Leung Ping-kwan

Leung Ping-kwan
Leung Ping-kwan
Native name	梁秉鈞
Born	Guangdong, Xinhui
Died	2013, 63 years old
Pen name	Yesi / Yasi (也斯)
Occupation	poet, novelist, essayist, translator, and scholar
Nationality	Chinese
Period	1960s–2013
Spouse	Betty Ng (pen name Ng Hui Bun, Xubin)
Website
	leungpingkwan.com

Leung Ping-kwan, (Chinese: 梁秉鈞, 12 March 1949 – 5 January 2013^[1]) whose pen name was Yesi (Chinese: 也斯),^[2] was a Hong Kong poet, novelist, essayist, translator, teacher, and scholar who received the Hong Kong Medal of Honor (MH). He was an important long-time cultural figure in Hong Kong.

Life

Yesi was born in Xinhui District in Guangdong during 1949. The same year, his family settled in Hong Kong, and he was raised there. His father died when he was four.

He began writing in the 1960s and quickly became known as a translator of foreign-language literature and for his editorial work on a number of literary publications targeted at young Chinese readers in both Hong Kong and Taiwan.^[3]

After graduating from Hong Kong Baptist College, now Hong Kong Baptist University, with a bachelor's degree in English (BA in English Language and Literature), Yesi got a job first as a secondary school teacher, then as the editor of the arts supplement of the South China Morning Post (SCMP). In 1978, he went to America for further studies. In 1984, Yesi obtained his PhD degree in comparative literature at the University of California, San Diego. His thesis was entitled "Aesthetics of Opposition: A Study of the Modernist Generation of Chinese Poets, 1936-1949".

Yesi returned to Hong Kong after earning his doctorate. He taught at the Department of English Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong. In 1998 he obtained a position as a professor in comparative literature in the Chinese Department at Lingnan University. Later on, he also became director of the Research Institute for the Humanities.^[4] He specialized in teaching literature and film, comparative literature, the literature of Hong Kong, modern literary criticism, and Chinese literary writing.

Yesi had achievements across many areas of literature, including poetry, prose, novels, drama, and literary and cultural criticism. He wrote mostly in Chinese. However, his English works were also published in the Hong Kong magazine Muse and his poetry and prose have been translated into English, French, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese, and German.

In 2010, Yesi stated publicly that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on 5 January 2013.

Timeline

Time
early 1960s	began his writing career
1960s	actively introducing foreign literatures into Hong Kong, including the French New Novel, American underground literature, and Latin American literature writing in many genres, including poetry, prose, fiction as well as critical essays
1978	studies at the University of California, San Diego, specializing in modern Chinese poetry and western modernism
Later on, he returned to Hong Kong	Taught at the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong (1985-1997) and then joined the Department of Chinese at Lingnan University as Chair of Comparative Literature, and as Director of the Centre for Humanities Research under the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (1997-2013)
2013	Leung died peacefully at Union Hospital in Hong Kong. His last wish was for Hong Kong Literature to receive the attention it deserves, and good writers from Hong Kong to be acknowledged, both locally and globally.

Information in this table is extracted from Leung's biography in the book "Leung Ping Kwan (1949 – 2013), A Retrospective".^[5]

"Yesi"

"Yesi" is a combination of two meaningless words, both interjections, in Chinese. According to Yesi, people usually adopt a pen name that contains meanings, which would give the readers a fixed feeling or impression towards their works before they read them. Yesi wanted to break out of this, hence, he used the combination of two meaningless words, which usually appear in classical Chinese literary works, as his pen name.^{[citation needed]}

Prominent themes and concerns

Images of Hong Kong^[6]

This poem embodies the spirit and concerns of Yesi's work, including tone and recurrent themes. Later, this poem would be used as an example for further analysis of Yesi's style.

We need a fresh angle, nothing added nothing taken away,
Always at the edge of things and between places.
Write with a different color for each voice;
…
So now, once again, they say it’s time to remodel
and each of us finds himself looking around for –what?

