If you’re anything like us at HK Magazine, Hong Kong’s big chain bookstores just don’t quite cut it. The selection is limited, the books are expensive and the staff just don’t know that much about what they’re selling. But bibliophiles need not despair—there are plenty of great independent stores that offer laid-back environments where you can lose yourselves in a book. Read all about them below. And if you need some inspiration for your next summer read, turn to page 13 for some reading recommendations, as suggested by some of Hong Kong’s most avid bookworms.

Book Attic

Proprietor Jennifer Li’s business card doesn’t read “Owner,” or even “Founder”—it reads “Book Lover.” How apropos for a Hongkonger who loses $6,000 every month running her bookstore. Her labor of love, Book Attic, is a little upstairs haven with immaculately organized shelves containing all kinds of volumes, from novels to non-fiction.

An avid reader from a young age, Li wasn’t fully comfortable with English books until after she graduated from college and worked as a secretary, when colleagues encouraged her to give them a try. She advanced quickly, moving on to tackle weighty biographies, amass a sizable collection of used books and seek out bookshops in other cities while traveling for work. In her home of Hong Kong, though, she found the environment of secondhand bookshops was often inhospitable. In 2004, once she became an independent consultant, she had time to work part-time in new and used bookshops. Four years later, she founded Book Attic at its original location in Wan Chai, downsizing flats and donating most of her personal collection to jumpstart the shop’s.  Li was realistic; she didn’t expect to make a profit—and she didn’t even mind taking a loss.

“My logic is if I had a full-time job and didn’t run this bookshop, I’d spend [money] on clothes, holidays, bags, shoes—expensive things,” she says. “I could easily spend five to eight thousand [dollars] a month, and what do I get? If I use that money to run a bookshop, it is buying myself happiness.”

To sustain the business, Li now works part-time in the mornings—in a secretarial post that was offered to her by a happy customer concerned about the pace of business (he would, Li recalls, call regularly to find out how many books she sold that day). True, an indie bookstore tends to attract some quirky customers, but Li remembers particularly vividly the retired gentleman who would visit the shop to—ahem, pleasure himself—rather than browse. Another obstacle was the other residents of the walk-up tenement building on Elgin, where Li relocated in 2011. They were reluctant to welcome the building’s new tenant in part because the word for “book,” shu, sounds like the word for “lose,” so superstitious neighbors called the police and reported that the shop was jeopardizing their safety.

One more thing that sets Book Attic apart from its brethren is its electric soundtrack, a randomly shuffled hodgepodge of Li’s iTunes library that runs the gamut from classical and jazz to Chinese Opera and recitations of Middle Eastern poetry. Li organizes the occasional book club discussion or poetry reading, and she’s learned how to restore old books to add another dimension to the fledgling operation. Up next, on July 17, is a book launch of The Foxy Lady Project, a huge limited-edition volume featuring life-size photographs of beautiful guitars played and owned by famous musicians. In spite of these efforts, Li still remains pragmatic about the Book Attic’s prospects.

“This year I think I will break even,” Li says. “Excluding my salary. I don’t have a salary. But I don’t see it as a loss—it’s a gain, because some joys, some friendships, you wouldn’t develop in a regular shop.”

Cockloft, 2 Elgin St., Central, 2259-3103, www.bookattic.info. Open Mon-Sat, noon-6pm. Closed public holidays.

ACO Books

From the outside, Foo Tak Building looks like just another average commercial-residential building in the middle of Causeway Bay. But behind its ordinary and unassuming exterior, it is in fact home to a multi-story artist village. On the first floor is ACO Books, an indie bookstore that boasts a wide range of sharp, alternative titles.

ACO Books is a cozy and inviting place. Enclosed by white walls, there are chairs and tables where book lovers can sit down, read, take a sip of coffee and eat some snacks. Locally produced food and soaps are also on display. This is a space that has been carefully carved out by the soft-spoken, demure manager Kobe Ho. “I don’t want every inch of space to be stuffed with books. I insist that there must be plenty of room for people to sit down and read,” Ho explains. “I don’t want to put new furniture in the bookstore. Most of the furniture, including tables and shelves, is either recycled or handmade… I want to create a feeling that this bookstore is different because of the stories and history behind each item.”

