Hong Kong Noir

by Jason Y. Ng (Editor), Susan Blumberg- Kason (Editor), Xu Xi (contributor)

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.

Brand-new stories Jason Y. Ng, Xu Xi, Marshall Moore, Brittani Sonnenberg, Tiffany Hawk, James Tam, Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang, Christina Liang, Feng Chi-shun, Charles Philipp Martin, Shannon Young, Shen Jian, Carmen Suen, and Ysabelle Cheung.

From the introduction by Jason Y. Ng & Susan

What will Hong Kong look like in five years, ten years, or thirty years--when the "one country, two systems" promise expires? It's impossible to foresee. Hong Kong's future may not be within our control, but some things are. We can continue to write about our beloved city and work our hardest to preserve it in words. When we asked our contributors to write their noir stories, we didn't give them specific content guidelines other than to make sure their stories end on a dark note. What we received was a brilliant collection of ghost stories, murder mysteries, domestic dramas, cops-and-robbers tales, and historical thrillers that capture Hong Kong in all its dark glory. The result is every bit as eclectic, quirky, and delightful as the city they write about.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Crime, Noir, China, Mystery, Asia

243 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 4, 2018

About the author

Born in Hong Kong, Jason Y. Ng is a globe-trotter who spent his entire adult life in Italy, the United States and Canada before returning to his birthplace to rediscover his roots. He is a full-time lawyer, a published author and a freelance writer, contributing regularly to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), TimeOut, EJInsight, and Hong Kong Free Press.

Jason is the bestselling author of "HONG KONG State of Mind" (2010) and "No City for Slow Men" (2013). His latest tome, "Umbrellas in Bloom" (2016), is the first book published in English to chronicle the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. Together, the three books form his “Hong Kong Trilogy” that tracks the city's post-colonial development. Jason's short stories have appeared in various anthologies. He is a member of the Foreign Correspondents' Club and the Hong Kong Writers' Circle.

Jason has been featured at, among others, the Hong Kong Book Fair, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival, the Singapore Writers Festival, and the Cooler Lumpur Literary Festival. He has been profiled in the South China Morning Post, the Apple Daily, City Magazine, TimeOut, Ming Pao Weekly, Hong Kong Free Press, RTHK Radio 3, the Taipei Times, GB Times, the China Daily, and the Volkskrant. He has been interviewed or cited by the Wall Street Journal, BBC News, the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg News, the Voice of America, Radio France, Breitbart News, and the Dagens Nyheter. He speaks frequently on television and radio and at universities and cultural events.

Jason is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches international securities law for the Master of Laws (LLM) program. He has given guest lectures and talks at Columbia University, New York University, University of California Los Angeles, the University of Toronto, York University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Hong Kong Baptist University.

Jason is also a social activist. He is an ambassador for Shark Savers and an outspoken advocate for Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and the rights of foreign domestic workers and other minority groups.

In 2011, Jason was bestowed the title "Man of the Year" by Elle Men magazine for his diverse interests and balanced lifestyle. Later that year, he was featured in the SCMP Magazine for his travel exploits. In 2013, Jason was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Harvard Club Book Prize award ceremony.

Jason lives in Hong Kong and can be contacted at info@jasonyng.com. For more, visit www.asiseeithk.com.

Reviews

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hong Kong Noir is a very interesting collection of short stories. I appreciated the sheer amount of information that comes across about Hong Kong: the politics, the culture, the history. All of this was very much enhanced through having some stories set pre-handover and some post-handover.

As for the actual stories, like any short story collection, it was hit-and-miss. I didn't actively dislike any of the stories, which was great, but there was only a few that I truly enjoyed. On the whole, I wish that they had been darker. The introduction says that the authors were given little direction but to end the stories on a dark note, and I guess that led me to expect darker stories than I (generally) got.

Overall, though, it's a cool collection and I think the idea of the Akashic Noir series is cool, so I may check out some collections.

[Dominic Gerasimos · Rating 3 out of 5]

While short story collections, especially an anthology featuring multiple author would always have its ups and downs, I can't help but to feel a little let down by this collection. That's mainly because in my head, I've pictured your typical noir stories ala Infernal Affairs, A Better Tomorrow and other Hong Kong noir movies I watched during my teenage years in the 2000s but this, as demonstrated by the first story, written by one of the editor himself, Jason Y. Ng is a lot less of that more of a "look back at Hong Kong" through the citizens of Hong Kong. They're more a general fiction with tangible crime and noir elements than they are straight up crime noir. Some are grittier than others and I wouldn't say they're outright bad but just different, I supposed.

