Connecting the Dots I never knew English poetry could look like this, something so close to daily life. I invite you to read the poem below aloud, which contains the sounds from many Hongkongers’ teenage years: So MKby Felix Chow They sat on mallside bannisterssmoking IQOS. Screaming spring.Contact-covered eyes behinda greasy, fringy frame. Bright-haired street…
Category: poetry
Poetry Speaks: Nicole Chui’s Selection
On Timeby Faye New York is 3 hours ahead of California,but it does not make California slow.Someone graduated at the age of 22,but waited 5 years before securing a good job!Someone became a CEO at 25,and died at 50.While another became a CEO at 50,and lived to 90 years.Someone is still single,while someone else got…
Poetry Speaks: James Au’s Selection
題西林壁Written on the Wall at West Forest Temple (1084) 橫看成嶺側成峯，It’s a range viewed in face and peaks viewed from the side, 遠近高低各不同。Assuming different shapes viewed from far and wide. 不識廬山真面目，Of Mountain Lu we cannot make out the true face, 只緣身在此山中。For we are lost in the heart of the very place[1]. These days the poem of…
Announcement: ENG professor Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and ENG Alumna Cheng Tim Tim Mentioned in Tatler Hong Kong Article “7 Female Poets From Hong Kong To Know”
Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, an Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, and Cheng Tim Tim, an alumna of the department, have been named amongst the seven female poets from Hong Kong to know by Tatler Hong Kong. The other five poets are Mary Jean Chan (whose Flèche won Costa Book Award for…
Announcement: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Jason S Polley are Poetry Mentors for After_
Associate Professors Dr Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Dr Jason S Polley are amongst two of the mentors for the After_ programme, which is organised by Zolima Citymag and financially support from Design Trust. The programme asked selected young Hongkongers to ‘reflect on the pandemic’s impact in prose, poetry, video and photography’: It was an opportunity to…
Poetry Speaks: Jason S Polley’s Selection
On Shakespeare, Proust, Loss, and Longingby Jason S Polley The equally sonorous and reflective opening two lines of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 30”, “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought, / I summon up remembrance of things past,” cannot help but conjure Marcel Proust’s inimitable seven-volume novel À la recherche du temps perdu, a title that…
Poetry Speaks: John Wakefield’s Selection
This is an anti-war, anti-group-identity song that I listened to more times than I can count during my junior high and high school years growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is by the British band Pink Floyd from their album The Dark Side of the Moon. The lyrics are by Roger Waters. 1. The first…
Poetry Speaks: Sarah Lee’s Selection
What connections do we, in 21st century Hong Kong, have with a poem written by an American more than 50 years ago? An animation by the Poetry Foundation of Muriel Rukeyser’s “I Lived in the First Century of World Wars” (1968) illustrates this ingeniously by putting side by side images from 1968 and 2018, enabling…
Poetry Speaks: Emily Chow-Quesada’s Selection
The feeling of loneliness might be straightforward for some, but it can also be paradoxical. The pandemic and social distancing has kept a lot of people confined to their homes. Some find themselves literally alone while others are crowded in tiny flats with their parents, siblings, children, partners, and pets. Those are the people you…
Poetry Speaks: Lian-Hee Wee’s Selection
Tang Yin (1470-1524), commonly known as Tong Pak Fu in Hong Kong, was a Ming Dynasty poet. Contrary to the popular belief that he was an affluent philanderer, his talents and arrogance in his youth brought him only a miserable life, reducing him to selling pornographic paintings at brothels to make ends meet. His poems, calligraphy and…
“The Poet’s Obligations Toward Freedom” by Lian-Hee Wee
• What do I understand to be freedom in the context of politics? I am an anarchist. It took me much longer than it should have to realise that. My feelings and thoughts and values had always been what Noam Chomsky would describe as “socialist libertarian”. My understanding of that term in a nutshell is a…
“A Creative Exegesis of Liberality and Marriage in Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” by Zarah Tong
The HP Series showcases excerpts from excellent Honours Projects by students from the Department of English Language and Literature. [Read all entries here.] Supervisor: Professor Stuart Christie An excerpt 63———Before I start, allow me to explain: 64—–I love to share, silent not to remain. 65—–Experience of love, I don’t have much, 66—–The previous I guess…
Pride of Place: Stuart Christie
Pride of Place: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a place in Hong Kong. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Pet Sounds” series.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . . Pride —for Genevieve (upon the occasion of her birthday) . All…
Pride of Place: Gladys Lam
Pride of Place: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a place in Hong Kong. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Pet Sounds” series.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] . A place of calm— I used to share my secrets to the…