Observation, perception, and angle

Many of Yesi's works are concerned with the way we look at the world, and also how we are perceived by other people—trying to discover new angles for observing the world, while inevitably the object of others’ perception as well. The opening sentence of “Images of Hong Kong” clearly declares: “I need a new angle”. In many of Yesi's works, the narrator wants not only to see the world, but also to look at it in a unique way, different from mainstream perceptions.

However, Yesi's narrators are introspective and aware that they are part of what's happening. The novel Paper Cut-outs (剪紙) is composed of two story lines, each about the narrator's interaction with a female friend. The two story lines can be read as separate stories, yet, they contrast and complement each other in details and contents. Both his friends faced a catastrophe nearly at the end of the story, and the narrator says:

人與人之間的關係互相牽連，混合了我們這些其他人的感情。我們這些旁觀者一下子也牽涉其中了，我們可以指責某種偏激行為…但當不幸的事發生了，我們可以置身事外嗎?” (161) (Translation: A relationship would be affected by other relationships. Observers’ feelings are mixed into the relationship of the observed. Outsiders and observers are also part of what he or she is observing. We can blame certain violent acts… However, when tragedy happens, who can be responsibility-free?)

The narrator feels sorry for what happened to his friends, and for not being able to do anything, except narrate and watch the problem grow, and turn into a catastrophe.

Flânerie

Observation in Yesi's poems almost always associated with flânerie. More precisely, the narrator is very often a flâneur. Yesi writes about different places and even flânerie itself. Images of Hong Kong includes many different locations: Guangguang studio in Nathan Road, Star Ferry clock tower, Aberdeen, China Club, and so on. In the poem On a Road, A Wanderer:

I choose my own direction
big fish glide in the aquariums
food stalls offer whopper fishballs
I'm not lured
…
I don’t have to see so clearly
…
if by chance the city glare
blinds me
I glance away,
keeping my own pace

The above describes how the narrator strolling unaffected by the surroundings. He observes and sees “big fish glide”, “food stalls”, and so on, yet uses the outer appearance of the city, to search his heart. It is notable that he “[doesn’t] have to see so clearly”. Again, the narrator keeps himself different from others.

Nostalgia and history

There is very often a sense of pity for the disappearing past in Yesi’s works. For example, in Images of Hong Kong, the people do not paint on photos “any more”, and the “old portrait” cannot be reproduced. Like this portrait, in many of Yesi's works, we can see things that are disappearing with the past. Also, the narrator says that history is a “montage of images”, and evaluates if Hong Kong's past is only figures of famous buildings like the Star Ferry. He suggests that the past should be read with “a fresh angle" and reviews the way to looking into the past.

Hong Kong

Yesi is recognized as a Hong Kong poet, not only because he grew up in the city, but more importantly due to his concern for it. Images of Hong Kong show such concern, as the narrator wants to find a new angle to shoot Hong Kong. Moveover, Some of Yesi's other poems are about places in Hong Kong, such as Winter Scene from Tai Mei Tuk, Reclaimed Land in Tai Kok Tsui, and Midway, Quarry Bay. Apart from the sense of place, Hong Kong serves as an important context for Yesi's novels. Again, take Paper Cut-outs as an example; the narrator's two female friends actually symbolize Hong Kong people's identity. This is also how Chinese culture and Western culture failed to understand or merge with one other in Hong Kong. For example, Qiáo 喬, a modern women, is a character showing that Hong Kong people do not understand their Chinese origin very well, but on the other hand, are not completely westernized. She cannot understand or grasp the feelings in traditional Chinese poems. Moreover, her face is so pale that it would reflect the color of her surroundings:

外面廣告牌上的一大幅粉藍色填滿所有窗口，喬的臉孔染上一片粉藍。…經過一片淺黃，她的臉又泛上淺黃。 (Translation:The billboard outside the bus filled the latter’s windows with light blue, so as Qiáo’s face…When the bus passes through a sea of light yellow, her face also reflects in yellow.)

