I'm in Germany now for a six-month residency & I'm interested in going to academic/literary events and visiting other universities in the wider region. Invitations relating to my academic/creative work are very welcome. My third poetry collection will be published in May as well.
When Wittgenstein submitted an essay for his BA degree at Cambridge, he did not include a preface and notes indicating the sources that he had used. When asked to supply these, he wrote this letter to G.E. Moore. (Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951, 76.)
PEN Hong Kong (
@hongkongpen
)'s comment on Hong Kong university lecturer Shiu Ka-chun who has been relieved of his teaching duties. Shiu was involved in the Umbrella Movement and was jailed for nearly half a year.
PEN Hong Kong is concerned to learn that Shiu Ka-chun, who was jailed for almost six months for his involvement in the Umbrella Movement in 2014, has been relieved of his teaching duties at Hong Kong Baptist University. 1/
'Then, in 1939, something close to a miracle happened:ย The Philippines opened its doors to the Jews. Filipinos welcomed the refugees with open arms and, when World War II reached Philippine shores, they protected them.'
Day to night. Parents and supporters have gathered outside PolyU. Annie Zhang, who posted these pics on FB, wrote that the parents want to be close to their children inside PolyU. At 6, there were over 200 people sitting in. Number is increasing.
More:
Police harass & threaten 13 yo journalist from Student Depth Media to "go back home & die!"
1700 |Tsim Sha Tsui Harbour City
Riot police also mocked his height by gesturing how short he is.
He was arrested & taken into a police van
Please don't.
'UK universities are testing a new online teaching link for students in Chinaโwhich will require course materials to comply with Chinese restrictions on the internet... [I]t means students can only reach material on an "allowed" list.'
CONGRATULATIONS! Eric Yip, from Hong Kong, won the National Poetry Competition (ยฃ5,000) for his poem "Fricatives", which "plays with ideas about language to also comment on colonialism, race, migration, belonging & the guilt of leaving oneโs home behind."
๐ ๐คฃ I was born, educated and raised in Hong Kong, and I have no problem AT ALL about
@HongKongHermit
calling himself "Hong Kong Hermit". What exactly is your problem?
This is hilarious, pathetic and part of a broader pattern.
@HongKongHermit
, one of the bigger anti-China accounts sometimes quoted in western media, likes to refer to himself as a โHong Kongerโ when heโs actually a British transplant who attempts to conceal his real identity.
The Tiananmen memorial inscription "ๅท่กๅฑ ๅ ็ๅฃซ่ฑ้ญไธๆฝ๏ผ่ชๆฎฒ่ฑบ็ผ ๆฐไธปๆ็ซไธๆป " (โSouls of martyrs shall forever linger despite the brutal massacre; Spark of democracy shall forever glow for the demise of evils.โ) on the Swire Bridge at HKU. It was covered up in January 2022.
Friday 16 June 2019. ็ๅฟ็พ้ฆ: how do you translate that level of heartshatteredness and acute pain and utter disappointment into English? What a devastatingly elegant four-character phrase in Chinese. Used only sparingly. Used only when it is so.
from "APOLITICAL INTELLECTUALS" by Otto Renรฉ Castillo
One day
the apolitical intellectuals
of our land
will be interrogated
by the poorest of people.
They will be asked what they did
while their community
was extinguished,
like a sweet fire, small and alone.
Hong Kong has become unlivable, inhospitable, extremely difficult. Things go on in this little city, yes. And to many, "life as usual". But the city is shrinking, getting more constricted, soon thereโll be little of it left.
The mournful acceptance on her face reflected in the shop windowโshe's real & unreal, there & not there, placed & placelessโmirrors her dual existence: a young Hong Kong woman and a defiant protester. Both of these identities open up possibilities beyond the surface: a new world.
On Sunday 9 June 2019, hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of Hong Kong against the governmentโs extradition bill, and everything changed. Pictures by journalist
@ofarry
.
"้ซ" and "้" erased from "้ซๅฃซๅจ้" (Causeway Road) so only the characters "ๅฃซๅจ", which sounds like "็คบๅจ", meaning "protest", remain. This shows the linguistic creativity and resilience of HKers, who will express what they want to express, no matter what.
Photo: Rachel Wong
Love the punning in ''็ธ็ดๅฟ็ถๅฅด".
"้บฅ็ถๅ" is McDonald's in Cantonese.
"ๅฟ็ถๅฅด", on this poster, while sounds the same as "้บฅ็ถๅ", has two different characters: "ๅฟ" (meaning: don't) and "ๅฅด" (meaning: slave). That is, "Don't be slaves."
Meet up, don't be slaves.