My favourites of the stories are Big Hotel by Ysabelle Cheung, Blood on the Steps by Shannon Young, Ticket Home by Charles Philipp Martin, This Quintessence of Dust by Marshall Moore and One Marriage, Two People by Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang. These are the ones that are suspenseful, hardscrabble and focus on the "rough edges" of life.

[Tonstant Weader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hong Kong Noir continues Akashic Books globe-trotting series of noir anthologies, taking readers on a trip to the noir side of Hong Kong this time. Hong Kong has a unique history as a British colony until 1997 when their lease expired and Hong Kong became part of China. Going from a capitalist hot spot to a communist region, no matter the guarantees of autonomy was a systemic shock and that transition features in several stories. As an international commercial center, it’s no surprise that sex workers feature in several stories as well. There are also ghosts that haunt the city, the people who live there, and many of the stories.

There are fourteen stories in Hong Kong Noir, a choice that may seem aggressive given the widely held belief that fourteen is unlucky, so much so hotels and apartment buildings skip the fourteenth floor. Given that there are fourteen stories, I was somewhat disappointed by how many stories featured sex workers or ghosts. I am sure Hong Kong is more diverse. There were a couple of stories where I wondered if they were a continuation of a previous story. I don’t mind ambiguous endings, but there were too many of them as well.

This is a rare disappointment for me. I almost always love the Akashic Noir releases. It makes me wonder how the authors described what they were looking for when they recruited writers to write stories for this edition. “We’re looking for noir stories about Hong Kong, past and present, you know, stories about ghosts, haunted neighborhoods, sex workers, and organized crime, that sort of story from the grim and sordid side of life.” Somehow there is a sameness to the stories that is surprising given the diversity of authors. It seems that must come from how they were recruited to write for the anthology.

Still, it is only disappointing relative to the high quality of the Akashic Noir series. It is still a good mystery anthology. I expect to like every book I read because I was drawn to them for a reason. There are still several good stories that drew me in. A couple were excellent, including the unluckily named “Fourteen.” I also thought “One Marriage, Two People” that gives us the stream of consciousness thoughts of a husband and wife who are very different, though I thought the husband was surprisingly two-dimensional. “The Quintessence of Dust” is chilling, with beautiful writing, “I couldn’t tell where the jet lag ended and the hangover began. They fused into each other like the stairs in one of those Escher prints where the only way is down.”

If you like mysteries and short stories and are curious about the world, Akashic Noir is a delight and you will enjoy Hong Kong Noir.

I received an e-galley of Hong Kong Noir from the publisher through Edelweiss.

Hong Kong Noir at Akashic Books
Akashic Noir Series
Jason Y. Ng author site & Twitter
Susan Blumberg-Kason author site & Twitter


https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...

[Glenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hong Kong Noir offers a little bit of everything dark and disturbing. From a new version of a standard ghost story (Ghost of Yulan Past by Jason Y. Ng) to a one-night stand gone wrong (A View to Die For by Christina Liang), I was entertained and, with the exception of a couple of stories that fell under my 2 star category, enjoyed this latest collection from Akashic Books.
I received this book from librarything giveaways in exchange for an honest review.

[Daniel Sepúlveda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Puntaje: 2.8 con aproximacion a 3.
Este libro lo recibi como colaboracion con la editorial Akashic Books.

Honestamente me esperaba mucho mas de este libro. Al tratarse de historias que revelan el lado oscuro de Hong Kong, siento que me falto mucha mas emocion. Si bien los relatos tratan temas fuertes, siento que los autores no lograron desarrollar la historia o el contexto/ambientacion lo suficiente para engarcharme como lector. Me parecieron historias un poco superficiales.
Me esperaba mas oscuridad, situaciones que me hicieran parar la lectura de lo densas y fuertes y no porque me estaba quedando dormido.

Le doy aproximacion a 3 estrellas porque hay varios relatos que no me disgustaron y que rescataron el puntaje, sin embargo, quedo muy instatisfecho y con ganas de mas.

[Melisende · Rating 3 out of 5]

A city with a long history and persistent dark side, these tales are set from WWII onwards. The ghosts of the old city emerge to tell their tales - a very different style to the modern conception of noir but well worth the reading.

[Frédéric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection of short stories; only one really disappointed me, which is an excellent statistic.

The themes are, on the whole, typical of the genre – betrayals, affairs, blackmail, petty crimes and murder – but also of the place and its local culture – the muggy heat, crowded streets, the fear of a handover to mainland China and… ghosts.
The authors all write quite well, with characters often well defined despite the few pages.

