Atlas : : The Archaeology of an Imaginary City / / Kai-cheung Dung.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Dung, Kai-cheung,
• TeilnehmendeR: Dung, Kai-cheung.; Hansson, Anders.; McDougall, Bonnie.
• MitwirkendeR: Kai-cheung, Dung,; McDougall, Bonnie S.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2012]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Weatherhead Books on Asia
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.)

Set in the long-lost City of Victoria (a fictional world similar to Hong Kong), Atlas is written from the unified perspective of future archaeologists struggling to rebuild a thrilling metropolis. Divided into four sections-"Theory," "The City," "Streets," and "Signs"-the novel reimagines Victoria through maps and other historical documents and artifacts, mixing real-world scenarios with purely imaginary people and events while incorporating anecdotes and actual and fictional social commentary and critique.Much like the quasi-fictional adventures in map-reading and remapping explored by Paul Auster, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino, Dung Kai-cheung's novel challenges the representation of place and history and the limits of technical and scientific media in reconstructing a history. It best exemplifies the author's versatility and experimentation, along with China's rapidly evolving literary culture, by blending fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a story about succeeding and failing to recapture the things we lose. Playing with a variety of styles and subjects, Dung Kai-cheung inventively engages with the fate of Hong Kong since its British "handover" in 1997, which officially marked the end of colonial rule and the beginning of an uncharted future.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface: An Archaeology for the Future -- Introduction -- Part One: Theory -- 1 Counterplace -- 2 Commonplace -- 3. Misplace -- 4 Displace -- 5 Antiplace -- 6 Nonplace -- 7Extraterritoriality -- 8 Boundary -- 9 Utopia -- 10 Supertopia -- 11 Subtopia -- 12 Transtopia -- 12 Transtopia -- 14 Unitopia -- 15 Omnitopia -- Part Two: The City -- 16 Mirage: City in the Sea -- 17 Mirage: Towers in the Air -- 18 Pottinger's inverted vision -- 19 Gordon's Jail -- 20 "Plan of the City of Victoria," 1889 -- 21 The Four Wan and Nine Yeuk -- 22 The Centaur of the East -- 23 Scandal Point and the Military Cantonment -- 24 Mr. Smith's One-Day Trip -- 25 The View from Government House -- 26 The Toad of Belcher's Dream -- 27 The Return of Kwan Tai Loo -- 28 The Curse of Tai Ping Shan -- 29 War Game -- Part Three: Streets -- 30 Spring Garden Lane -- 31 Ice House Street -- 32 Sugar Street -- 33 Tsat Tsz Mui Road -- 34 Canal Road East and Canal Road West -- 35 Aldrich Street -- 36 Possession Street -- 37 Sycamore Street -- 38 Tung Choi Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street -- 39 Sai Yee Street -- 40 Public Square Street -- 41 Cedar Street -- Part Four: Signs -- 42 The Decline of the Legend -- 43 The Eye of the Typhoon -- 44 Chek Lap Kok Airport -- 45 The Metonymic Spectrum -- 46 The Elevation of Imagination -- 47 Geological Discrimination -- 48 North-Oriented Declination -- 49 The Travel of Numbers -- 50 The Tomb of Signs -- 51 The Orbit of Time -- Acknowledgments -- Author & Translators