Essay from The Literary Review

Shuang Shen and Leung Ping-kwan

Guest Editors' Notes

For this issue, we have selected the works of fourteen writers from Hong Kong to provide a microcosmic representation of an extremely colorful and vibrant urban culture. These writers differ in terms of language and sensibility. Some of them, such as Louise Ho, Xu Xi, and David T.K. Wong, write in English; others, such as Liu Yichang, Leung Ping-kwan, and Chan Koon Chung, write primarily in Chinese although many have been educated in English departments and are well acquainted with foreign classics and contemporary world literature. This linguistic and cultural heterogeneity illustrates a distinct characteristic of Hong Kong culture—its amazing worldliness, which is a product of the influx of immigrants, the meeting of different cultures, and the rapid modernization of this port city. Worldliness, or cosmopolitanism, is usually considered to be a desirable condition everywhere, and cities have historically been the privileged sites of cosmopolitanism due to the availability of facilities such as the literary market and communication networks. But it needs to be recognized that in Hong Kong, cosmopolitanism is more than a glamorous trademark; it is also an index to a history of struggle for belonging. If there is a way of summarizing the different concerns of these writers, then we could say that the search for place in this rapidly changing city can be considered a recurring theme in these works of Hong Kong literature.
           While making selections for this special issue, we’ve decided to present Hong Kong literature from a historical perspective and discovered that the literary history of the city is a process of constant recovery and redefinition. Many writers represented here were not born and did not grow up in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong still figures prominently in their works in spite of their non-native status. Outer Out and Lin Yingqiang, for instance, lived in many places including Hong Kong, Canton, Malaysia, and Singapore. Both of them wrote for literary journals published in Hong Kong and were actively involved in the local cultural scene in the 1930s. From these poets of the 1930s we see a closer connection and more active exchange between the literary scenes in Hong Kong and mainland China, but at the same time, Hong Kong’s knack for experimentation and its particular form of cultural hybridization turned it into a unique as well as marginal entity on the national cultural map. Outer Out’s war poems, written in the 1930s, convey a clear political message of anti-imperialist nationalism and demonstrate a modernist’s commitment to experimentation and innovation at the same time. In these poems, Hong Kong is represented as a place with a distinct urban flair and many inseparable connections with the rest of China. Liu Yichang who belongs to a later generation offers a different representation of Hong Kong from the point of view of a post-war émigré from mainland China. His short story “Inter-section” captures the sense of disorientation and displacement of an immigrant, but as the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai would probably agree, this story is more than a representation of an immigrant or a particular community; it is a general reflection on the time and place of Hong Kong in the 1960s. Partly because this story has accurately depicted the atmosphere of the 1960s, Wong Kar-wai drew upon it as a model for his movie In the Mood for Love. Liu Yichang’s short story underscores movement as an important aspect of urban living. Although writers of a youn-ger generation might have a stronger sense of identification with the local of Hong Kong, their writings also touch on this theme. In the poems of Leung Ping-kwan, for instance, Hong Kong is represented not as a self-enclosed and unchanging place, but as a city caught in intricate networks and constant flux. In the political allegories of Xin Yuan and Chan Koon Chung, the theme of movement is directly linked to considerations of belonging and social change. Both writers evoke the figure of the hybrid to emphasize Hong Kong’s difference from mainland China and the West. Their usage of the Cantonese dialect, although only partially captured in English translation, helps create a distinct voice of Hong Kong as a result of mixing popular and literary cultures.
           Contemporary English language literature from Hong Kong also echoes the theme of transnationality in multiple variations, as we can see from Xu Xi’s short story and Louise Ho’s poems. The movement of people, capital, and culture across national borders turns Hong Kong into a place riven by social divisions. At the same time, the complexity of this place is stimulating to many writers, inspiring them to invent new literary forms and voices for the purpose of depicting their experiences. It is impossible and reductive to describe the various literary innovations with labels such as “modernism” or “postmodernism” since these labels themselves demand explanation in the specific context of Hong Kong. But maybe one way of describing Hong Kong literature’s genealogy is by thinking about the difference that this body of literature makes from nation-state centered literary traditions in both Chinese and British contexts. Nationalistic literary histories tend to categorize literature according to literary schools or affinity with a particular cultural tradition. Here we have no intention of presenting Hong Kong literature as a self-enclosed cultural tradition; rather, what we want to emphasize is the energy of a city that makes creative cultural adaptations and imaginative re-writings necessary and possible. It is also this kind of energy that challenges any singular or rigid definition of Hong Kong literature.
           We would like to thank Renditions, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong University Press, and the translators whose names are listed along with individual selections for allowing us to reprint the translations. In addition, we would like to extend our gratitude to Evelyn Ch’ien, Anne Pei-yu Ho, Christine Tien-mei Lin, Lawrence TienTso Ch’ien, Michael Berry, Shirley Poon Ka-man, and Robert Neather for taking time out of their busy schedules to translate the poems of Lee Kwok Wai and Lin Yingqiang as well as the short story by Chan Koon Chung exclusively for this issue.