Ongoing Moments: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department respond to a photograph of their choice. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] This photograph, taken by Tammy Ho in Venice in 2013, is titled “Caption”. I recently visited my childhood home, shown here, looking far better than I fondly remember…
Category: creative
“Now Lost” by Lian-Hee Wee
Watercolour sketch in about 20 minutes, 8.3.2013. Accompanying Eunice who didn’t want to study alone. I playfully refused to make a gift of the painting, instead it went to the wall at a nearby restaurant. Later, Eunice offered to buy the painting from the restaurant owner who refused (I don’t know why). The owner sold…
“Are The Yellow Ribbons ‘We’?” by Nicola Chan Oi Ching
We are nonconformists who conform to wear the yellow ribbon in the heart of hearts singing “Umbrella Revolution” We create a utopia-to-be. No screenings or selections. No appointed positions. No age differentiation. No gender discrimination. We learn to unlearn to relearn words like “policemen”, “umbrella”, “democracy” Denotations and connotations shifting in time with history. Since when to…
“LA MINOR” by Ivan Delazari
LA MINOR is a music band based in St. Petersburg, Russia. They don’t write their own songs, but skilfully arrange and play Russian “urban songs”/”chanson”/”blatnaia pesnia” embedded in the vernacular culture and most often associated with crime, prison and alcohol. Sometimes those are anonymous songs, at other times popular tunes from the last 100 years…
“An Encounter at City Express” by Thomas Deng Guochang
. On “An Encounter at City Express”: The free verse poem was drafted during my summer residency at the MFA creative writing program at City University of Hong Kong in 2011. City Express is the name of the canteen at AC1, CityU, in which I had my first writing workshop. I was at City Express one…
“HongKongopoly” by Jason Eng Hun Lee
. . The object of the game is to become the wealthiest player through buying, renting and selling property. Parker Brothers Pick up a top hat, tailor made, or try on new leather boots, the latest edition for players, enter by steam ship or train and take a stroll across town, ready to turn your…
“cemetery miss you” by Jason S Polley
Jason S Polley at the Taj Mahal, Agra, India, mid-May 2004. Photo by Maria Fernanda Jaramillo Zapata. . . folder b file 1 0 min 17 sec hash it come in sheet with a stamp every sheet have to be stamp with a company name so you always want the company name its valuable you…
“De-seats” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
Seats that I have seen but never sat on. . . ::::: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming is Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature. She is the administrator of Agora. [Click here to read all entries by or about Tammy.]
“The Pensieve” by Liu Yuwei
Photo by Liu Yuwei. Click image to enlarge. The merry-go-rounds The two merry-go-rounds, sitting apart by the straits, one facing a deserted beach and the other facing rose bushes, had got used to the life they had being sticking to for ages, without realising the existence of the other. . The cobblestones The cobblestones were…
“Indicium” by Paavo Haavikko, translated by Douglas Robinson
Image source: British Library (via.) 1 Now Ehrensvard starts building a great fortress on the Wolf Islands, every year a barrel of gold is shipped all the way from France for it, also a lilac bush, which he didn’t order. It takes root tenaciously in the barren soil, ten years from now you’ll have to…
“John Gave Rachel A Book” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
John gave Rachel a book, ten years ago John gave Rachel a book Of poetry— Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry On the second page of the book John had written, in green: For Rachel, who doesn’t need An introduction to anything— Certainly not to poetry— With memories of all the Places we talked about…
“Dangling Modifiers” by Douglas Robinson
Source: Museum of NZ (via.) Having little to his name when he died, the reading of Henry Fromm’s will went quickly. Droning over the inaudible flutter of the white noise machine, it was read by one of the linen-suited lawyers. The small group of heirs, promising them by phone (sitting on the blind receptionist’s desk) some…
“shivers shove eyelids” by Jason S Polley
“Diptych: Above & Below” by JSP. 28 July 2010. McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India. shivers shove eyelids up breaking seal abrupt ending fireplace dreams to smell of smiling sun hiking himalayan ridgerange brand newborn days rays misty mystic mountain snow rock and open torii gate guesthouse door reveals curious never idle youthful eyes and…
“Macau Revisited” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
[Also see “Macau Impressions”.] Michael: I’ll bet you a dollar I’ve been to the place where you were born. Elsa: Chefoo. Michael: It’s on the China coast. Chefoo. It’s the second wickedest city in the world. Elsa: What’s the first? Michael: Macao. —The Lady from Shanghai (1947), dr. Orson Welles ::::: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming is…
“distrust friendly gentleman” by Jason S Polley
Photo by JSP. 6:40 am. Late July 2010. McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, India. distrust friendly gentleman who says Sit relax and Put ………….pack uptop and then appears outside your train ………….window and tells you to open it wide for its Very ………….hot humid and you talk about canada and germany and his Germany ………….girlfriend and the…
“Monkey Man” by John Wakefield
I ask you a question, or say what I think. You don’t give an answer… don’t respond to my thoughts. Instead you say “Wow, you talk like I do… …that’s funny as hell.” I’m a monkey on a bike, wearin’ a hat ‘n a coat. When I talk like you do, you just gotta laugh…….
“Macau Impressions” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
[Also see “Macau Revisited”.] Last month, I was invited to give a talk (“Betrayal, Mistrust and Contempt: Relationships Between Language and Identity”) and run a poetry workshop at The Script Road: Macau Literary Festival. The following are pictures taken before and during that short trip. ::::: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming is Assistant Professor at the Department of…
“To the Caulfield Express” by Holden Liang Qichao
Photo by Holden. I sat on the upper deck of a dust-coated bus, heading towards the incandescence of the city’s neon heart. The first time I saw this bus, ‘city boat’ was its badge, dangled by a faded lanyard. Maybe this was why I sat up high. So I wouldn’t drown too soon by the…
“45 Belgrave Square” by Jason Eng Hun Lee
“Nelson’s Column, 7th March, 2010” by Tammy Ho We waited under the buzz of a rotating fan, sheets neatly printed against palms, waiting for my annual summons to citizenship. Dad led the way, preceding me by thirty year’s toil under a hot tropical sun as we sat under the crescent gaze of a woman with…
“Lily” by Lian-Hee Wee
::::: Lian-Hee Wee is Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature.[Click here to read all entries by or about Lian-Hee.]
Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University 