Chungking Mansions: Home to the World

http://www.economist.com/node/21526300

One of the hindrances of being an ethnographer is the effect of the immersion and this is sadly the case with this book. Professor Matthews seems to celebrate that coffee-coloured business people do all kinds of legitimate business in the cesspool that is Chungking mansions while others are in spruced-up old industrial buildings or even some of the fancier ones in Central such as IFC. This is not the first time Professor Matthews has been blindsided. It is a recurring theme on all of his research at Chungking Mansions including peer-reviewed journal articles.


There's nothing particularly wrong with Chungking Mansions but it is a pity he thinks it such a great place for people who have flown half way around the world to Asia's World City to do business when Caucasian Americans, Europeans and Australians are welcomed with open arms in fancy offices. What Professor Matthews needs to do is to look more closely as to why they are forced there and what would happen if Chungking Mansions were to be replaced.