ENGE3320 - Lecture 9
ENGE3320 - Lecture 9
Hong Kong
Literature in
English
T1 2022
Week 10
16th November 2022
Overview
1.Part 3: The New Literary Consciousness of Hong Kong
English Voices
2.Introduction of four poets: Kit Fan/ Tammy Ho/
Nicholas Wong/ Jennifer Wong
3.Close reading of selected poems
4.Defining their new-ness
5.Class business
Optimistic prophecy proves true
“It will also be one of life’s great and somehow satisfying
ironies if post-Handover Hong Kong proves more prolific in
producing new writing in English than prior to the
‘Change of Flag’. Nobody would have anticipated such an
outcome, but then truth is often stranger than fiction.”
(Ingham 15)
Part 3: The New Literary Consciousness of Hong Kong
English Voices
The Post-1997 millennium: 2000s-
2020s
• Under the actual practice of “One Country Two Systems”
• Financial Crisis: (1997; 2007-2008)
• Social movements: Umbrella Movement (2014)/ Anti-ELAB
Movement (2019)
• Introduction of National Security Law (2020)
• Public health crisis: SARS (2003); COVID-19 (2020-Now)
• The English literary scene in Hong Kong
• The size of readership steadily grows
• The writer circle expands, diversifies and matures in a faster rate
• More institutional resources and international rapport, e.g.
International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong (2009-Now)
• International accolades
Local creative writing outlets
• University student writings
CU Writing in English (English, CUHK)
Figment (ELTU, CUHK)
Yuanyang (English, HKU)
• Imprint (Women in Publishing Society Hong Kong) (
on s
i ss i
https://www.hkwips.com/imprint/)
m m e
• Hong Kong Writers Circle Annual Anthology
Sub l c o
w e
(http://www.hkwriterscircle.com/publications.html)
• Cha: An Asian Literary Journal are
(https://www.asiancha.com/wp/)
• Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine (bilingual)
(https://vvpoetry.com/)
Tammy Ho Lai Ming Nicholas Wong Jennifer Wong Kit Fan
• Born in Hong Kong
• Associate professor of English at
• Senior lecturer in • Born in Hong Kong, • Born in Hong Kong,
the Education now resides in the UK
Hong Kong Baptist University
University of Hong now resides in the
• Co-founded Asian Cha in 2007
UK • First poetry collection
• First poetry collection Hula Kong Paper Scissors Stone
Hooping (2015)
• Crevasse (2015), • First poem (2011) won the
• Co-founded the academic Inaugural International
journal Hong Kong Studies in received the Lambda collection Summer
Literary Award HKU Poetry Prize
2017 cicadas (2006)
• Chairperson of PEN Hong Kong • Novel: Diamond Hill
• Letters Home (2021)
Common topics in Hong Kong Literature of
English
SELF & LANGUAGE CITY LIFE &
IDENTITY & SPEECH SOCIO-ECONOMIC
STATUS