City of the Anthropocene Surreal

Bibliographic Data

ID3664265
AuthorsXiaofan Amy Li (0000-0001-8053-9927, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume84
Issue4
Pages1034-1054
Publication date2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9118 • E-ISSN: 1752-0401
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00219118-11904371
OpenAlexW4413872936
LanguageEN
References cited25

This article examines Hong Kongese writers Hon Lai-chu and Dorothy Tse's cowritten A Dictionary of Twin Cities (雙城辭典) (2012) in relation to the question of urbanity in the Anthropocene era. While much attention is paid to anglophone literature about ecological crises, discussions of how East Asian writings of the city articulate the Anthropocene in local Asian contexts remain inadequate. Focusing on urban space, sociality, and affect, this article shows that Dictionary offers surreal cityscapes that speak to specific dimensions of urban life in Hong Kong and weird nature-cultural entanglements symptomatic of the Anthropocene. The article proposes an ecocritical reading of Dictionary, arguing that it reimagines Hong Kong as a city of the Anthropocene surreal. This demonstrates a crucial connection between Anthropocene aesthetics and surrealism, reorients our attention to the experiential and imaginary dimensions of urbanity, and helps us rethink the efficacies of literature in our time

Anthropocene · Archaeology · Environmental ethics · Geography · American Environmental and Regional History · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · History · Philosophy

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