The IWL organisers and the MALCS participants: From right to left: IWL local assistant Jiang Zhuyu, MALCS student James Au Kin-pong, MALCS lecturer Dr. Heidi Huang Yu, IWL Assistant director Dr. Delia Ungureanu, IWL Director Prof. David Damrosch, MALCS students Candy Li Yalin and Yolander Tang Yingying This summer, I was fortunate enough to attend the…
Announcement: James Au Awarded the Monbukagakusho Scholarship
James AU Kin Pong (MALCS, Class of 2014) has been awarded the prestigious Monbukagakusho Scholarship (MEXT) by the Japanese government as administered by its Hong Kong consulate. A highly competitive award requiring three rounds of interviews, the MEXT scholarship funds an entire course of PhD study at an institution of higher learning in Japan, pending…
The Interrogative Mood: Questions with Jason Eng Hun Lee
The following questions are taken from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood. What are the top three things in your life you wish you had not done, or done differently from the way you did them? Probably I wish I had not been so stubborn, and clung to some of my ideals so much, as they prevented…
The Interrogative Mood: Questions with Vinton Poon
The following questions are taken from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood. What for you are the characteristics that make a person extremely likable? For me, extremely likeable people are those who know who they are and are happy with who they are. These people have nothing to hide or be ashamed of, and they will not…
“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 Interrogative Mood: Questions with Jason S Polley
The following questions are taken from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood. If you could be instantly fluent in a language you do not now speak, what language would it be? I have two answers. Cantonese, both as a means to develop a deeper solidarity with the majority of my fellow Hong Kong residents and as a…
“Reflections upon my Conference Presentation at the ICAH 2014 – Sri Lanka” by Jayantha Wannisinghe
The topic of my presentation at the ICAH (International Conference on Arts and Humanities) in Sri Lanka was “The Exclusivity of Sri Lankan Feminine Identity in Nihal De Silva’s The Road from Elephant Pass”. This presentation was an attempt to create an international dialogue on the exclusivity of Sri Lankan feminine identity as portrayed in…
The Interrogative Mood: Questions with Heidi Huang
The following questions are taken from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood. If you could emigrate to any country in the world and support yourself there, which country would it be? Germany – for the good beer and the way German children are taught. Is there a particular odour or situation guaranteed to nauseate you? People squabbling…
Announcement: Ruth Hung Appointed Advisory Editor of boundary 2
Dr Ruth YY Hung (洪如蕊) has been appointed advisory editor of the boundary2 editorial collective based at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, United States). A member of the collective since 2010, Dr Hung began her work with the journal as an assistant editor, bringing increased emphasis within her areas of expertise—including critical philology, global spectacle,…
“Dr. Doom: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Flying Toaster” by Holden Liang Qichao
The technology scare is not a recent phenomenon. Way back in the age of antiquity, Socrates warned against the use of letters because written words “can neither speak for themselves nor teach the truth adequately to others.” In the 15th century, there was panic over the printing press because it threatened to put the monks…
The Interrogative Mood: Questions with Douglas Robinson
The following questions are taken from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood. What are the top three things in your life you wish you had not done, or done differently from the way you did them? I wish I hadn’t had so many regrets. … let us say then on an island all by your own self…
“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…
The Interrogative Mood: Questions with John Wakefield
The following questions are taken from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood. Are boys meaner than girls, or vice versa? I think both sexes are equally capable of both good and evil. Are you more troubled by a lie or by a theft, or are they the same metaphysically? I don’t think they are the same metaphysically;…
“The Concave and Convex of the Lovers’ Bodies: A Reading of Three Paintings” by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
“Mushrooms by the Sea” (1931) by Filippo de Paris. Oil on canvas, 53 x 63 cm. I spent a long time looking at this painting, which has been compared to works by Salvador Dali. I was particularly interested in the large sky and beach in comparison to the relatively small sandwiched sea — an ungenerous…
The Interrogative Mood: Questions with Lian-Hee Wee
The following questions are taken from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood. Can you list the things you are afraid of, or is it easier to list the things you are not afraid of, or are you afraid of nothing, or are you essentially afraid of everything? It’s hard to say. I can’t guarantee that I won’t…
“The Lens and the Modern Self” by Magdalen Ki
Image source: The MET Museum (via.) 20/20 vision indicates good eyesight, but this is impossible without our built-in crystalline lens. As we age, we demand more lenses and thus discover a new world with the use of the camera lens. We are often taught to see the world through sexist, racist lenses and we are further…
“Haunted by Ghosts: Recollection of a Recent Field Trip to Indonesia” by Hans Ladegaard
Eyes that I last saw in tears Through division Here in death’s dream kingdom The golden vision reappears I see the eyes but not the tears This is my affliction —T.S. Eliot I could see it in her eyes when we first met that she was unhappy. I didn’t know how bad it was, but…
“Don Yuan: A Review” by James Au
Don Juan is just as irresistible to writers as he is to women: both attractive and repulsive, courageous and honourable, yet entirely amoral and self-centred. We have all met someone like him, or at least someone who would like to be him. —Peter Gordon Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining Dr. Tammy Ho to see Don Yuan (presented…
“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…
“Conference Reflections: The Long Modernist Novel” by Jessica Siu-yin Yeung
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) My Paper In her review “Dragonflies”, Katherine Mansfield describes the seventh volume of Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage, Interim as “a nest of short stories”. She sees the heroine of the novel sequence, Miriam Henderson, as “the box which holds them all, and really it seems there is no end to the number of…
“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…
“Buddhism, Selflessness, and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” by Vinton Poon
‘[W]hen a layperson sees a mountain, he sees a mountain, but when an enlightened person sees a mountain, he does not see a mountain.’ Image source: via. Buddhism, as a religion or a philosophy, has many wonderful concepts that help us perceive life in a better way. The basic notion of this belief system is that…
“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…
“A Night on the Platform” by Liu Yuwei
Photo by Oliver Farry. A girl friend of mine went on a trip to Rehtaeh Mansion years ago. To save on transport, she purchased an 80-percent-off railway ticket online. The train arrived at its destination before one in the morning—that was why the ticket was discounted. She, lingering on the platform, had nowhere to go…
“Reflections on a Conference — Travelling Texts: Encounters of Literatures” by Garfield Lau
The Conference The conference “Travelling Texts: Encounters of Literatures” (13–15 March 2014) aimed at exploring mutual influences and inspirations between authors. The focus of the conference was the South African writer J.M. Coetzee, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature in 2003. This conference provided a forum for scholars with a strong interest in…
“Alone. Together.” by Holden Liang Qichao
Photo from Shutterstock. For a while in my high school, carrying your diary to school and sharing it among selected individuals was all the rage. It was not only embraced as an effective way to set your true besties apart from those less deserving, but bonus points also went to its perceived potential for relieving…
“The Guess Who Quiz” by Heidi Huang
Click image to enlarge. From left to right: Florence Leung, Jason S Polley, Douglas Berman, Heidi Huang, Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, Jason Lee, Julia Wang, Ruth Hung and Stuart Christie. This “Guess Who Quiz” is actually ‘stolen’ from our students’ inspired descriptions of each teacher during our farewell dinner held on 2 May. When perusing the joyful photographs of that…
“Reading for What?” by Liu Yuwei
“That Streak of Sunlight on the Books” by Tammy Ho I once joined an English writing course because my English writing could not be any worse. If there is any way I can make it better, I would go for it. A way to improve writing, according to my writing adviser, is to read and…
Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University 