{"id":34803,"date":"2026-03-09T08:48:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=34803"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:48:44","slug":"pulitzer-prize-winner-hernan-diaz-on-the-power-of-narratives-and-beautiful-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=34803","title":{"rendered":"Pulitzer Prize-winner Hernan Diaz on the power of narratives and \u2018beautiful\u2019 Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI feel they are about to reclaim this space,\u201d says the novelist Hernan Diaz as he pauses along Hong Kong\u2019s Battery Path to look at the tentacles of banyan trees gripping the path\u2019s stone walls, like an intimate scaffolding.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In the eyes of the New York-based writer, the contrast between lush vegetation and glass-and-steel monoliths in the heart of Hong Kong\u2019s central business district illuminates the fragility of man-made symbols of power.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt is not entirely clear who is trespassing on whom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Diaz is on a walk with the South China Morning Post ahead of his talks at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, which ran from March 1-8.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This was Diaz\u2019s first visit to the city, and he absorbed the surroundings through the same high-contrast lens he employed in the 416-page <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Trust \u2013<\/em> one of Barack Obama\u2019s favourite books of 2022, and the winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Diaz spoke to the SCMP during a walk around Central, Hong Kong. It was his first visit to the city. Photo: Jonathan Wong\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/03\/06\/38bd7e7e-50f7-45ea-8189-6552aefdc29e_cce5098b.jpg\" title=\"Diaz spoke to the SCMP during a walk around Central, Hong Kong. It was his first visit to the city. Photo: Jonathan Wong\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">Diaz spoke to the SCMP during a walk around Central, Hong Kong. It was his first visit to the city. Photo: Jonathan Wong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Set during the boom and bust of 1920s Wall Street, this forensic study of the accumulation of wealth and reputation is presented in four stylistically distinct and incompatible parts. The friction between the grindingly opposing narratives reveals an approximation of the truth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/arts\/article\/3345713\/pulitzer-prize-winner-hernan-diaz-power-narratives-and-beautiful-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI feel they are about to reclaim this space,\u201d says the novelist Hernan Diaz as he pauses along Hong Kong\u2019s Battery Path to look at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[8999,17635,17634,3569,5231,14752,1214,17633,17632],"class_list":["post-34803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-beautiful","tag-diaz","tag-hernan","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-narratives","tag-power","tag-prizewinner","tag-pulitzer","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}