Ann Tso is an English instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada. She is the author of The Literary Psychogeography of London: Otherworlds of Alan Moore, Peter Ackroyd, and Iain Sinclair (2020).

‘Ann Tso’s new book provides an invaluable framework for understanding cities riven by conflicting histories and cultural identities, with a particular focus on Hong Kong. Developing concepts of ‘citiness’ and ‘crisis objects’, she illuminates how Hong Kong’s dissonant post-handover identity manifests in contemporary film and literature. This book provides not just an illuminating perspective on Hong Kong but also a new theoretical paradigm for narrating urban crisis.’– Stephen Joyce, Associate Professor in Media, Communication, and Culture, Aarhus University

• AcknowledgmentsExcessive and Extensive: Introduction to the Citiness of a City in Crisis1. The Deconstructed Pork Bun: Herman Yau’s The Untold Story (1993)2. ‘Hoarding’ in the Hong Kong Apartment: Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood for Love (2000), Fruit Chan’s Dumplings (2004), and Nate Ki Tse Ka-kei’s Back Home (2023)3. Resonant Lacunae in Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016); Or, the Elliptical Ties between China’s Past and Hong Kong’s Present-Future4. Dissonant Urban Sounds and Temporalities in Karen Cheung’s The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir (2022)Conclusion: Towards an Elliptical Narrative of Global Urban CrisesIndex

Ann Tso is an English instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada. She is the author of The Literary Psychogeography of London: Otherworlds of Alan Moore, Peter Ackroyd, and Iain Sinclair (2020).

‘Ann Tso’s new book provides an invaluable framework for understanding cities riven by conflicting histories and cultural identities, with a particular focus on Hong Kong. Developing concepts of ‘citiness’ and ‘crisis objects’, she illuminates how Hong Kong’s dissonant post-handover identity manifests in contemporary film and literature. This book provides not just an illuminating perspective on Hong Kong but also a new theoretical paradigm for narrating urban crisis.’– Stephen Joyce, Associate Professor in Media, Communication, and Culture, Aarhus University

• AcknowledgmentsExcessive and Extensive: Introduction to the Citiness of a City in Crisis1. The Deconstructed Pork Bun: Herman Yau’s The Untold Story (1993)2. ‘Hoarding’ in the Hong Kong Apartment: Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood for Love (2000), Fruit Chan’s Dumplings (2004), and Nate Ki Tse Ka-kei’s Back Home (2023)3. Resonant Lacunae in Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016); Or, the Elliptical Ties between China’s Past and Hong Kong’s Present-Future4. Dissonant Urban Sounds and Temporalities in Karen Cheung’s The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir (2022)Conclusion: Towards an Elliptical Narrative of Global Urban CrisesIndex

Ann Tso is an English instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada. She is the author of The Literary Psychogeography of London: Otherworlds of Alan Moore, Peter Ackroyd, and Iain Sinclair (2020).

‘Ann Tso’s new book provides an invaluable framework for understanding cities riven by conflicting histories and cultural identities, with a particular focus on Hong Kong. Developing concepts of ‘citiness’ and ‘crisis objects’, she illuminates how Hong Kong’s dissonant post-handover identity manifests in contemporary film and literature. This book provides not just an illuminating perspective on Hong Kong but also a new theoretical paradigm for narrating urban crisis.’– Stephen Joyce, Associate Professor in Media, Communication, and Culture, Aarhus University

• AcknowledgmentsExcessive and Extensive: Introduction to the Citiness of a City in Crisis1. The Deconstructed Pork Bun: Herman Yau’s The Untold Story (1993)2. ‘Hoarding’ in the Hong Kong Apartment: Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood for Love (2000), Fruit Chan’s Dumplings (2004), and Nate Ki Tse Ka-kei’s Back Home (2023)3. Resonant Lacunae in Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016); Or, the Elliptical Ties between China’s Past and Hong Kong’s Present-Future4. Dissonant Urban Sounds and Temporalities in Karen Cheung’s The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir (2022)Conclusion: Towards an Elliptical Narrative of Global Urban CrisesIndex