ACO Books mainly sells English books and its selection is well-curated. Even though the bookstore was only established three years ago, its history can be traced back to Twilight, a first-generation bookstore well-known among Hongkongers in the 1980s. “In the 80s, Mr. Benjamin Ma Kwok-ming [a prominent scholar of local culture] founded Twilight Bookstore, which only sold English books… Twilight Bookstore inspired and nurtured a generation of local intellectuals,” says Ho. But the legendary bookstore closed in 2006, and Mr. Ma left a huge collection of 3,000 books. Unable to bear to witness the loss of knowledge, the founder of ACO May Fung bought up the entire stock—although she was at a loss as to what to do with such a large collection. The opportunity to open up a bookstore presented itself three years ago, when the apartment on the first floor of Foo Tak Building became vacant—and that’s how ACO Books was born.

ACO Books was set up with the mission to introduce quality, visionary and alternative English titles to local Hongkongers. However, Ho says that the bookstore hasn’t fared so well in this aspect. “Most of the customers who buy English books are foreigners. It is a shame that we cannot reach out to local intellectuals because most of them do not like to read English books,” Ho laments.

1/F, Foo Tak Building, 365 Hennessy Rd., Wan Chai, 2893-4808, www.aco.hk. Open Mon-Sat, noon-8pm. Closed on public holidays.

Sam Kee Book Company

Sleeping cats. Purring cats. Cats stretching and cats scratching. These felines are a fixture at Sam Kee Book Company, a bookstore in the basement of a low-key shopping mall in Fortress Hill. Furnished with cat beds, cat condos and cat scratch posts, the bookstore doubles as shelter for 30 abandoned cats.

Many cat-lovers and visitors have dubbed Sam Kee the “cat bookstore,” but owner Caroline Chan says that she has no intention to turn her bookstore into a tourist destination in the vein of Asia’s cheesy cat cafés. “I don’t want people to call my bookstore ‘cat bookstore.’ I don’t want to use cats as a gimmick,” Chan says. “It just happens that I also keep cats here.” In fact, Sam Kee—which stocks a wide range of Chinese books—has been in business for more than 30 years and remains a favorite for many local authors and writers. Chan took over the bookstore after the first owner left Hong Kong during the 1980s.

Chan spots strays in the streets on a regular basis. She picks them up, feeds them and takes care of them until they are ready to be adopted. “I don’t understand how people put kittens in plastic bags and discard them alive,” she says.

“I think that you just need to give a little boost to the kittens, and they will manage to live.” Most of the long-time feline residents at Sam Kee, though, are unfit for adoption—they may have chronic health conditions or suffer from mental distress, thus, it’s too difficult for them to adapt to another new home.

To Chan, too many visitors—who come for the cats but don’t buy any books—are either a nuisance for the regular operation of the bookstore or, even worse, they could disturb the cats. “If people come and see the cats, naturally they will want to touch and play with them,” Chan says. “It’s more important for cats to sleep than eat and they usually sleep for more than 10 hours. The constant flow of visitors makes it hard for them to sleep.”

So Chan requests that bookshop visitors refrain from playing with the cats unless they’re invited to. In this case, it’s better to watch and appreciate them from afar as you browse the shelves for your next read.

Shop 19, B/F, King’s Center, 193 King’s Rd., Fortress Hill, 2578-5956. Open daily 12:30-10pm.

HK Reader and The Coming Society

Five years ago, Daniel Lee and two of his friends, who all graduated with degrees in philosophy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, did something unthinkable in this hardscrabble city—they founded a bookstore that sells academic books. There was little guarantee it would be popular, but Lee and his friends succeeded and HK Reader in Mong Kok evolved into a beloved gathering place for local literati and eager readers. These days, Lee has undertaken another challenging venture: opening yet another independent bookshop, The Coming Society, and trying keep both afloat.

HK Reader, tucked away on the seventh floor of a Mong Kok building, stocks both Chinese and English titles, and most of them are geared at lovers of volumes with a little intellectual heft, whether they’re students or not. Apart from the titles they carry, the store also hosts seminars, intellectual discussions and book club meetings.

