Headspace: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department write about a place or space they go to write, read, study or create. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] At last I had the chance to get away from my parents, even if only for a…
Category: diaries
Headspace: Cheng Tim Tim
Headspace: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department write about a place or space they go to write, read, study or create. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] The book-bricked silence; the crowded commons of coffee-stained breaths; fingers tap-dancing on greasy keyboards; the birth of…
“From Inhumanly Minuscule to the Lion Rock Spirit” by Finn Lai
The HP Series showcases excerpts from excellent Honours Projects by students from the Department of English Language and Literature. [Read all entries here.] Supervisor: Dr Jason S Polley In September 2015, while on boyfriend duty, I accompanied my girlfriend in search of a supposed ‘shop’ in Tsim Sha Tsui. She had ordered a skincare product…
Announcement: Jerry Choi Wins Dr. Daniel C.W. Tse Sports Award
Jerry Choi Yik Hin (English Language and Literature & English Language Teaching, Year 4) has won Dr. Daniel C.W. Tse Sports Award (2015-2016) in recognition of his excellence in woodball.
“And Then Follow Through” by William Ng and John Wakefield
Drinking coffee in Amsterdam before heading to Antwerp to present a paper on Sociopragmatics William: What led you to the pursuit of further studies in Cantonese and Sociopragmatics? John: In comparison to most white, native English-speaking immigrants, I have assimilated linguistically and culturally to an unusual degree. That being the case, I have tried to…
“Bookworm Moments” by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho
Earlier this month, funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, I attended the Beijing and Suzhou Bookworm Literary Festivals. In Beijing, I was a speaker on the panels “Poetry Around the World” and “Writing Place” and in Suzhou, I was on the panels “Agree to be Different!” and “Literature Across Frontiers”. During my stay…
“The English Sense” by Vinton Poon
For many people, learning a second language involves familiarising themselves with the grammatical rules of the language. My experience of learning the English language has been no different. In my younger years, I assiduously memorised the participle forms of verbs, acquainted myself with the infinitives, and processed the differences between definite and indefinite articles. I…
“Dreaming, Holding A Letter From A Ten-year-old Me” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
“The Child in Her Gentle Slumber” (1840) by George Cattermold, published in Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop. More about this plate can be found here. – Do you remember dreams well? What is a recent dream that you remember? . I had a nightmare, which consisted of the following images: . Someone tries to…
“Room 101” by Phoenix Lam
What is my worst fear? This is not an easy question to answer. I would like to think of myself as adventurous and daring, and so I am not someone who gets scared easily. However, after what happened in the past few months, I think I can provide a better answer to that question for…
Ongoing Moments: Anna Tham
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.] . My brother and me, at sundown chasing waves I lived by the sea in Sai Kung until I was four. It was a small village with…
Ongoing Moments: Tiffany Tsoi Wing Yan
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.] . After years and years in school, I am now classified as ‘Fresh Graduate’—a concise oxymoron revealing the trick of age. I am now old enough to…
Ongoing Moments: Jason S Polley
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 is a photo of a photo of me. Believe it or believe it not. But this—this this—is not about me. Or, actually, meaning really, this is…
Ongoing Moments: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
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.] . One of the songs that has been adopted by the protesters in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Revolution is “Do You Hear the People Sing,” from…
Ongoing Moments: Paulina Lee
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 was one of the most extraordinary scenes that I saw in my journeys. Indeed, the mystery of nature has never failed to amaze me. ….
Ongoing Moments: Ivan Delazari
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.] . Nevsky Prospect, St. Petersburg, Russia, either the Indian summer of 1999 or the spring of 2000: in front of the long colonnade of the Gostiny Dvor…
Ongoing Moments: Christopher Chan
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.] . It is widely asserted that the Sun, with its all-dominating power, has received innumerable, worship-like appreciations throughout the history of men. In ancient China, or at…
Ongoing Moments: Suzanne Lai
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.] . The urgency of travel comes from the failure to stay. When activities have (slowly) become inactivities, the resistence lies in perpetual departures. You carefully craft that…
Ongoing Moments: Jessica Siu-yin Yeung
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.] Whenever I sign my name or hear that my friends are creating calligraphic artworks or learning Chinese painting, I am reminded of when I practised calligraphy. Long ago,…
Ongoing Moments: Vinton Poon
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.] The picture was taken during a trip to Cramond Island. It was my first year studying in Scotland. A few friends, who I’d met in the halls…
Ongoing Moments: James Au
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.] “Before ‘youth’, if nothing was impossible, shades would be cleared, and one would surmount everything and become a sun that shines upon everything,” Japanese poet Yosano Akiko…
Ongoing Moments: Gary Lam
(1) The HP Series showcases excerpts from excellent Honours Projects by students from the Department of English Language and Literature. [Read all entries here.] | (2) 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.] Supervisor: Dr…
Ongoing Moments: Louis Chung
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.] click image to enlarge Recently I had the opportunity to go to Penvénan, a small town in the Brittany region of France with some friends during my…
Ongoing Moments: John Wakefield
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.] . Chemistry your photograph: the chemistry of remembering fixed on the card your child: the chemistry of remembering folded in the flesh —by Brian Holton (a friend…
Ongoing Moments: Lian-Hee Wee
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 is the back of my 1991 class T-shirt. Koko did the graphics and I was to write all the classmates’ names on the back, so this was/still…
“So Much Depends Upon A Pretty Heroine” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
Everyone knows the story of Snow White. A wicked stepmother,1 upon finding out from her magic mirror that her stepdaughter, Snow White (who is ‘as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in the window frame’), is fairer than herself, orders a huntsman to kill the girl. The man, influenced by…
“You Can’t Take a Picture of This” by Holden Liang Qichao
It is a perfect Sunday afternoon in autumn. The sun finally decides to grace the earth with its warm glow after days of bleak grey sky and biting wind. The shedding trees have been giving the sanitary crew a hard time, but in the comforting nook of one’s own backyard, their rich foliage has weaved…
“緣 Yuan” by Vinton Poon
An experience I had when I was an undergraduate is still vivid today. On one breezy autumn afternoon, I was strolling around the campus between classes. In a community centre I saw a poster advertising a series of religious talks, one of which was on Buddhism. Since the Buddhist talk was just half an hour…
“How Honest Are You In Your Diary?” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
Someone once told me a story from Greg Egan‘s Axiomatic. The story, titled “The Hundred Light-Year Diary”, is about a future invention that allows people to send messages to themselves from the future. Every person can send about 100 words every day. The protagonist of the story is a guy who has been writing a diary…
“A Wintry Hypothesis” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
On 9th January 2015, I became an aunt for the first time. My youngest sister, Ying, gave birth to a baby girl having been in labour for over fifteen hours. On 9th January 2015, I gained a new identity—I am now my little niece’s “Big Aunt Mother” (大姨媽). It sounds so old. When I first…
“Narrative” by Jason S Polley
. My tattoos, or, rather, my single narrative tattoo, essentially charts the Eastward migration of Buddhism from its Hindu sources in India through its multiple manifestations / incarnations / influences in Tibet, Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina, China, and, finally Japan. Not unlike Shakespeare’s Parolles, from the ironically (at least from Parolles’ point of view) titled All’s…
Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University 