Kinkley, World Literature Today
"After coming to national renown in the 1960s with her experimental, avant-garde short stories, Taiwanese writer Shih Shu-Ching amply demonstrated her equally impressive talents for epic works of fiction in City of the Queen (an abridged translation of the Hong Kong Trilogy). The story is about a legendary woman whose life, and the miracles filling it, are intertwined with the tortuous history of Hong Kong’s colonial era. The imminent event of the 1997 Handover, looming large in the book in the form of an anxiety that cannot be dispelled, inevitably imbues it with a strong sense of history. Witnessing an epoch coming to an end, the author contemplates issues of race, gender, and human fate that profoundly complicate the life of the novel’s protagonist as well as that of every other Hong Kong resident." — Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, University of Texas, author of Literary Culture in Taiwan: Martial Law to Market Law
"A sensual retelling of Madama Butterfly and The World of Suzie Wong, this fascinating colonial drama of sex and economy stretches from the British occupation of Hong Kong to the eve of its return to China. City of the Queen is beautifully translated and is a must read for postcolonial scholars." — Ping-hui Liao, professor of literary and critical studies, National Tsinghua University, Taiwan