Then, six months ago, Lee launched The Coming Society in an apartment in a commercial building in Sheung Wan. The bookstore is solely owned by Lee, but friends help manage its daily operations. A departure from HK Reader, this venue attempts to be a hub for activities with a focus on arts and literature. “The space is larger than what a bookstore needs, so we will sublet to artists and other groups,” says manager Chan Ho-lok. A photographer, two indie magazines and a feminist bookstore called Consider the Trouble also share the room.

The Coming Society also aims to link different creative individuals and groups in Central and Sheung Wan. “There are many art houses in Sheung Wan and secondhand bookstores in Central. We want to group different units and do something together,” Chan says. “We don’t want to influence society directly, but there should be a space for people to exchange ideas to change the community.” As such, blues music nights, movie screenings and small-scale art exhibitions will be organized at The Coming Society on a regular basis.

“We have an edgier book selection and most of our books are about literature, history and philosophy,” Chan says. The Coming Society mainly stocks used English books, and Lee and Chan have been taken by surprise by the high quality of books they’ve collected. “Before running the bookstore, I didn’t expect that someone in Hong Kong would read these books, as people like to describe Hong Kong as a cultural desert.” Chan says. “People say that they want to give their books to us because other bookstores may buy their books in bulk and by weight. It’s like paper recycling. They feel like it’s an insult to the books, as they are very valuable.”

The newly established bookstore is still struggling to stand on its own two feet financially, but nevertheless, it’s heartening for the owners to see the shops’ warm reception. Says Chan: “Hong Kong has its own intelligentsia, but people don’t know about its existence. I think it’s much more interesting to run a secondhand bookstore. It feels like I am unearthing the history of intellectuals in Hong Kong.”

HK Reader: 7/F, 68 Sai Yeung Choi St. South, Mong Kok, 2395-0031. Open daily 2pm-midnight.
The Coming Society: Flat 2, LG4, Kai Wong Commercial Building, 222-226 Queen’s Rd. Central, Sheung Wan, 3996-9665. Open daily 1-9pm.

Related Article:

More Hong Kong Bookstores

Going to the Book Fair?

A record-breaking 530 exhibitors from over 20 countries and regions will participate in this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair, to take place from July 18 to 24 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).

Other than numerous exhibition booths, the Book Fair also features 350 cultural events including various showcases of international authors, local renowned writers and internet writers. The International Showcase highlights children’s book author Holly Webb from the United Kingdom and Indian investment-banker-turned-author Chetan Bhagat, whose novel inspired the hit movie “Three Idiots.” The authors will discuss their writing career in public sessions.

Also not to be missed is the Art Gallery, which will feature a series of personal items and literary works of Leung Ping-kwan, the fair’s Author of the Year.

If you’re looking for a way to escape the heat and enhance your literary credentials at the same time, pay the book fair a visit.

Tickets $25 for adults, $10 for entry before noon, and $10 for children. Visit hkbookfair.hktdc.com for more information.

What’Cha Reading?

Local literary luminaries share their top reads and favorite bookshops.

Francesca Brill

The UK-based author’s first novel, “The Harbour,” was released last month. It’s set in Hong Kong during World War II and centers on an American journalist’s love affairs, political struggles and tests of loyalty.

What are you reading right now?
I’ve always got more than one book on the go. I’m reading “Notes From An Exhibition” by Patrick Gale and by contrast “Graven With Diamonds” by Nicola Shulman.

What’s on your to-read list?
As research for my next book, I’m going to read “The Girls Of Slender Means” by Muriel Spark. I’m looking forward to “Come To The Edge” by Joanna Kavenna and more of Chekhov’s short stories, which I ration so as to prolong the pleasure.

What books do you think are going to be big hits this year?
Apart from mine, you mean! Hilary Mantel’s “Bring Up The Bodies” and, out of curiosity if nothing else, JK Rowling’s first adult novel “A Casual Vacancy” and William Boyd’s brilliant “Waiting For Sunrise.”

What’s your all-time favorite book? Or, if that’s too mind-freezing, what’s your favorite recent read?
Definitely mind-freezing, plus it changes day to day—so today I’d say my favorite recent read has been “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf, which totally surprised me by being easy to read as well as incredibly insightful and modern and (see, I can’t just say one) “My Dear I Wanted To Tell You” by Louisa Young which is just a joy to read.

What’s your favorite bookstore in Hong Kong?
I can’t possibly answer that, not being a Hong Kong resident. I love all bookshops and would happily live in one if I possibly could.

