Literary Master 1983

Chapter 162 Kowloon Walled City
Princess Sirindhorn is an expert on China and has written Chinese novels and poems and submitted them to domestic literary journals.

She was the one who introduced a series of military novels written by Yu Qie to Thailand and is currently Yu Qie’s most influential foreign translator.

So her conversation with Yu Qie was entirely in Chinese:

"Mr. Yu, everyone else went to Victoria Harbour, why did you come to Kowloon Walled City?"

Yu Qie replied: "Every time I visit a friend's house, what I like to see most is the host's undecorated cellar. Kowloon Walled City is this 'cellar'."

Sirindhorn thought, that’s right, Kowloon Walled City has become a symbol of dirtiness and chaos, and it is so famous that calling it a “cellar” is an overstatement.

Kowloon Walled City is a "no man's land" in Hong Kong. It was originally a fortress built by the Qing government on Hong Kong. After the liberation of Hong Kong, this place became a mixed bag. The lower-class people and criminals who came from all over the place settled down here. The houses were built higher and higher, with stone walls attached to stone walls, growing continuously upwards, and finally evolved into a disorganized but towering maze.

It may be the most densely populated area in the world, with more than 0.03 people in less than square kilometers.

Why are you here?
Of course it’s not the “cellar” as it is called, but because this place is the inspiration for many cyberpunk works in later generations.

It perfectly meets the cyberpunk "three major elements" of high technology, bad order and low living standards, and can be said to be a shame to civilized society.

Moreover, Hong Kong was still under the jurisdiction of the British Empire at that time. If you wrote an influential cyberpunk novel, after readers read the book, the real object of its criticism would become Britain.

The mainland is negotiating with the UK, and the situation has entered a very tense stage. This kind of work is also in line with Yu Qie's identity as a patriot.

Yu Che started his visit from the outer perimeter of the Kowloon Walled City, and then continued to climb up along the crisscrossing buildings. Sirindhorn followed behind him and asked a bodyguard to run in front of Yu Che to protect him.

The bodyguard communicated with Sirindhorn in Thai: "Mr. Yu can go to the battlefield, but Princess, you are a woman. If you encounter any danger, I am afraid you will be more threatened."

Sirindhorn said: "You are protecting me by protecting Yuche."

The bodyguard had no choice but to stare at Yu Qie. The Chinese side also had a foreign affairs comrade who was a retired soldier following him. The two of them stared at each other, trying to find the best way to have fun despite the hardship.

Because Yu Qie not only had good stamina and could climb fast, but he also went to some dimly lit alleys that were smelly and fishy. Suddenly, one or two people with unfriendly faces looked at them, and it was obvious that they were gangsters, which made them very nervous.

"Snapped!"

When the bodyguard heard the noise, he was so scared that he almost took out his gun.

As a result, a piece of wood fell down. The two people were in the light and didn't see it for a while, but Yu Qie seemed to be unaffected. He held it up with his hand and helped it back.

Hi!
Who is protecting whom here?
Yu Qie had a serious expression on his face, and he wished he could bring a TV station to record everything.

You should know that Kowloon Walled City is an important stronghold of the Triads in Hong Kong. The predecessor of this Triad was the Hongmen (Heaven and Earth Society), which was also called Gelaohui in Yu Qie’s hometown. It is a large organization involving Chinese people all over the world.

When Sirindhorn saw Yu Qie's expression, she understood that Mr. Yu was working on his creative work.

"Mr. Yu, is this also how you create military novels?"

“You can see that I’m looking for material, no wonder you can translate my novel.” Yu Qie affirmed Sirindhorn’s idea.

Then he talked about the short story "Happy Hunting" that he had sent to Japan before: This novel gave a preliminary introduction to the background of cyberpunk and nuclear wasteland, and at the same time, through the transformation of the monster fox into a mechanical fox, it metaphorically described the process of Asians being impacted by and learning Western culture.

Sirindhorn was shocked after hearing this: "I know you can write military novels and the 'new realism' that is popular in the mainland, but I didn't expect you could write this. It is different from any novel I have ever seen. Is it 'magical' realism?" What 'magical' realism? Don't always rely on Latin American literature.

Yu Qie explained the concept of cyberpunk to Sirindhorn. After this explanation, the two native bodyguards were more influenced.

At this time, they looked at the Kowloon Walled City carefully again: it was dilapidated, disorderly, and filthy, like an inescapable haze that tightly shrouded this towering building and could not be shaken off.

On the one hand, crime is rampant. Just during the time we were hanging around, we had already discovered quite a few gambling houses and loan sharking shops.

On the other hand, this place is all-encompassing. Several generations have lived in the cubicles of the concrete jungle. Since no license is required to do business here, dental clinics, printing shops, barber shops, and even nurseries can be seen.

The book lovers who came to meet Yu Qie before, if they had pirated copies of mainland books in their hands, might have come from the "strict selection" of Kowloon Walled City.

It seems that everyone is happy and contented? People are living and working in peace and contentment?

However, members of the triads continued to visit these shops, including nurseries, and the sound of children reading could be heard saying, "When a person is born, his nature is good; natures are close, but habits make them different... In the past, Meng's mother chose her neighbors carefully."

Combined with the act of paying protection fees, the kind faces of those who collect the protection fees and the fear and anxiety of those who pay the protection fees can be said to be quite terrifying.

Yu Qie and his men were obviously outsiders. As they went deeper, most of the people who came to tip off were locals. When they were halfway up, a member of the underworld came and asked to follow Yu Qie and his men and introduce them to the enemy.

Sirindhorn pretended not to know Chinese and spoke to this person in Thai. Unexpectedly, this person also spoke back in Thai.

What about English? Needless to say.

Relying on the weapons in their hands, everyone refused decisively, but this man was not angry, but followed behind them at a distance.

From then on, no matter how Yu Qie and the others changed directions, they could quickly see this person's figure in any corner of this maze-like building.

Sirindhorn finally got annoyed. She was a princess after all. “There is a Hong Kong police station in Kowloon Walled City. We can contact them.”

In the 70s, after the Hong Kong Police Force was established, it was forced to conduct a raid on the Kowloon Walled City and set up a garrison under international pressure. Before that, the Kowloon Walled City was even more chaotic.

After a series of operations, it turned out that the police representative knew the person he had just met, and he went back after greeting him.

People on the road came over and smiled at Yu Qie and the others, signaling them not to worry.

Obviously, Yu Qie and the others' personal safety was guaranteed, no matter if they were from the white or black world, they had already said hello. Everyone was simply dumbfounded. Kowloon Walled City was simply a country within a country, a school of its own.

Yu Qie sighed: "This place has become a black mandala, a devil's cave. It helps people realize their wishes and provides order, but it needs human blood to irrigate it."

At this time, Sirindhorn was thinking about what Yu Che called "cyberpunk" literature, but to a certain extent, she suddenly thought of her own royal family.

The reason why the Thai royal family is one of the few modern countries in the world that still has real power is that through the companies in which it holds shares, the Thai royal family has extended its tentacles into every aspect of Thai people's lives.

From birth to death, the Thai people serve the royal family. This cruel deprivation is hidden under the guise of the legal and reasonable corporate system.

After Yu Chet's words came out, Sirindhorn felt even more ashamed. She was a devout Buddhist. The "mandala" that Yu Chet mentioned was also a term in Buddhism, symbolizing brightness and purity. Thailand is a Buddhist country. I wonder if this writer was making an implicit criticism of the royal family.

(End of this chapter)