Tales from Victoria Park: Short stories of Indonesian women in Hong Kong

HK$108.00

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By Todd Crowell


Victoria Park, the largest expanse of open space in Hong Kong, is the crossroads and away home for thousands of Muslim women who come from Indonesia to find their fortunes, or at least support their families, in the teeming Chinese city. Most come initially as maids, but some lose their employers and descend into the netherworld of overstayers, illegal street hawkers and disco “PR” girls. Whoever they are, they all know Dina: a woman who sells phonecards, changes money, dispenses advice and listens to their tales of exile.

Leila and Ahmed spend the day searching for a place to make love on their one day off, but all the cheap hotels are filled with other lovers celebrating the “End of Ramadan.” Ani finds an unusual way to put a curse on a rival for her affections in “Golden Needles”, while Retno decides that if she becomes a Mormon maybe she can find a regular place to sleep at night. “Wiji” somehow manages to juggle her two Western boyfriends until she manipulates them both into helping her buy a rice field back home, then finds that they insist on accompanying her to her home village as her great benefactors. “Wati and Murtini” grew up in the same small village in Java and worked together in Hong Kong until, on one hot day in Victoria Park, friendship ended in betrayal.

From the comic to the bizarre to the heart-breaking, these cross-cultural tales of exiles in another country build on a sensual evocation of place and character.

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SKU: 9789881613936 Category: Tags: ,

Description

Victoria Park, the largest expanse of open space in Hong Kong, is the crossroads and away home for thousands of Muslim women who come from Indonesia to find their fortunes, or at least support their families, in the teeming Chinese city. Most come initially as maids, but some lose their employers and descend into the netherworld of overstayers, illegal street hawkers and disco “PR” girls. Whoever they are, they all know Dina: a woman who sells phonecards, changes money, dispenses advice and listens to their tales of exile.

“Do you love our series “The Help”, which tells the first-person stories of Hong Kong’s domestic workers? Good. You may also be interested in a brand new novel based around the same subject.” – Coconuts Hong Kong

Additional information

Dimensions 129 × 198 mm
Pages

204

Binding

Paperback

About the author

For 14 years (1987-2001) Todd Crowell worked as a Senior Writer for Asiaweek, the leading English-language news magazine, published in Hong Kong by Time Warner. He has contributed regularly to the Christian Science Monitor and Asian Wall Street Journal among other publications and has worked as a book editor, copy editor and freelance writer in Hong Kong, Thailand and now Japan, where he serves as Japan correspondent for Asia Sentinel.

His other books include The Dictionary of the Asian Language; Explore Macau; Farewell, My Colony: Last Years in the Life of British Hong Kong; and Tokyo: City on the Edge.

www.asiacable.blogspot.com