過往談論香港的方式多強調香港的匱乏特質，及其借來的時間與空間，而既然是「借」，必然會有後續的「還」，香港的主體性因此總是消失湮沒在借╱還之間。然而敘事的方法有許多種，在各個社會的轉變時期與不同的歷史階段中，也會隨之調整敘事的策略與角度。香港作家西西出版於九七大限之前的小說《飛氈》，即替我們適切地展示，香港除了以受傷者的邏輯再現、或是強調香港本身具有的獨特性與特殊意義之外，還能如何被觀看？西西在書中透過日常性的市民生活經驗，以及最實際的地理邊界這個普遍性認知去省思香港在地與外部他方的比較，在地方疆界看似已不再重要且日漸模糊的全球化時代之下，西西反而回過頭來，從最根本且直接的地緣政治出發。換言之，香港在《飛氈》中被呈現與被關注的焦點不再是過往談論香港多半必定強調的匱缺與傷痛，而是傾向在地如何與文化他者進行對話，地方的想像如何在既定的疆界限制中進行潛在的能量釋放。

In the past, the way to discuss Hong Kong was always to emphasize its particularity of lack and ambiance of borrowed space and borrowed time. Since its time and space can be “borrowed”, the action of giving the borrowed time and space in return necessarily follows; thus, the subjectivity of Hong Kong always disappears between borrowing and giving in return. However, under the influence of various narrative approaches, the strategy of narrative and point of view tend to change during transitional periods and at the different historical phases in each society. The novel Flying Carpet presents Hong Kong proper. It was written by Xi Xi, a female writer in Hong Kong, and published before the handover in 1997. Furthermore, besides the perspective in which Hong Kong is represented through a logic of the wound and a form emphasizing the uniqueness and particularity of Hong Kong itself, it shows us how to view Hong Kong from other perspectives. Through the daily lives of common people and a universal cognition of the most practical boundary of geography, Xi Xi reflects the differences between locality of Hong Kong and exterior places. In the age of globalization that boundary no longer seems important as it had become blurry gradually; Xi Xi, however, returns to adopt the strategy of narrative in a direct and fundamental way of geographical politics. In other words, the way to represent Hong Kong and the focalization is no longer about the concept of lack and wound that was emphasized in earlier days, but a tendency to explore how the dialog proceeds between locality and the otherness of culture, and how the imagination of locality releases the potential energy in limited boundary.