'In the early 1990s, Xu began to develop a system for writing English called โsquare word calligraphy,โ which organizes the letters of each English word into structures that resemble Chinese characters.'
๐๐๐๐๐
'To make strong movies, the document claims, the number one priority is to โthoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping Thought.โ
China today is one of the worst totalitarian regimes in the world. I sometimes seriously question the conscience of those who study its culture and literature from centuries ago and do not have a word to say about its current state.
โIn January 1988, a conference of Nobel Prize-winners in Paris considered the great issues facing the world in the 21st century. One of their conclusions was: โIf mankind is to survive, it must go back 25 centuries in time to tap the wisdom of Confucius.โโ โAndrew Taylor
We've upgraded
@asiancha
's main site so it's faster than before;& ๐ป๐๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ has been renewed for another year.Always accepting submissions. A number of new pieces will be added to the journal's websites.
Anthony Bourdain's opening monologue from Parts Unknown: Hong Kong (2018).
#Bourdain
We miss you.
'The Star Ferry to Kowloon at night. Lights of Hong Kong behind me. Itโs a gift. A dream. A curse. The best thing. The happiest thing. Yet also the loneliest thing in the world.'
Powerful image from today, courtesy of Wilson Leung, who wrote: 'I am honoured to help carry this banner today. It says "็ๅฟ็พ้ฆ", translated loosely as "with bitter sadness". In remembrance of all the people who have sacrificed themselves for our freedoms.'
Photo: ็ง็ฟ้/hk01
What about the identity of the ethnic Mongolians?
'[...] government documents cited by analysts also referred to president Xi Jinpingโs push for shared language as part of a common identity.'
'Originally titledย A Story of Food,ย In the Mood for Loveย began life as a series of vignettes related to eating in HK... throughout development, [Wong] kept obsessing over one story of a man & womanโs serendipitous encounters at... a dai pai dong ๅคงๆๆช.'
Seriously??
@ElectricLit
, please fact check articles before publishing. This is quite ridiculous:
'Hong Kong, with a population double L.A.โs and a millions-strong diaspora, is yet to produce stories of its own that enter the global consciousness.'
Hongkongers, I love you. ้ฆๆธฏไบบ๏ผๆๆไฝ ใ
/// โThe message to listeners is that despite the unhappiness and uncertainty of our time, Hong Kong people will not surrender,โ the composer tells TIME. ///
I am saddened by this tweet.
@deschutterbart
, maybe *you* can do anything you want to do, go anywhere you want to go, and say anything you want to say. That's really good for you. Many people in Hong Kong can't.
Matt Loughrey's emails to Jean-Sien Kin, who worked two years ago on the catalogue for the 40th Anniversary of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, are quite something. For example: 'If you don't like it you don't need to waste your time telling me with an essay.'
cc.
@VICE
Thank you so much,
@globaltimesnews
, for spreading the word about DO NOT SPLIT, a film about the Hong Kong protests.
The Oscar-nominated film DO NOT SPLIT can be watched here for free:
#Oscar
-nominated film Do Not Split, which recorded violence in Hong Kong, should not win as it lacks artistry but is full of biased political stances. Otherwise, it will hurt Chinese audiencesโ feelings and may face a heavy loss in the Chinese film market.
'If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg. Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile egg.'
--Haruki Murakami
The Southeast Asia Research and Cultural Heritage Center has started a petition calling for the removal of the
@VICE
article and Matt Loughrey to apologise & stop using photographs of Cambodian genocide victims for his 'experimentation and entertainment'.
Another reply by Matt Loughrey to a query (from someone who appears to be of Cambodian ancestry), posted by the person in question in a comment on filmmaker Rithy Panhโs Facebook page. He doesnโt take too criticism very well.
How many of you here far prefer Twitter over Facebook? I deactivated my personal Facebook account as it didn't make me feel comfortable to use for a number of reasons.
It'd be good if university heads in HK made statements about how the English version of the NSL, in which 'universities' is explicitly mentioned (and absent in the Chinese version, which is supposedly the more authoritative one), impact on their staff's research and teaching.
/// As a writer, Vuong believes speaking Vietnamese gives him an advantage. Itโs a tonal language, which requires the listener to pay attention. He gives an example: mรก, mแบฃ, ma. In Vietnamese, they mean wildly different things: mother, grave, ghost. ///
In 2020, I wrote: "I canโt help but think that HK people are now perpetually in a state of emotional exhaustion.There's a heavy & frustrating feeling in the city. As I write this,there's an ominous air because of the impending National Security Law." More:
Police arrested a 39 y/o man for allegedly tagging over 130 locations with graffiti of the word ่ช็ฑ - FREEDOM - from January to February. The graffiti was tagged on public and private premises; those on distribution boxes in ShamShuiPo are now covered with blank sheets of paper.
