LINDA Jaivin is a serious student of, and commentator on Chinese affairs, an author, broadcaster and respected sinologist but little about Ms Jaivin fits the conventional mould.
In white patent, thigh-high ''go-go'' boots, white fishnet stockings, mini-skirt, her nails painted white, her hair a brilliant strawberry, her entire appearance shouts: ''Look at me.'' Her new book, co-edited with China specialist and academic Geramie Barme, has much the same impact. And, like Ms Jaivin, it is daring in a field hide-bound by convention.
New Ghosts, Old Dreams: Chinese Rebel Voices (Times Books/Random House) is an anthology of the voices of dissent. A collection of Chinese writing previously unpublished in English (and some unpublished in Chinese), it has been meticulously translated by Ms Jaivin, Mr Barme and friends who strove to capture the spirit of the originals.
They match Chinese slang with English slang in bold works about politics, but also about sex, breakdancing, even a soccer riot. Not only are these stories, speeches, articles, poems and excerpts exciting and new in style and content so is the way they have been compiled.
The authors say their 515-page volume, illustrated with sketches and photographs, is ''put together in such a way as to illustrate common concerns or points of conflict and controversy. The style of juxtaposition is what Mao Zedong would have called 'reactionary editing' (fandong bianpai ).'' They have done this by dividing the book into five sections, with their italicised commentary unifying the diverse pieces and giving background on the excerpts and their authors.
It is the final section, Floating, which has as its broad themes exile and survival, which is the most relevant to Hongkong, always ''a place where life has had an edge of precariousness'', the editors say.
The works chosen are heavy on satire: ''The Hongkong Chinese have been allowed little say about and no control over their future, which has been decided by the mandarins in Whitehall and Zhongnanhai so perhaps humour is the last weapon that they have against total control by the northern communists,'' the editors write.