Hong Kong and mainland China share a border and a complicated political history, but they remain profoundly different in character. The city has a mix of identities, predominantly built on a rich Cantonese culture and a British colonial legacy. Its once-celebrated legal system and press freedoms set it apart in ways that matter enormously to the people who live there.
Few Western journalists have covered that divide with more sustained attention than Simon Elegant. Elegant was born in Hong Kong and spent decades reporting from the region. “City on Fire” is his third novel but the first to center on his hometown.