Perhaps a slight editing effort is lacking – simple footnotes, really – to explain certain local expressions or traditions to aid contextualisation. But it seems to me that the authors have made every effort to write texts as easy to grasp as possible without them, so it's not really a problem.

[Kathy Chung · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely collection of stories. It's divided into 4 parts. Each parts have between 3 to 4 stories. Of the 4, I like part 1 and 4 the most. Partly because it have ghostly encounter.
The other 2 were good too.

[Nerses Hovsepyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brought so many Hong Kong memories back <3 All the stories are incredibly well-written. I especially liked how many of them focus on Hong Kong’s sociopolitical realities, woven into wild capitalism, shifting geopolitics, fetishization of the West and mass tourism.

[Nihal Vrana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it is not a bad compilation per see, but I have just read it after "Best American Mystery Stories of the Century" and after that, this is like watching a Hallmark movie after watching Full Metal Jacket. I mean, the stories were okay; some of them trying to be gritty without having the necessary involvement in the worlds they are talking about and it shows (it is always a recipe for a bad story if you write a secret face of society story (brothels, junkies, etc.) with your middle-class sensibilities). It was a good compilation for showing the eclecticism of Hong Kong, but it does not have much of Noir in it (Although Hong Kong seems to be full of it) and the more supernatural stories just didn't work well. Some had weak plots, some had weak dialogues... It is not a great example of the Noir series maybe. We have many of them at home, so I will try the other ones.

[Kimberley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong collection; each story with as dark of a twist as the one prior. This latest Noir title—via Akashic Books—is yet another deep dive into the underbelly of a foreign locale.

The book is broken into four parts, organized around a common theme, with the goal of leaving the reader to his or her imagination by the time the tale ends.

Jason Y. Ng starts things off with “Ghost of Yulan Past”: a mysterious shopkeeper intrigues a passerby. A great beginning but from there it was a series of hits and misses.

The latter half of the book makes up for a bumpy middle but this isn’t a collection that will suffer from a lack of quality, well-written, content; there’s plenty of that to be found here. If nothing else, Ng gathered a phenomenal group of writers, from there it’s a matter of taste.

[Morris Berg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff here, especially if you know or are interested in Hong Kong. Don't be put off by the mention of ghosts - the ones with ghosts aren't horror stories, but they illuminate the place of ghosts in Chinese culture. There are also stories involving crime and corruption, and all the other fun things that the city is known for. You won't go wrong.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I bought this because I love the Akashic Noir series and because it has a Marshall Moore story in it. Good eerie noir stories.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hong Kong Noir is a consistently good collection of short stories. I particularly enjoyed the concentration of ghost stories and the supernatural. The first section was my favorite because of this, but there was a particularly eerie story in the last section, Fourteen, that was also representative of the otherworldly. I enjoyed a rather Hitchockian story by Tiffany Hawk, You Deserve More. The Akashic Noir series offers not only an opportunity to get a feel for a city through the lens of fiction and the short story, but also, provides, at least in my case, the incentive to delve further into the history and geography of both the city and the country.

[Ivy Ngeow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hong Kong Noir cannot be read quickly. You have to keep putting it down after every story and breathe in. This is because of the very rich, evocative and powerful storytelling. There are 14 stories in this collection, and as you know, 14 is unlucky in Chinese because it sounds like sut sei (must die). The readers' expectation is that this collection is a decadent box of chocolates - dark, bitter and ominous, as noir should be.
I have always been a fan of noir fiction. I like it so much I wrote a noir novel. The key features of classic noir are: gritty, believable yet unbelievable characters, sparse prose, underlying terror or horror, a sense of the macabre, black humour and moral trajectories of the hero/antihero. You do not know quite what is good or evil and yet you care. The twist is coming. You want to be there when it comes because nothing is what it seems. The questions always raised are what happens to the bitter, flawed, stupid or bad? Or are they actually naive, perfect, clever and good?
These 14 stories have been divided into 4 parts. Thematically, these correspond to the big themes in Chinese culture. Hungry Ghosts and Troubled Spirits, Obedience and Respect, Family Matters, Death and Thereafter. It is cyclical and symbolic of life itself - from ghosts to death. Jason Ng's Ghost of Yulan Past kicks off the stories, where a young man is obsessed with the promise of a ghost encounter in a temple. In Xu Xi's TST, "wandering, exhausted, famished ghosts with no hope of rest" are the spirits of dead whores who need to become women and not "pigs to be hosed down and sold". "You Deserve More" by Tiffany Hawk, set in the expatville of Lan Kwai Fong, was a moving story about an unhappy American wife of a successful businessman, who revisits Hong Kong and looks up her Chinese ex-lover, and the devastating consequences of the rendezvous.
Christina Liang's fabulous "A View to Die For" reminds me of the woman-who-has-it-all character type: professional and successful Chinese career woman educated in the West but comes back to work in Asia. A seemingly powerless mom and housewife next door sees this epitome of the successful woman as a betrayal of the sisterhood, robbing her child's innocence and therefore hers. Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang's "One Marriage, Two People" set in a tiny flat in Ma On Shan raises the cultural conflicts of the handover, the fear and entrapment of two worlds - the effete, bourgeois colonial one and the modern Chinese pragmatic, even harsh, way of life. Incidentally in the introduction this story had the title "One Country, Two People".
Fourteen by Carmen Suen is an utterly gripping and heartwrenching story of the escape of friendship. Two girls become friends in the Wah Ming House of the Wah Fu estate in tiny council flats in poverty, the older girl being in a single parent family. Lit "Fun was as much a luxury as privacy. When you're poor, you learn to live without both."
At times heartwarming and at others, stomach churning, Hong Kong Noir is shadowy, thoughtful anthology, a visceral tour de force of the murky alleyways of Hong Kong's past and present.

