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This previous publication with Hong Kong University Press marked a new departure in creative non-fiction for a Hong Kong wah kiu writer with strong creative roots in imaginative fiction, even though, as she explains in the latter part of the memoir, initially some Hong Kong readers seemed to take her fictional representations of life (and sex) in the city as somehow autobiographical and confessional. It is also interesting to read it in conjunction with her 2008 essay collection, Evanescent Isles. The series, whose other titles are also being reviewed in this journal, features seven progressive and critical voices, and Xu Xi’s contribution as overseas Chinese (so-called wah kiu), but Hong Kong born, raised and educated, is a significant addition. Her latest publication-part of a series of Penguin Specials focusing on current Hong Kong perspectives-can be read separately on its own merits, but it is better understood in the context of the series as a whole. On reflection, given the author’s (perfectly justified in my view) swipes at the seats of higher learning in this city on the basis of their current values and priorities, my partiality may be a good thing! Knowing her well from our collaborations on Hong Kong writing in English and as a friend, I understand very well where much of the lively spirit of critical intervention in her memoir-cum-extended essay emanates from.

So my review of her latest work-an elegy to the city of her birth-is unlikely to be impartial and “blind” in the time-honoured scholarly tradition of reviews.

Let me be upfront about this: I have long been an admirer of Xu Xi and of her important, but somewhat underrated, contribution to the Hong Kong anglophone literary scene. Xu Xi, Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy For A City, Penguin, 2017.