Xu Xi

Acclaimed author and writer-in-residence at City University, Xu Xi share some of her favorite recent reads.

What are you reading right now?
I’ve just finished “The Art of Description: World into Words” by Mark Doty—it’s a poet’s look at how to write description. I’m also reading “A Time For Everything” by Karl Knausgaard, a novel translated from the Norwegian. His memoir just came out, which is shaking up Norway. Finally, “Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China” by Ezra Vogel.

What do you want to read next?
This could change, but at the moment here’s what’s sitting on my Kindle as the next reads:  1) “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett; and 2) “The Artist of Disappearance: Three Novellas” by Anita Desai.

What books do you think are going to be big hits this year?
I can’t quite tell this year, although I hope it’s “The Orphan Master’s Son” by Adam Johnson, one of the best books I’ve read recently.  I called it correctly last year with Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit from the Goon Squad.”

What’s your all-time favorite read, or the best book you’ve read recently?
As per the last question, Johnson’s book is a great recent read as well as “Lucky Bunny” by Jill Dawson, who, by the way, is coming to City University later this month. “Hope: A Tragedy” by Shalom Auslander is one of the most darkly comic, laugh-out-loud, amazing fictional takes on Anne Frank and Jewish angst.

What’s your favorite bookstore in Hong Kong, and why?
It saddens me to say this, but I don’t have one. There was a time you could browse Hong Kong bookstores and see the latest books by local and Asian writers—that’s not really happening very regularly anymore, but at least Bookazine does try and hold good events. I guess I would say they’re probably the best bricks-and-mortar store. Otherwise Paddyfield.com is a good bet for online ordering. The rest of the local English language bookstores are sorry excuses for bookstores and the reason to read on Kindle as much as possible—the staff tend to be completely uninterested in books (as well as completely unknowledgeable) and some still do that ridiculous cellophane wrap thing, which defeats the purpose of taking the time to walk into a bookstore!

Terry Boyce

A retired physics professor, Boyce founded and owns two bookstores on Lantau, both called The Book Shop (Shop 117, Discovery Bay Plaza, 2987-9372 and Shop E, Silver Centre Building, Silvermine Bay, Mui Wo).

What are you reading right now?
As someone who has a built-in aversion to popular fiction, especially plot-laden thrillers and self-help books for the pathetic, my reading range is selectively narrow, but I always have five or six books on the go at any one time. At the moment I have just finished reading Markus Zusak’s “The Book Thief” (a magical book that should be compulsory reading for every child... and adult) and Lowell Thomas’s “With Lawrence in Arabia” (never a fan of Lawrence’s own writing; his life, on the other hand, has always held a fascination). I am particularly fond of novels that weave real people or events into their narrative, so I am enjoying the historical intrigue of Michael Faber’s “The Crimson Petal and the White” and the literary playfulness of Antonia Susan Byatt’s “Angels and Insects,” a double novella that obliquely contrasts the ghostly spirituality of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” with the scientific purposefulness of Alfred Russel Wallace’s theory of natural selection. I am also reading two memoirs: Diana Athill’s very poignant but strangely uplifting “Somewhere Towards the End” and Ianthe Brautigan’s highly emotional “You Can’t Catch Death,” in which she tries to come to terms with the death of her father, the American poet Richard Brautigan who shot himself in the head at the age of 49. Finally, although I rarely read plays, I have just completed Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys,” which evoked many bittersweet memories of schooldays in England.

What’s on your to-read list?
Mostly, I want to try and fill in the very large gaps that exist in my reading to date. Waiting on the shelf is Gavin Maxwell’s ”Raven Seek the Brother,” the final book in the Ring of Bright Water trilogy and a sprinkling of books by George Bernard Shaw, W. Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling, three writers I greatly admire but have seldom read.

What’s your all-time favorite book?
Easy. Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited,” which reveals that I am British, of a certain age and deep into nostalgia. Laurie Lee’s “Cider with Rosie” comes a close second along with Italo Svevo’s “As a Man Grows Older.”

