Travels in globality: Pico Iyer and Jan Morris in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong is a postcolonial city and a postmodern city, its present shape (or lack of it) the result of foreshortened historical processes. In little more than 150 years, it has been subject to colonialism, occupation, migrations and globalisation. Its new masters in China are, in one of history's great about-turns, in the thrall of multi-national capitalism. Writing about a city where history is so much 'in-the-making' is bound to be challenging, the results uncertain. This essay contrasts works by Jan Morris, who suggests that colonial history and values prevail among Hong Kong's institutions and middle-classes, and Pico Iyer, who finds the colonial past redundant in an amorphous postmodern city. Where the travel writers are coming from, literally and metaphorically, is crucial here, as they both project their existential unease onto their representations of the city. © 2004 The White Horse Press.