There is nowhere else in the world quite like Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong’s tourist district. A remarkably motley group of people call the building home; Pakistani phone stall operators, Chinese guesthouse workers, Nepalese heroin addicts, Indonesian sex workers, and traders and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there—even backpacking tourists rent rooms. In short, it is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet.

But as Ghetto at the Center of the World shows us, a trip to Chungking Mansions reveals a far less glamorous side of globalization. A world away from the gleaming headquarters of multinational corporations, Chungking Mansions is emblematic of the way globalization actually works for most of the world’s people. Gordon Mathews’s intimate portrayal of the building’s polyethnic residents lays bare their intricate connections to the international circulation of goods, money, and ideas. We come to understand the day-to-day realities of globalization through the stories of entrepreneurs from Africa carting cell phones in their luggage to sell back home and temporary workers from South Asia struggling to earn money to bring to their families. And we see that this so-called ghetto—which inspires fear in many of Hong Kong’s other residents, despite its low crime rate—is not a place of darkness and desperation but a beacon of hope.

Gordon Mathews’s compendium of riveting stories enthralls and instructs in equal measure, making Ghetto at the Center of the World not just a fascinating tour of a singular place but also a peek into the future of life on our shrinking planet.

世界上没有任何地方比得上重庆大厦，这是一座位于香港旅游区中心的破旧的17层商业和住宅建筑。一群非常杂乱的人以这栋楼为家；巴基斯坦电话亭经营者、中国宾馆工作人员、尼泊尔海洛因成瘾者、印度尼西亚性工作者，以及来自亚洲和非洲各地的商人和寻求庇护者在这里生活和工作--甚至背包游客也在这里租房。简而言之，它可能是这个星球上最全球化的地方。

但是，正如《世界中心的贫民窟》向我们展示的那样，前往重庆大厦的旅行揭示了全球化的一个远为不光彩的一面。与跨国公司金碧辉煌的总部相比，重庆大厦象征着全球化对世界上大多数人的实际运作方式。戈登-马修斯对这栋楼的多民族居民的亲密描写，将他们与货物、金钱和思想的国际流通的复杂联系暴露无遗。通过来自非洲的企业家在行李中携带手机回国销售的故事，以及来自南亚的临时工人为赚钱给家人而奋斗的故事，我们开始理解全球化的日常现实。我们看到，这个所谓的贫民窟--尽管其犯罪率很低，却让许多香港其他居民感到恐惧--并不是一个黑暗和绝望的地方，而是一个希望的灯塔。

戈登-马修斯编撰的这些引人入胜的故事，既让人着迷，又给人以启发，使《世界中心的贫民窟》不仅是对一个奇特地方的精彩游览，也是对我们这个不断缩小的星球上未来生活的窥视。