This novel, set against the background of 1960s and 1970s Hong Kong, offers a vivid record of how Hong Kong Chinese defended their “Chinese” identity in British Hong Kong, before the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the issue of 1997 loomed its threatening shadow.
Though the central character, Ai-Lin’s, parents are Chinese Indonesians, and several generations of their families were rooted in Indonesia, they consider themselves ethnically and culturally Chinese. Hence they refuse to give Ai-Lin an English name even after though they send her to a Catholic English school, which they believe will provide her with the best education. That they guard their “Chinese Walls” severely, even to t…
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