Pilgrimages – Memories of Colonial Macau and Hong Kong

Maria N. Ng is associate professor of English at University of Lethbridge, Canada.

Ng is understandably nostalgic about the sentimental associations of her formative years; she is also wise the way we tend to be in hindsight about the uneven economic and intercultural realities that shaped even her fondest memories. Above all, she is a keen observer and an honest analyst of the many types of disconnects that dominate interracial experiences. Her admirable candour and ability to make fun of her former self render her insights into the past an immense pleasure to read. As these former European colonies engage collectively in the processes of constructing their own histories, memoirs of this kind serve a special function. Beyond the monuments and the official records, the statistics, numbers, and events documented in 'history proper' it is precisely accounts of this kind, with their attention to seeming trivia, that unveil the texture and nuance of lived experience. By bringing to Hong Kong and Macau the reflexive intelligence of a sophisticated world traveller, who is also 'at home' in the disciplines, biases, anxieties, and absurdities of a strict Chinese upbringing, Ng's book is a gem of a memoir, one that demonstrates what these little postcolonial enclaves have to offer a global understanding of the history between Europe and its others. -- Rey Chow, Brown University