It is said that students and protestors at PolyU are now posting their last words on social media because they expect to die tonight. This is heartbreaking.
I wrote this letter from HK for
@IndexCensorship
, ahead of the passing of the NSL.
'Whatever confidence [people] might have had in the cityโs democratic future has been crushed. Like a skull being smashed against the wall by the Chinese Communist Party.'
'First grade primary school students resume classes in Hangzhou, China. It is interesting to observe that all of them are wearing specially-designed hats, which help them to keep the 1-2 meters social distance.'
Source:
I was supposed to go last year but I was hospitalised the day before my scheduled flight to the States. It would take nearly six months to identify my condition, for which I am receiving treatment. Looking forward to this yearโs programme.
Today last year (15 June 2019), a protester named Marco Leung protesting Hong Kongโs extradition law bill died after he fell from a building in Admiralty. "Falling Man" (pictured) is artist
@badiucao
's artwork in response to the protester's death.
The management of a private housing estate in Hong Kong have told a household to remove the iconic posters with words ๆ่ฆ็ๆฎ้ธ (I want universal suffrage) on them. These posters have been there since 2014 during the Umbrella Movement.
HONG KONG--G.U.B. Bike Studio is giving all its bike helmets for free to protesters, asking them to be careful on the front line. When offered money, they refused to accept it, saying, 'We do what we can.'
Yesterday when I was walking on the street, the heat was oppressive (I hate hot summers); I sweated a lot. I was wearing a mask & It wasn't comfortable. I wanted to cry. Looking around, everyone was masked. How could I not do the same? It takes a city of people to protect a city.
Really donโt understand why people fight over wearing masks. Everyone wore a mask on my subway ride today in Hong Kong. As did 90%+ of pedestrians. HK is 30C/86F, 84% humidity. There are 8 million residents, about the same as NYC. So far 1162 confirmed cases and 5 deaths.
'The head of the Chinese University of HK, under intense student pressure, has agreed to condemn police for โany proven caseโ of brutality, and will also urge the cityโs leader to launch an investigation into the treatment of about 20 arrested students.'
Because we cannot forget, and because we can still openly remember it. Remember it in your own way. If possible, make a small gestureโinsignificant, perhapsโbut we collectively say: this is our right to remember, and shame on the Chinese government for its denial. #ๅ ญๅ29ๅจๅนด
If I were one of the last diners in a cha chaan teng in the evening Iโd hurry the fxxx up & finish my food so the staff can finish their work & go home. Such ludicrous, non-Hong Kong, & irresponsible behaviour. That this scene is considered worthy to be singled out is laughable.
Is it still possible to live in Hong Kong with dignity, integrity, a clear sense of right and wrong, and grit, without feeling constantly thereโs a hand on your throat?
Anthony Bourdain's opening monologue from Parts Unknown: Hong Kong (2018).
#Bourdain
, we miss you.
"The Star Ferry to Kowloon at night. Lights of Hong Kong behind me. Itโs a gift. A dream. A curse. The best thing. The happiest thing. Yet also the loneliest thing in the world."
One of the most memorable experiences I have had while marching this summer is that ANYONE can shout 'Hongkongers ้ฆๆธฏไบบ!' and the crowd nearby would respond 'Add Oil ๅ ๆฒน!'.
1/
'Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich is opening a new publishing house exclusively dedicated to printing female authors. [...] Alexievich said that she hopes this will address the disproportionate ratio of published works by male to female writers.'
Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts in Cambodia has issued a letter demanding
@VICE
to remove the images and 'urge researchers, artists and public not to manipulate any historical source' so as to respect the victims.
๐ด ๐ถ๐๐๐ก๐ข๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ถโ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ฆ, the most comprehensive collection of modern Chinese poetry in English translation is forthcoming in May. This volume brings together modern poetry from the Chinese-speaking world dating from the 1910s to the 2010s.
Academics from around the world, I have a question for you. If you are not already working in Hong Kong, do you think you would like to come and work in my city,in light of the National Security Law?
Very excited to be teaching the new course Hong Kong Literature in the second semester of the next academic year. The course will be divided into three modules, focusing on "Poetic Representations of Hong Kong", "Fictionalising Hong Kong" and "Hong Kong Documented in the Essay".
I like the story behind this photo "Girls in the Windows". A brownstone was to be demolished; photographer Ormond Gigli negotiated with the demolition man to remove the window frames & have a woman stand in each. The man responded, "Yes, but you have to put my wife in the shot!"