City

Hong Kong

For a century and a half, Hong Kong was the place where Chinese tradition and British colonial power generated something neither country could have produced alone — a city of dim sum and double-deckers, neon calligraphy above colonial shophouses, a harbor that handled more trade than any port on earth. The 2019 protests transformed that palimpsest in real time, turning streets into archives of dissent. John le Carré threaded Cold War paranoia through its fog; Richard Mason gave it its most haunting romance. The city that the HKILF celebrates every March is one still negotiating which of its many selves it intends to keep.

Last updated yesterday