Gweilo

Gweilo

2004 • 384 pages

Ratings2

Average rating4

15

Evocative, funny and full of life - a beautifully written and observed childhood memoir of growing up in colonial Hong Kong shortly after World War 2.Martin Booth died in February 2004, shortly after finishing the book that would be his epitaph - this wonderfully remembered, beautifully told memoir of a childhood lived to the full in a far-flung outpost of the British Empire...An inquisitive seven-year-old, Martin Booth found himself with the whole of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in the early 1950s. Unrestricted by parental control and blessed with bright blond hair that signified good luck to the Chinese, he had free access to hidden corners of the colony normally closed to a Gweilo, a 'pale fellow' like him. Befriending rickshaw coolies and local stallholders, he learnt Cantonese, sampled delicacies such as boiled water beetles and one-hundred-year-old eggs, and participated in colourful festivals. He even entered the forbidden Kowloon Walled City, wandered into the secret lair of the Triads and visited an opium den. Along the way he encountered a colourful array of people, from the plink plonk man with his dancing monkey to Nagasaki Jim, a drunken child molester, and the Queen of Kowloon, the crazed tramp who may have been a member of the Romanov family.Shadowed by the unhappiness of his warring parents, a broad-minded mother who, like her son, was keen to embrace all things Chinese, and a bigoted father who was enraged by his family's interest in 'going native', Martin Booth's compelling memoir is a journey into Chinese culture and an extinct colonial way of life that glows with infectious curiosity and humour.


Become a Librarian

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Daren
DarenSupporter
February 17, 2023

Top Lists

See all (0)

List

2,732 books

Owned

Daren
DarenSupporter
Whirlwind
The Angel
The Snow Leopard
White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves
Exit A
Inside Sahara
Crumpy's Campfire Companion

List

1,366 books

Uk Author

Daren
DarenSupporter
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Real "Bravo Two Zero"
City of Djinns
In Xanadu: A Quest
The Age of Kali
Danziger's Travels: Beyond Forbidden Frontiers
The Baker's Boy

List

473 books

Bio Memoir

Daren
DarenSupporter
Soldier Five: The Real Truth about the Bravo Two Zero Mission
Paddy O'Brien: Whistle While You Work
Legs On Everest : The Full Story Of His Most Remarkable Adventure Yet
Red Dust: A Path Through China
The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl
My Life
Autobiography of a geisha

List

2,134 books

Non Fiction

Daren
DarenSupporter
Days and Nights in Calcutta
The Real "Bravo Two Zero"
Soldier Five: The Real Truth about the Bravo Two Zero Mission
In Xanadu: A Quest
Danziger's Travels: Beyond Forbidden Frontiers
Infiltrators: Guns Drugs Deception And Murder Duty Calls
Paddy O'Brien: Whistle While You Work