Classical Literature as Subtexts

Abstract Dung Kai-cheung's 董啟章 (1967–) V-city tetralogy was first published right after the Hong Kong Retrocession in 1997. Turning from the foreground of modernization and colonialism's impact to the background of the writer's perspective, we see Chinese literature's profound influence on the writer's creation of a V city—a fictional counterpart of modern Hong Kong. This article questions how textual narratives of places in Dung's four novellas rebuild collective cultural memory with a historical tradition of Chinese literary geography. As the founding text for the series, the first volume, Ditu ji, constructs a V city based on both historical documents and fictive texts and implies the city's historical and cultural connection with the Song dynasty (960–1279). In Meng Hua lu and Fansheng lu, with two Song capitals as foils, the V city is full of layers of memories and emotions. The human-things relations as reflected in Bowu zhi demonstrate the regionality and internationality of modern Hong Kong. This article shows that classical Chinese literature as subtexts of the four novellas is important for the reformation of cultural memory, history making, and competition between cultures in contemporary world literary space.