Press Release: The Visibility of the Invisible — IRIS MIR
By: Iris Mir
Tags: Hong Kong, Sham Shui Po, Voice, Identity, Novel

The voice of others through the residents of the traditional Hong Kong neighborhood of Sham Shui Po

:::::FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:::::

The fictional novel, The Mansion at the South of Maple Street by Iris Mir, recreates the journey of a young girl from Barcelona, Spain, who moves to Hong Kong. There she is embraced by the honorable community of the traditional and magical neighborhood of Sham Shui Po. During this crucial period of her life there is love, heartache, many changes and a single constant: Sham Shui Po and its people.

By their side, simply participating in the day-to-day life of this community, the main character makes important decisions as she enters her thirties. There is pain but there is also joy and the hope for a better life in a more inclusive and diverse world where the Western worldview has little place.

This intimate novel discovers a modern-day Hong Kong that, like the protagonist herself, is trying to find itself after decades of British colonialism and the growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party. The protagonist discovers the true meaning of hope in an environment where imagination and the dream of a better life have guided the decisions of the inhabitants of the territory and their predecessors.

Through the voice of the narrator and the stories of the ordinary people of Sham Shui Po, Mir explores the value of questioning worlds and possibilities to invent and shape transgressive options for the future that stand as alternatives to a finite truth.

The story is inspired by the experience of Mir who lived in Hong Kong and Beijing for over a decade. First, she worked as an international correspondent for Spanish and international media and later as an expert in communication and cross-cultural project management.

“Making the invisible, visible is a necessary pre-condition to give voice to others”, explains Mir.

When Mir lived in Sham Shui Po, she spent many nights in her apartment in Nam Fung Mansion (The Mansion at the South of Maple Street in English) writing notes on the neighborhood. The story, however, was not to become fully formed until she made the difficult decision to return to Europe. Mir currently resides in London.

This novel was the result of the Mir’s wish to freeze in time the life on the streets of Sham Shui Po with this story. She was afraid that progress might change it soon. So she used her imagination and creativity to give voice to different worldviews that coexist in Hong Kong. Ordinary people whose stories challenged the place that success and happiness have in the world of today.

“The greatest challenge we face when we dream of building alternative futures is the defiance of not letting our individual memory and that of our civilizations forget our past. If we silence our collective consciousness as human beings, we risk losing the key wisdom of our ancestors and the cultural diversity of humanity. This is crucial to be able to embrace the freedoms and responsibilities of what it means to be human, while taking care of one another”, she adds.

The Mansion at the South of Maple Street exposes the plurality of identities and existential experiences that coexist in Hong Kong and which demonstrate the complexities of life as an immigrant.