Pride of Place: Nicole Lai
Pride of Place: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a place in Hong Kong. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Pet Sounds” series.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Some of us work hard inside it For different reasons Some of us…
Pride of Place: Jeff Chow
Pride of Place: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a place in Hong Kong. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Pet Sounds” series.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Hong Kong: Station Finally, we are marching in democratic spirit, to have our…
Pride of Place: Cheng Tim Tim
Pride of Place: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a place in Hong Kong. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Pet Sounds” series.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Tap In, Tap Out It was the blue wall on the Black Cloth…
“Sylvia and Chester, I’m in” by Nicole Lai
I want to follow you two But I’m not so sure Is this my cure? I will make no cry So no one would ask why Read Sylvia’s Listen to Chester’s Then you can feel How much we wanted to heal And how much we wanted to kill My heart aches Or suffocates I don’t…
“The Archive of Asian Sounds in English Poetry: First Recordings” by Lian-Hee Wee
For much of the world touched by the cultural spread of English that began with the age of exploration in the west to the rise of the United States following the Second World War, the language of prestige is a twisted dilemma of what is foreign and what has become also indigenised. Students of English…
Announcement: Members of the ENG Department Join the Cha Writing Workshop Series
Three teaching staff from the Department of English, Tammy Lai-Ming Ho (Assistant Professor), Jason S Polley (Associate Professor) and Lian-Hee Wee (Professor) have joined the Cha Writing Workshop Series as mentors to run workshops for local schoolchildren and economically disadvantaged groups in the city. The series is supported by the English Departments at The Chinese University of…
“The Web” by Justin Yeung
No one can get out of this There were many before me No matter a her or him There’s nothing that sets them free You can run but you can’t hide Turn to your Gods, old and new Why be afraid, my dearest? It hurts a bit, the first time I closed my eyes to…
Announcement: Poetry and Fiction Writing Opportunities for ENG Students
Hong Kong Baptist University’s English Poetry Contest (Unpublished Work) 2017, co-organised by the Department of English, the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, and the International Writers Workshop (IWW), is now accepting entries. All students who submit poems will have the opportunity to join a workshop with two IWW visiting writers. Please read the guidelines…
Pet Sounds: Holy Yoong
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Artwork by Jerek Puczei Faye Wong’s “Oi Mui” (曖昧) ‘To try to write love is to confront the…
Pet Sounds: Cheng Tim Tim
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] (Y)ears – after Joe Brainard’s “I Remember” I remember the incessant minimal waltz of exit A’s escalator in…
Pet Sounds: Jeff Chow
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Photograph: Jeff Chow Forgotten Song in Spanish She turns on the radio, listens to it from the balcony,…
Announcement: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho will be co-editing Twin Cities, a collection of poetry from Hong Kong and Singapore
Perhaps Hong Kong is a city of cinema. From the neo-noir neon stylings of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, to the stylised longing of early Wong Kar Wai, through the boom years of Cinema City and larger-than-life film stars, she has played host to countless cinematic moments with her cosmopolitan beauty. And perhaps Singapore is a…
“Red Butterfly” by Victoria Ip
. Son of the tailor to old Hollywood heartthrobs Every performance of yours was The most precisely made suit Like the rouge lipstick Fleur meticulously put on Starched collars protected your suggestive voice All buttons fastened like your best-kept secrets The bow-tie was your red butterfly Unashamed of her beauty She gently landed on…
“A Secret About a Secret About a Secret” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
Jo Shapcott’s poem “Myself Photographed” begins with an affirmative statement: “So this is me.” This line draws our attention to the subject of the photograph, although it does so with a slightly wry, or perhaps uncertain, tone provided by the word “So.” The next line, “In the field after we got lost,” continues this tone,…
“Red Leaves for Diane” by Victoria Ip
For every single memory Has become a part of me —George Michael, “Jesus to a Child” The online poetry collection Red Leaves is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Diane—the reason why I started writing when I was 19 and haven’t stopped since. There are 14 poems in total, one for each year since I became…
“The Edge of Vast Shores” by Jason Eng Hun Lee
But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. —Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach” Standing at the edge of vast shores I hear ancestor spirits invoke their unbidden siren call so the sea bursts as they command…
Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University 