What’s your favorite bookstore in Hong Kong?
Easy, again. Although, since I own two of the best bookshops in Hong Kong, I might be slightly biased. There are very few bookshops in Hong Kong. Other than mine, one worthy of mention is Lok Man Rare Books on Chancery Lane. Those chain stores masquerading as bookshops and selling the latest paperbacks, magazines and other trivialities are not bookshops. A bookshop is a place where you can browse literary works from the last one or two hundred years (perhaps even three) and find unexpected treasures with no input from yourself. That’s true browsing, and without it I would never have discovered the literary gems of Lillian Beckwith (“The Sea for Breakfast,” “The Loud Halo”) and John Moore (“Dance and Skylark,” “Midsummer Meadow”). And the great thing about it is that you know there are many more treasures waiting to be discovered. You just need the time.

Surdham Lam

Lam is the owner of Flow (7/F, 29 Hollywood Rd., Central, 2964-9483), a used bookstore that literally overflows with piles upon piles of volumes. 

What are you reading right now?
I’m reading a book called “Aleph” by Paulo Coelho. I’m also reading Alain de Botton’s “A Week at the Airport.” And I’m reading a book by James Redfield, “The Celestine Prophecy.”

What’s on your to-read list?
Because it’s a second-hand bookshop, I get in different kind of books. My book list depends on what people have brought in. I can’t always finish all the books. Sometimes I am reading a book, and I put it down on the counter. If someone buys it, I read something else.

What’s your all-time favorite book?
“The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. I read more personal growth books and books on spirituality—those are my favorites.

What’s your favorite bookstore in Hong Kong?
I go to The New Age Shop because for that subject [spirituality] they are the specialists. They are also in Central, on Old Bailey Street.

Consider the Trouble

Ann and Bing run Consider the Trouble (Flat 2, LG4, Kai Wong Commercial Building, 222 Queen’s Rd. Central, 2114-0080, www.facebook.com/ConsidertheTrouble.bookstore), a feminist bookshop with a vivacious spirit. 

What are you reading right now?
I [Ann] am wrapping up Victoria Law’s “Resistance Behind Bars” and Dean Spade’s “Normal Life,” and Bing has just started Nan Robertson’s “Getting Better” and has been reading Mary Hershberger’s “Jane Fonda’s War” on and off for the past two months.

What books do you think are going to be big hits this year?
Funny books are always a good choice for summer reading. We carry several of ‘em:  “Girl Walks into a Bar…”; “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”; “The Bedwetter”; “Then Again” and ”Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm.” 

What’s your all-time favorite book?
I finally went back to a chapter I had missed in Josh Kun’s “Audiotopia” recently, and was very happy to have done that. We both love “The Fat Studies Reader,” a volume edited by Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothblum. I also never tire of reading from “Home Girls,” an anthology edited by my all-time hero, Barbara Smith.

What’s your favorite bookstore in Hong Kong? 
We love all bookstores. But we probably don’t support any of them enough. Bing got a recent good read—Brian Christian’s “The Most Human Human”—from Kelly & Walsh, and you can buy some of the same titles we carry at Bookazine. [in] any place but Hong Kong, we prefer to visit and shop in independent bookstores. We heard about this place recently that isn’t a bookstore exactly. It doesn’t even sell books, it trades ‘em. It’s a place in Wan Chai’s Blue House, and we’re looking forward to visiting one of these days.

Harrison Kelly

A freelance arts publicist working in both London and Hong Kong, Harrison Kelly does the publicity for the Man Asian Literary Prize.

What are you reading right now?
I am currently reading “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” by Nathan Englander. It’s a wonderful collection of eight stories from one of the most exciting writers today. I am also reading “Shi Cheng: Short Stories From Urban China,” another great collection that is familiar to anyone who has spent time in China’s new cityscapes.

What do you want to read next?
“The Illicit Happiness of Other People” by Manu Joseph is next on my list. He was shortlisted for the Prize in 2010 for his debut “Serious Men.” Another book which has grabbed my attention is “Walking Home” by Simon Armitage—set in my homeland of Yorkshire in the UK.

Which books do you think are going to be big hits this year?
I think Manu’s book will do very well. Also, Indian writer Jeet Thayil has a great book out called “Narcopolis” which is causing a stir. Nikita Lalwani and Anjali Joseph both have new novels out this year which I am excited about, as well as US writer Liza Klaussmann’s “Tigers in Red Weather” which will be huge—it is very Gatsby-esque! Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan and Howard Jacobson all have new novels launching this fall. The benefit of being involved with the Prize is that we get to bring Asian writers to the attention of many people—I can’t wait to see what this year brings.

