Uncle

Uncle is a collection of essays by the Hong Kong writer and cultural critic Ma Ka-fai, written as he turned fifty and published by Beijing October Arts and Literature Publishing House in April 2014. It belongs to the "Uncle and Little Sister" series, is a hardcover, and runs 359 pages. The essays cover a wide range of subjects: life and age, love and the sexes, films and figures from the silver screen, education and parenting, travel and customs of distant places, along with passing notes on fashion, food, and the sundry matters of a columnist's career. The book opens with "Preface: Upside-Down Dreams," and the main text is divided into sections including "Insight" and "Return," each further split into Side A and Side B groups. The pieces include "Calm. Exit.", "Why the 'Uncle Complex'?", "Books Age with Their Readers", "The Finest Time Machine", "The Eight-Treasure Duck of the Chiang Family Kitchen," and "A Thinker Lost by the Hudson River." The essays look back on childhood and parents while also confessing a middle-aged state of mind; argument, narrative, and lyricism intertwine in a light yet sharp tone, unconstrained by form and strongly personal. Starting from private experience, the author expands into Chan Buddhist thought and the folklore and geography of various places, seeking to look at the world anew through an "uncle's" eyes and to capture the complexity and ambiguity of middle age.