Kowloon Tong : A Novel of Hong Kong

Ninety-nine years of colonial rule are ending as the British prepare to hand over Hong Kong to China. For Betty Mullard and her son, Bunt, it doesn't concern them - until the mysterious Mr. Hung from the mainland offers them a large sum for their family business. They refuse, yet fail to realize Mr. Hung is unlike the Chinese they've known: he will accept no refusals. When a young female employee whom Bunt has been dating vanishes, he is forced to make important decisions for the first time in his life - but his good intentions are pitted against the will of Mr. Hung and the threat of the ultimate betrayal. Publishers Weekly Hong Kong's last British Governor described himself as "mere flotsam on the tide of history." Theroux's latest exotic novel (after My Other Life ) deals with colonials coping with the imminent return of Hong Kong to China. Middle-aged Neville "Bunt" Mullard and his domineering mother, Betty, are cozy packages of Englishness despite having lived in Hong Kong most of their lives. The pair treat the city as if it were a London suburb, preferring roast beef at Fatty's Chophouse to Chinese cuisine, fretting about the scandals of the royal family and enjoying high tea the way it's served at home. Having just inherited the family business, Imperial Stitching, from the dead senior Mullard's recently deceased Cantonese business partner, the pair hope to survive the "Chinese take-away" when the colony reverts to China in July 1997. Soon, however, one Mr. Hung, an entrepreneurial member of the People's Liberation Army, makes an offer for their factoryone that he insinuates can't be refused. This menacing scenario widens to include the innocent Mei-ping, Bunt's employee and current mistress, when her roommate vanishes in Hung's company. Theroux dramatizes the double-dealing of the British-Chinese "one country, two systems" agreement, splashing on plenty of local color, including the Happy Valley race courses, the Macao casinos and Bunt's lunchtime brothels. The laughably closed-minded and casually racist Bunt and Betty won't fully satisfy readers' curiosity about the whys and ways of Britain's less than heroic role in the agreement, however. The accomplished Theroux is always a delight to read, but the plot of his new novel, like life in today's Hong Kong, feels improvised and rushed to make a deadline. For Neville "Bunt" Mullard and his mother, Betty, Hong Kong is part of Britain - one of the pleasanter parts; it is also cozy, monotonous, profitable, and homely. Now ninety-nine years of colonial rule are about to end, and the British government is about to hand over Hong Kong to China. Betty and Bunt can see China from their parlor, but they have never been there. They detest Chinese food. "The Chinese take-away," as they call the Hand-over, does not particularly concern them. When Bunt first meets Mr. Hung, a well-spoken gentleman from the Chinese mainland, he pays him little heed. And when Mr. Hung offers the Mullards a handsome sum for their family business - a fifty-year-old textile factory, Imperial Stitching, that was cofounded by Bunt's late father - Bunt refuses him out of hand. Yet it soon grows clear that Mr. Hung is different from the Chinese the Mullards have lived alongside for years. For Mr. Hung will accept no refusals. Then a young woman from the Mullards' factory vanishes, one of many disappearances. But this one is different. Ah Fu has last been seen in the company of Mr. Hung. And so Bunt is forced for the first time in his forty-three years to make decisions that matter. He even begins, maybe, to discover love. Yet against all of Bunt's good, if half-formed, intentions are pitted the will of Mr. Hung and the looming threat of the ultimate betrayal. In this “moody thriller,” a family business is targeted for takeover as control of Hong Kong shifts from the British to the Chinese (The New York Times). Ninety-nine years of colonial rule are ending as the British prepare to hand over Hong Kong to China. Betty Mullard and her son, Bunt, have lived here for years, mostly keeping apart from their foreign surroundings, except for some indulgence in the local food, or in Bunt's case, the local girls. The handover is not a concern for them—until the mysterious Mr. Hung from the mainland offers them a large sum for their family business. They refuse. But they fail to realize that Mr. Hung is unlike the other Chinese people they've known: he will accept no refusals. When a young female employee whom Bunt has been dating vanishes, he is forced to make important decisions for the first time in his life—but his good intentions are pitted against the will of Mr. Hung, and the threat of the ultimate betrayal. “A compact, provocative gem of a novel” (The Boston Globe), from an award-winning author acclaimed for both his fiction and his travel memoirs—including Deep South, The Great Railway Bazaar, and The Mosquito Coast—Kowloon Tong was praised by Bette Bao Lord in The Washington Post Book World as “a taut, illuminating story that transcends its timely subject.” The humiliation of a colonial Englishman on the eve of China's takeover of Hong Kong. Neville Mallard, a member of the white elite is forced to sell his family's textile factory to a Chinese businessman. It is a blow to his wallet, but even more to his confidence, the end of a century of white arrogance