In the first half of the book, Cheung paints a vivid picture of her troubled childhood, and her experience straddling the two parallel universes of Hong Kong.

Cheung deftly weaves together these narratives to demonstrate how the quotidian and personal are always already intimately connected to the public and political. Even so, by articulating how her material and affective experience of the city has shifted over the years, Cheung is offering those who love Hong Kong a much-needed language and narrative to make sense of the new reality.Īs a former journalist, Cheung is adept in telling not just her own stories, but also the stories of Hong Kong, and of Hongkongers on the margin who dare to defy the hegemonic forces of capitalism and the state as they look to create a more just and humane city. I don’t know where to find the language to describe the grief I feel when I walk through the city and see phantoms of riot police spilling from the escalators of the malls and street corners” (283). As Cheung laments, “Losing a city is much more intangible. While trying to survive and resist in a city that is rapidly disappearing under the trifecta of political suppression, capitalism, and neoliberalism, Cheung and the Hongkongers she delicately narrates are also grappling with an ambiguous form of grief that escapes language. The Impossible City is simultaneously nostalgic, courageous, and honest, as it offers an unflinching look at how Cheung and Hongkongers from different positionalities navigated such a politically tumultuous period. Part personal narrative and part reportage, The Impossible City covers the contentious period between 1997 to 2020, during which Hongkongers experienced the return of sovereignty to China, waves of student activism, the Umbrella Movement, the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill protests, and the implementation of the NSL. Beginning with a scathing and acute interrogation of this narrative, Cheung’s memoir cannot write Hong Kong out of its darkest timeline, but it has succeeded in lifting up the deeds and voices of Hongkongers who have always dared to imagine and work towards a better collective future for the city. Amid constant crackdowns and arrests, Hong Kong no longer fits the image of a vibrant cosmopolitan city where foreign corporations, tourists, and expatriates can enjoy unbridled freedom. Since the passage of the National Security Law (NSL) in the summer of 2020, “Hong Kong is dead” has become a common refrain in international news. “What is writing good for if we can’t write a way out of this darkest timeline?” (264), Karen Cheung asks in this hauntingly moving memoir of her life in Hong Kong over these last two decades. Karen Cheung, The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir (Random House, 2022), 352pp. Shui-yin Sharon Yam reviews Karen Cheung’s poignant memoir about life in Hong Kong.

Karen cheung the impossible city