[Isham Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

For starters I’d say a more apt title for this collection of tales set in Hong Kong than the redundant “Noir” would have been the upbeat “Hong Kong Fantasy” or “Hong Kong Rhapsody” or the like, only to drag the reader ironically down to the gritty reality the city has always represented. You don’t need to end your Hong Kong story on a “dark note” (as the editors instructed the participating authors) when that’s already the character of the place.

Co-editor Jason Y. Ng starts things off with the subtly wrought “Ghost of Yulan Past,” but the bulk of the collection is firmly grounded in the plausible, despite ample servings of the macabre: the cop whose member is sliced off by his prostitute-lover which opens James Tam’s “Phoenix Moon,” the tourists dismembered in a horror costume shop in Shannon Young’s “Blood on the Steps,” or the distraught 12-year old girl in Carmen Suen’s “Fourteen,” who doesn’t realize she’s already dead after she drowns while drugged.

My favorites don’t have much to do with horror or noir proper but are simply well-told psychological thrillers condensed into short-story format, involving ordinary couples and an inexorable explosion of pent-up rage. In Tiffany Hawk’s “You Deserve More,” a husband colludes with his wife’s lover in the most shocking manner to humiliate her. In Christina Liang’s “A View to Die For,” a woman impulsively sleeps with her best friend’s son, with more shocking consequences.

On a whole a satisfying collection, though it’s too bad co-editor Susan Blumberg-Kason didn’t herself contribute a story, as her spooky memoir Good Chinese Wife could itself be described as noir writ large, if we understand the term to include the perverting and twisting of the most conventional human relationships by destructive impulses.

[Jocelyn Eikenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hong Kong is a city with a sordid past of its own. After all, it has seen pirates, the Opium Wars, Japanese occupation in World War II and many other dark chapters, which also make for great stories.

So naturally, this side of the city deserves a literary nod – which is why it’s fitting that Akashic Books recently released the anthology Hong Kong Noir, edited by Jason Y. Ng and Susan Blumberg-Kason.

Of course, it has 14 stories – a requirement of the publisher, but also rather apropos since the number 14 sounds like “certain death” in Cantonese. And these tales — everything from ghost stories to family issues to death and beyond – are gripping and occasionally grim, but overall make for a great read. The stories in the collection even feature a few cross-cultural relationships between foreigners and Chinese (including foreign women and Chinese men).

Even better, because the anthology covers so much territory of Hong Kong, it becomes a kind of nontraditional “travel guide” to the city, introducing you to many of the city’s most prominent neighborhoods. You could even take it a step further and try visiting that temple known for ghosts, or those steps drenched in blood, to add a noir twist to your travels.

I recommend this anthology for anyone interested in Hong Kong who also enjoys dark stories.

[Ignorant meow · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a Hongkonger I feel compelled to write a review for this book since the sight of it is automatically associated with Hong Kong Anglophone literature. I’m afraid it is a rather disappointing book. To start with, the publisher can do better by commissioning stories from actual Hong Kong writers but not have the majority of the contributors coming from the expat circle. Expats in Hong Kong are quite funny, they continue to write about their prerogative as an expat while making seemingly little effort to blend in or to understand this place aside from stereotypical conception of this city. A number of stories in this collection is mediocre at best (btw publisher, award winning something something writers don’t automatically guarantee quality stories. Most of them lack grit and intensity perpetuating stereotypical and surface view of Hong Kong. They are not really noir stories either; a number of them are ghost stories that leave the reader wondering what’s the point. As ghost stories, they are not riveting either… Some writing dither on the descriptive side of the spectrum and as a result, made some of the stories bland and confusing. Publishers hoping to know better about Hong Kong can perhaps do a better job by simply asking local writers to contribute, I for one am tired of hearing our stories told by the expats.

