香港作家西西形容《我城》與《美麗大廈》，這兩部發表於七十年代，同樣極具開創性的長篇小說為「一個地方的兩種寫法」。然而，相對於早已成為香港文學經典的《我城》，《美麗大廈》並未獲得充分的注意。《美麗大廈》聚焦於一座十二層高的住宅大廈，以我稱之為「通道」（諸如走廊、樓梯與街道）的空間作為美學對象，著重於突顯城市的開放性、流動性與活力，也賦予了一種理解個體與城市的新視野。更具體來說，「通道」在這裡既指向大廈居民、物質與資訊的流通處，也隱喻了被英國殖民者開拓成轉口港，並被此地居民漸漸轉化為「不尋常通道」的香港（周蕾語）。如果殖民者的「通道」由自帝國主義的侵佔，以及維希留（Paul Virilio）所關注的速度的暴政，在《美麗大廈》裡，西西則以極慢速的筆法，致力為小市民自力經營的日常通道作傳。有別於《我城》「在地」的年輕人視角，《美麗大廈》更多的著眼於香港這座移民城市裡居民的混雜性；「通道」一詞，因而也在於突出小說關注的流動人口，以及他們的交往與互動。在大量新移民湧入的「通道」裡，並非某一英雄，而是眾數的「陌生人」成為了主角。作為七十年代香港的一個側面，《美麗大廈》所要勾劃出的，乃由這些陌生人自創的公共空間。而如何協調、組織公共生活，如何與眾多陌生人共處，是《美麗大廈》提出的重要課題。借用桑內特（Richard Sennett）「公共人」的概念，並參照他對古希臘雅典公共空間的分析，本文進一步拓展「通道」的隱喻，突出西西筆下流動不居卻富有活力的公共生活形態。

The Hong Kong writer Xi Xi has described her ground-breaking novels from the 1970s, My City and The Merry Building, as ＂two ways of writing the same place.＂ Although My City has been long considered as a classic of Hong Kong literature, The Merry Building has never received equal recognition. Set in a 12-floor residential building and focusing on urban ＂passageways,＂ like corridors, staircases and streets, as aesthetic objects, The Merry Building emphasizes the openness, fluidity and vitality of a city and offers a new understanding of the relationship between an individual and urban space. Specifically, ＂passageways＂ in this paper refers not only to spaces for the circulation of inhabitants, commodities and information, but it also acts as a metaphor for Hong Kong. British colonizers made Hong Kong into an entry port, transformed over time by Hong Kong people, in the words of Rey Chow, into ＂an unusual passageway.＂ If a passageway forced open by colonizers is a product of imperialism and governed by what Paul Virilio regards as the ＂rule of speed,＂ then Xi Xi instead uses her technique of ＂slowness＂ to record locally-created passageways of daily lives. As compared to the younger, more ＂local＂ perspective of My City, The Merry Building pays special attention to the migrants of Hong Kong who come from different backgrounds. The term ＂passageways＂ here also refers to mobile populations and the interaction between them. In a ＂passageway＂ that consists of many new immigrants, instead of a single hero, there are ＂strangers＂ who play the role of the main characters. The Merry Building portrays public spaces invented spontaneously by these inhabitants and raises the question of how to organize public life and how to live with strangers. Using Richard Sennett’s concept of the ＂public man,＂ and by expanding the metaphoric meanings of ＂passageways＂ with reference to Sennett’s study of public spaces in ancient Athens, this paper extends the concept of ＂passageways＂ and emphasizes Xi Xi’s vision of a fluid and vital public life.