What’s your all-time favorite read, or the best book you’ve read recently?
Like many people, Haruki Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood” is a book I return to time and again. I recently read “Dream of Ding Village” by Yan Lianke and would highly recommend it. The first book I remember, which really has stuck with me, is “The Suitcase Kid” by Jacqueline Wilson, which I read when I was about six—it is still one of my favorites!

What is your favorite bookstore in Hong Kong?
There are so many, but I would say Kubrick Café in Yau Ma Tei— just because I love the films they show there [at Broadway Cinematheque], too. Eslite bookstore from Taiwan is opening in Hong Kong, and I have heard that there will be lots of great author and live literature events, so that could leapfrog to the top!

Leung Ping-kwan

From his roots in poetry and translation to his novels, essays and criticism, there isn’t much Leung Ping-kwan hasn’t penned. One of Hong Kong’s most well-known writers, Leung is the “Author of the Year” at this year’s Book Fair, and his book “City at the End of Time” is being re-released, too.

What are you reading right now?
“Den stora gatan” (“The Great Enigma”) by Tomas Transtromer, translated into Chinese from Swedish by Goran Malmqvist; “Selected Writings” by Henri Michaux.

What’s on your to-read list?
Laszlo Krasznahorkai: “Satantango.”

What books do you think are going to be big hits this year?
Contemporary Korean fiction.

What’s your all-time favorite book?
Works by Apollinare, Neruda, Flaubert, Shen Congwen, Cortazar and many more.

What’s your favorite bookstore in Hong Kong?
As a writer in Hong Kong, you face more problems than other writers in other cities. One problem is bookstores. We don’t have a lot of bookstores. A lot of the good Chinese bookstores were second-floor [because of the high rents on the street level]. Now they have to move to the 16th floor, because the rent is really impossible. I like City Lights in San Francisco; I like bookstores in London and Paris and so on. In Hong Kong, there are bookstores I like that no longer exist. There are one or two bookstores I like, but they are small, like the one in Broadway Cinematheque [Kubrick]. It’s different. Also the small one in the Arts Centre is good.

Hong Kong in (Bad) Literature

Which of these overwrought descriptions of Hong Kong are from real, published books that were sent to us to review, and which of them were made up by our cheeky staff writers? See if you can tell!

1. “Mesmerizing works of architectural brilliance such as the enormous, cloud-kissing IFC 2 from which Batman leapt and glided in ‘The Dark Knight,’ the mind-bending Bank of China prism and the Star Wars-like HSBC glass and concrete mix erupt into blazes like an arsonist’s wet dream.”

2. “Anyone who’s ever set foot in Mong Kok on a weekend would find Kabul relaxing in comparison. This dirty, foul-smelling yet gloriously alive hubbub is where hawkers flog their freshly caught fish—blood and slime from their still-wriggling catch splattering pedestrians as they walk by. Behind, young gangsters with bleached hair peddle black-market mobile phones—and even ketamine if you ask nicely. Minibus drivers blare their horns, young couples shop for shoes,
and beggars grasp, hoping that some of the district’s fast-moving money might trickle down to them. And thickly permeating this cacophonous, heady stew of humanity? The ungodly reek of chaodofu—fermented beancurd.”

3. “As they neared the top, Hong Kong spread itself below them like a starlet in an old Chinese film, sensuous and glittering in a multicolored cheongsam. The city pulsed and throbbed in their light, suffused with electricity that seemed like a frenetic discharge of the desperate energy with which its seven million or so inhabitants lived their lives.”

4. “As I looked over the glittering buildings, the skyscrapers arrogantly thrusting the air with their shafts of steel, I wondered where she was—my very own Suzie Wong. I had not seen her in 10 years. She could have fled this ephemeral city as the tanks rolled across the border on July 1st, 1997... Or she could still be “working” in the dirty yet glamorous neon-lit watering holes of Wan Chai, where sailors and strippers would forget themselves, one urgent, sultry Hong Kong night at a time.”

Answers:
1. From “Dutch” by Jamie Christian Desplaces
2. Fake!
3. From “Chinese Walls” by David Clive Price
4. Fake!