The World of Suzie Wong
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| Image:Suziewongbook1stedition.jpg | |
| Author | Richard Mason |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Collins |
| Publication date | 1957 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 383 pp |
| ISBN | N/A |
- This article is about the novel. For the film adaptation, see The World of Suzie Wong (film).
The World of Suzie Wong is a 1957 novel written by Richard Mason, which has been adapted into a play, a hit film, and a ballet.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The book is about a young Englishman, Robert Lomax, who has just decided to pursue a new career as an artist. He visits Hong Kong in search of inspiration for his paintings where he checks into the Nam Kok Hotel, not realising, at first, that it is an unofficial brothel catering mainly to British and American sailors. However, the discovery of that fact only makes the hotel more charming in Lomax's opinion and a better source of subject matter for his paintings. He quickly befriends most of the hotel's bargirls but is most fascinated by the archetypal "hooker with a heart of gold", Suzie Wong, who had previously introduced herself to him as Wong Mee-ling, a rich virgin whose father had five houses and more cars than she could count, and initially pretended not to recognise him at the hotel. Lomax had originally decided that he would not sleep with any of the bargirls at the hotel because he would be living with them for a long time and did not want to put a strain on their relationships. However, it soon emerges that Suzie Wong is interested in him, not as a customer but as a serious boyfriend. Although Suzie Wong becomes the kept woman of two other men and Robert Lomax becomes attracted to a young female British nurse, Lomax and Wong are eventually reunited and the novel ends happily.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was first adapted into a stage production and was first produced in 1958 by David Merrick and starred William Shatner and France Nuyen. Tsai Chin played the title role in the West End 1959 production. The book was later adapted into a hit 1960 film, directed by Richard Quine and starring William Holden, Nancy Kwan, Sylvia Syms, and Michael Wilding.
In March 2006 a new dance version by Stephen Jefferies, entitled Suzie Wong, was premiered by the Hong Kong Ballet.
[edit] Influence on Asian stereotypes
The World of Suzie Wong has been accused of creating and reinforcing many negative stereotypes of East Asian women, such as being overly promiscuous or submissive. However, a major theme of the film is racism and the attitudes of English/European colonialists toward the Asians they matter-of-factly subjugate. Lomax is portrayed as coming to love Suzie's spirit and mind, and while respecting her ethnicity and her religious/folk beliefs, never objectifies them.[citation needed]
[edit] Locations from the book
The Nam Kok Hotel featured in the story is based on the Luk Kwok Hotel on Gloucester Road in Wanchai, where Mason stayed, although the building is now more modern, the site having been redeveloped in the 1980s. Also, unlike the hotel in the book, the modern hotel is not a pseudo-brothel but is one of many smaller smart hotels on Hong Kong Island.
Visitors today should travel one or two streets further south to Lockhart Road and Jaffe Road for today's versions of similar establishments to the one in the story. The area is sometimes known as "the Suzie Wong district" today, and over the years, some local nightclubs have used the name "Suzie Wong Club". However the book stresses that Suzie is driven into prostitution by poverty; with better economic opportunities now available to local women, most of today's bargirls in Wanchai are recruited from poorer countries, mainly Thailand and the Philippines.zh:蘇絲黃的世界