[Karen Kao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hong Kong Noir is a collection of short stories edited by Jason Y. Ng and Susan Blumberg-Kason. The collection was published in 2018 and already it’s taken on a sepia tone.

At the time of publication, Jason Ng was president of Hong Kong PEN, an organization devoted to protecting free speech in Hong Kong and elsewhere in China. This is no small feat and carries with it considerable risks.

Hong Kong Noir is not a political collection. One story mentions the Umbrella Movement. Another uses the handover as a device to tell a tale of marital discord. Yet politics may very well be the driving force behind each of these stories.As the editors write in their introduction to this collection:

Hong Kong’s future may not be within our control, but some things are. We can continue to write about our beloved city and work our hardest to preserve it in words.

This is an elegy to the city of Hong Kong.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed Akashic’s Noir series written around the world by authors native to the featured country. It’s a great way to do some authentic armchair traveling and to become acquainted with writers that otherwise might not be available in the U.S.

There were some good stories in this collection. My favorites included the stories set in the time of the British handoff.


But, as a whole, this collection was not one of my favorites. Several stories were rather predictable, especially those involving ghosts. I realize that this may be cultural as authors retold traditional stories and used traditional themes.

Most troubling to me was that stories of suicide are not often printed in the US, as they can be seen to encourage those teetering on the brink of self-harm. There is one story with this theme that I wish had not been included in this collection.

I received a copy of this through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[Mrs. Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

The quality of Akashic’s Noir imprint varies somewhat, but the books are almost always worth reading. However, I’ve got to swear off those set in foreign cities/countries, places where the language, geography, history, cuisine, and culture are, well, foreign to me. I can easily manage the North American continent and Caribbean, and can make a certain amount of sense of Central & South American noir, but as for the rest of the world I suspect that noir is like humor - you gotta be there. So my poor opinion of Hong Kong Noir doubtless reflects my flaws rather than its. All I got out of it is that Hong Kong is a sucky place to live.
Recommended for readers significantly less provincial than I.

[Janet Cobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because this is a series of stories, I could pick it up and put it down more easily than a novel. I originally bought this book because my friend is one of the editors -- and being completely ignorant of the noir genre, I didn't realize that it would be a somewhat dark read. This isn't typically my genre, but found these stories pulling me in - I just had to read slowly. I also enjoyed the memories it conjured of Hong Kong (where I lived for some time in my 20s).

[Margaret Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not noir in the Nordic detective novel sense. Rather 14 dark and sometimes ghostly short stories. Strong in setting and spirit of Hong Kong neighborhoods with characters worried about the on coming Chinese cultural assimilation. I enjoyed most, two were a bit too noir for me to get through. My favorite line on gentrification : " Its cheerful seediness was only as deep as the well worn Gucci loafer." Fun series of stories about set in cities around the world.

[Dust Jackets and Diamonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series of original noir anthologies contains ghost stories, murder mysteries, domestic dramas, cops and robbers tales, and historical thrillers that capture Hong Kong in all its dark glory. Fourteen short stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. The authors explore the dark heart of the Pearl of the Orient in haunting stories of depravity and despair. I have to say that the ghost stories are definitely my favorite!

[Jim Bostjancic · Rating 3 out of 5]

TV shows eg. "Blue Bloods" have multiple plot lines running through them and often entail "subplots" with potential to be great 2 hour movies.
As is the case in "Hong Kong Noir" - an intriguing setting from the outset.
With some tails worthy of expanding into independent pulp fiction novels in their own right.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t usually gravitate towards thrillers, however I enjoyed reading all of the Hong Kong references, having been there. The stories had some really creative twists. It was a thoughtful curation, and I liked how the book was divided into parts too.

[T.M. Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an enjoyable read with a few excellent stories. The one about Cheung Chau is beautiful. A few others are less engaging. But any books/ compilations about Hong Kong are great for me.

[Kristin Mcdaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly entertaining and wonderfully dark, this is a gem of a book. The stories take you to the brink of death and beyond. I was mesmerized by the locations and stories behind the stories.

[Hugh Sturrock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have always enjoyed the NOIR series from Akashic and this HK installment was no different. More hits than misses.

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of stories. A very dark but satisfying read. I look forward to my next visit to Hong Kong, when I will be able to see the city with a new and nuanced perspective.