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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewDung Kai-cheung's Atlas: The Archeology of an Imaginary City is a most unusual work in the history of modern Chinese literature: part fiction, part history, part theory-all in the service of the author's unique method of fictional 'archaeology,' an endeavor that has unearthed a wealth of materials-streets, buildings, personalities, names and signs, and marvels and legends-about this 'vanished' city, the traces of which constitute the sum total of Hong Kong's cultural memory. A cross between fact and fiction, history and mystery, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, this work defies all generic categories and now stands as a contemporary classic. -- Leo Ou-fan Lee, author of City Between Worlds: My Hong Kong ...seamless, yet eccentric...a playful yet poignant invitation to begin layering new symbols and projections over the city's landscape. South China Morning Post Readers pleased by cliff-hanging, nail-biting, page-turning adventure will not be satisfied with "Atlas." Devotees of writers as curious as Borges, Calvino and Eco, will love this map of maps of an imaginary city.Japan Times -- David Cozy Japan Times Well worth the experiment. -- Peter Gordon Asian Review of Books
Table of ContentsPreface: An Archaeology for the Future, by Dung Kai-cheung Introduction, by Bonnie S. McDougall Part One: Theory 1. Counterplace 2. Commonplace 3. Misplace 4. Displace 5. Antiplace 6. Nonplace 7. Extraterritoriality 8. Boundary 9. Utopia 10. Supertopia 11. Subtopia 12. Transtopia 13. Multitopia 14. Unitopia 15. Omnitopia Part Two: The City 16. Mirage: City in the Sea 17. Mirage: Towers in the Air 18. Pottinger's Inverted Vision 19. Gordon's Jail 20. "Plan of the City of Victoria," 1889 21. The Four Wan and Nine Yeuk 22. The Centaur of the East 23. Scandal Point and the Military Cantonment 24. Mr. Smith's One-Day Trip 25. The View from Government House 26. The Toad of Belcher's Dream 27. The Return of Kwan Tai Loo 28. The Curse of Tai Ping Shan 29. War Game Part Three: Streets 30. Spring Garden Lane 31. Ice House Street 32. Sugar Street 33. Tsat Tsz Mui Road 34. Canal Road East and Canal Road West 35. Aldrich Street 36. Possession Street 37. Sycamore Street 38. Tung Choi Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street 39. Sai Yee Street 40. Public Square Street 41. Cedar Street Part Four: Signs 42. The Decline of the Legend 43. The Eye of the Typhoon 44. Chek Lap Kok Airport 45. The Metonymic Spectrum 46. The Elevation of Imagination 47. Geological Discrimination 48. North-Oriented Declination 49. The Travel of Numbers 50. The Tomb of Signs 51. The Orbit of Time Acknowledgments Author and Translators
