Summary of Karen Cheung's The Impossible City

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I was four years old when my mother and brother moved to Singapore. I would grow up as if I were a single child, but I didn’t know that at the time. My grandmother was seventy, and her post-retirement project was me.

#2 On June 29, 1997, the anchor Keith Yuen announced that Hong Kong would be handed over to China thirty more hours later on July 1. The handover ceremony was taking place at midnight, and Prince Charles and Tony Blair would be in attendance.

#3 I lived my life the same after the handover. I ate salted pork and century egg congee every morning, watched Japanese anime cartoons on the 4:00 p. m. children’s show on TVB, and played slot machines with fake coins at the local game arcade.

#4 Across the city, artists try to mark the historical event in their own ways. Fruit Chan releases Made in Hong Kong, a grim realist film about wayward teenagers forgotten in the story of the city.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822525108

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Karen Cheung's The Impossible City

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was four years old when my mother and brother moved to Singapore. I would grow up as if I were a single child, but I didn’t know that at the time. My grandmother was seventy, and her post-retirement project was me.

#2

On June 29, 1997, the anchor Keith Yuen announced that Hong Kong would be handed over to China thirty more hours later on July 1. The handover ceremony was taking place at midnight, and Prince Charles and Tony Blair would be in attendance.

#3

I lived my life the same after the handover. I ate salted pork and century egg congee every morning, watched Japanese anime cartoons on the 4:00 p. m. children’s show on TVB, and played slot machines with fake coins at the local game arcade.

#4

Across the city, artists try to mark the historical event in their own ways. Fruit Chan releases Made in Hong Kong, a grim realist film about wayward teenagers forgotten in the story of the city.

#5

I am there, too, among these historic events, but no one sees me. I am there with my mushroom haircut and my lunch box of apples and crackers, pining after my classmate’s silver bracelets. I am being taken on a plane to Singapore for the summer, to a mother I think of as a stranger.

#6

I have always lived amid these festivals and gods, and I know no other truth: you light an incense stick on the anniversary of the death of your great-grandparents, even if you never met them. You make your way back to the dinner table no matter how far away you have moved from your family.

#7

My father was born in Hong Kong in the late 1950s. He studied social sciences at the Chinese University of