臺灣文學虛擬博物館

  Stories of Hong Kong Literature  

Q：Writer Li Kuang was the chief editor of Everybody's Literature in the 1950s, and his poetry collection was republished several times due to its popularity. Born in Guangzhou, his indissoluble bond with Hong Kong was established back in the 1930s due to the red bean paste which cost three cents a bowl ...

A：
Li Kuang fled to Hong Kong in the 1930s when he was a middle school student, and could only afford a bowl of red bean paste that cost three cents at Sham Shui's Po Pei Ho Street. To him, paying twenty cents for a bowl of Guiling Jelly was too expensive, and it also could not change his preference.

The taste of red bean paste made him dream of Hong Kong streets, the trams, the Peak, and even brought him back to Hong Kong. In the 1950s, he was the chief editor of Hong Kong's literary publications, Everybody's Literature and Hai Lan, and wrote a poetry collection: "Yan Yu", "The Bells in the Highland", etc. He was one of only a handful of poets who had their poetry collection republished. In 1958, he moved to Singapore, devoting himself to teaching, and once again bade farewell to Hong Kong.

27 years later, he returned as a visitor. Even though people had changed, his feelings for Hong Kong remained unchanged. He wrote in "Three Hong Kong", "I nod, I'll definitely return to Hong Kong, and the next time when I "return to Hong Kong", it will not be after 27 years, but at most one to two years later. I will write "Yi Dong" again, and once gain have tea in Central, and take the tram and ferry. Next time, I will not be so unfamiliar with Hong Kong." Unfortunately, there was no next time, as he died in Singapore on the Christmas Eve of 1991.
 

Q：Hong Kong writer, Shu Xiang Cheng's novel, The Sun has Set, describes the daily life of Hong Kong. Why was the novel renamed Behind the Streets of Hong Kong Island when it was published in China in 1984?

A：
Shu Xiang Cheng is an important Hong Kong writer, and his novel, The Sun has Set, is one of his masterpieces. This novel was first serialized from January to October 1961 in Nanyang Literature magazine, and the first edition was published in the following January by Nanyang Literature Publications.

In January 1979, Hong Kong Literature Research Institute republished the book. In the early 1980s, with China's reform and opening up, Hong Kong literature gradually caught the attention of mainland Chinese scholars. Guangzhou's Flower City Publishing House planned and selected some important Hong Kong literary works for publication, and The Sun has Set was one of them. It was published in October 1984, but as "Sun" symbolizes Chairman Mao it was thus "taboo"; the book title was renamed Behind the Streets of Hong Kong Island. It was said that the author lamented over it.

In October 1999, Hong Kong's Arcadia Press Ltd. rearranged and published the book, and listed it as one of "Shu Xiang Cheng's Fiction Collection". In June 2008, it published the Commemorative Edition of The Sun has Set.

Changing the book's name from The Sun has Set to Behind the Streets of Hong Kong Island reflects the helplessness of that generation; it witnessed the ubiquitous influence that politics has on literature.
 

Q：Hong Kong writer, Leung Ping-kwan, recalled that he first read the poems of another Hong Kong writer Ma Lang, when he was 14 years old. He "discovered" this poet from Selected poems of the Sixties published in Taiwan ...

A：
I "discovered" Ma Lang's (Ma Bo Liang) poetry in the early 60s.

In 1962, the fourteen-year-old Leung Ping-kwan borrowed Selected poems of the Sixties, published in Taiwan, from Hong Kong City Hall Library, and got to know Hong Kong writer Ma Lang and his works. The following year, he read from an old magazine, Literary Current Monthly Magazine, about Ma Lang's North Point, the place where the poet grew up:

One night, as I was strolling nearby, I saw someone selling old books beside a chess group lit with a kerosene lamp. Among the pile of old books on "pastry", "blue book" and astrology, I saw a stack of old magazines called Literary Current Monthly Magazine, which cost only two cents per copy, so I quickly bought them.

At that time, it was only four to five years after the discontinuation of Literary Current Monthly Magazine. In the past, Hong Kong's Chinese education did not pay much attention to, or preserve, current literature. Literary youths could only "discover" Hong Kong literature through informal channels, and literature has always relied on such profound methods to be passed down and inspire beginners.

In 1983, Leung Ping-kwan recalled this "discovering" experience in Ma Lang's "The Loafer who Burns the Piano".
 

Q：The movie In the Mood for Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, was directed by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai. Do you know which Hong Kong writer’s novel the movie is based on?

A：
You may have watched the movie, In the Mood for Love, directed by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, but do you know that the movie is related to Hong Kong's literature?

The novel Intersection of Hong Kong writer Lau Yee Cheung was the inspiration for In the Mood for Love. Besides honoring the novelist in the movie closing credit, some lines from Intersection were particularly quoted at the end of the movie. Although it was not a direct adaptation of the book, the moving story where literature and movie were interwoven and went beyond the restrictions of time and media, induced thoughts and imagination of the audience. The interaction of a novel published in 1972 and a movie released in 2000 created a Hong Kong story in 1960.

The subsequent movie, 2046, was under profound influence of another novel of Lau Yee Cheung, The Drunkard. The Drunkard was written in the early 60s, and was known as "China's first stream of consciousness novel", and a classic work of Hong Kong literature. Wong Kar-wai subsequently produced In the Mood for Love and 2046, both of which were inspired by Lau Yee Cheung's works, showing that the text was so fascinating that it captured the director's heart.