Introducing the Hong Kong Literature Series!
From the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
In this video, series editor John Minford introduces the Hong Kong Literature Series and speaks to how this collection reveals the hidden depths of Hong Kong’s soul. The series is published by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.
The Drunkard
Liu Yichang. Edited by John Minford and Nick Hordern. Translated by Charlotte Yiu
The Drunkard is one of the first full-length stream-of-consciousness novels written in Chinese. It has been called the Hong Kong Novel, and was first published in 1962 as a serial in a Hong Kong evening paper. As the unnamed Narrator, a writer at odds with a philistine world, sinks to his drunken nadir, his plight can be seen to represent that of a whole intelligentsia, a whole culture, degraded by the brutal forces of history: the Second Sino-Japanese War and the rampant capitalism of post-war Hong Kong.
Lotus Leaves
Selected Poems of Leung Ping Kwan
Leung Ping Kwan. Edited and translated by John Minford
Leung Ping Kwan is one of Hong Kong’s most acclaimed poets. His poems display a unique blend of the literary and the down-to-earth, of the modern and the traditional, of the serious and the humorous, of the local and the universal.
Dragons
Shorter Fiction of Leung Ping Kwan
Leung Ping Kwan. Edited by Laura Ng and John Minford. Translated by Wendy Chan, Jasmine Tong Man, and David Morgan
The dragon has always been a fascinating creature, a complex embodiment of the timeless soul of China, symbol of the universal power of the imagination, of the creative energy and transformative possibilities of the Tao. Both of these enchanting stories are anchored in the author’s idea of freedom and liberation.
The Teddy Bear Chronicles
Xi Xi. Edited by John Minford. Translated by Christina Sanderson
This is a most unusual book. For several decades Xi Xi has been widely known for her award-winning poetry and fiction. This time, she has chosen to write about the teddy bears she began making in 2005, after treatment for cancer, in order to improve the mobility of her right hand. She made the bears herself from scratch, choosing some of her favourite characters from history and legend such as the Taoist philosopher Master Zhuang, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, and Beauty and the Beast.