This symbolizes the cultural identity of Hong Kong, actually quite fragile. Without rooting in Chinese or Western culture, Hong Kong does not have, or has not created, any distinct culture. They are easily affected by others, and reflect others’ colors.

Even in the most seemingly unlikely sphere to be associated with Hong Kong, Yesi shows his concern for the city. For him, travelling has a lot to do with home. The book Leung Ping Kwan (1949 – 2013), A Retrospective 回看.也斯, says that “[e]very foreign place he visited invoked in him even deeper thoughts about Hong Kong. He wrote copiously about his cross-border experiences, in prose and in poetry, from eastern culture to western culture, from literature and art to cultural observations, from old ideas to new concepts, posing questions that would not have been formulated if he had not left Hong Kong, and trying to portray, to a Hong Kong wallowing in old habits, new sets of emotion and knowledge in hope of a change.”^{[citation needed]}

In short, Yesi's works are deeply concerned with Hong Kong, no matter what the topic or context.

Characteristics of Yesi's works

Personification of places and objects

Yesi often personified places and objects in his poems. Some of these poems include Central, Europe After Rain, and Bittermelon. Yesi would talk gently to the personified objects, as if they were his friends. In Europe After Rain, the narrator walks into a church, and talks to the place:

“I shiver in the cold. You don't seem to have heard my prayer. Your four walls are mottled, the ancient stories have turned into reliefs, in the flickering light and shadow your magnificent and inevitabilities of history.”^[6]

Very often, there are interactions of “I” and “you” in Yesi's works, but the latter is sometimes an object or a place.

Voice, tone, and narrative

There is a sort of double voicing in Yesi's poems, multiple layers of meaning. In the poem Bittermelon:^[7] he says:

You're not worn-out or beaten-down,
you're just resting.
The loudest song's not necessarily passionate;
the bitterest pain stays in the heart.
Is it because you've seen lots of false sunlight,
too much thunder and lightning, hurt and hurting...

The narrator not only converses with objects and places but also to the reader. He asks “[i]s it because you've seen lots of false sunlight…too many indifferent and temperamental days” that you have stopped talking about your sufferings? The questions give us a feeling that the narrator sympathizes with us, the readers, and gently inquires as to our situations. Instead of readers reading the poem, the poem seems to read us as well.^[8]

Your silence is much to be admired;
you keep the bitter taste to yourself.
...
in the wind, our bittermelon, steadily facing
worlds of confused worlds of confused bees and butterflies and a garden gone wild

The narrator seems to be talking to himself and also to the author. Yesi's narrators often try to position and view themselves in a way different from the mainstream. Above “our bittermelon” is described as “steadily facing worlds of confused bees and butterflies and a garden gone wild”. This seems to describe the narrator, or perhaps Yesi himself, trying to walk in “[his] own pace” (Images of Hong Kong) without being distracted by the world, or by mainstream values. Some of Yesi's first and second person narrators do interchange with each other. In Paper Cut-outs, when the narrator refers to his friend Yáo 瑤, he always uses second person narrative “you”. The book's narrative sometimes changes, and the narrator refers to readers, characters, and himself with the plural pronoun “we”. Similarly, in the above poem, in the end the bittermelon becomes “ours” at last.

Influences on Yesi's works

Latin-American magical realism

Yesi “was the first to bring in Latin American literary icons such as Gabriel Garcìa Márquez, Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges and Mario Vargas Llosa before they were widely known”.^[5] His works are also heavily influenced by magical realism. Many critics have noted how Yesi used magical elements to interpret reality in his novels. For example, a critic analyzed magic realism in Yesi's novel “Shih-man the Dragon-keeper” 《養龍人師門》.^[9]

Another example: the description of Qiáo's room in Paper Cut-outs demonstrates features of magic realism. The narrator visits Qiáo, who is a psychotic. In her room, “many red birds are drawn on the white walls, approximately thirty” 白色牆壁上畫滿紅色鳥兒，一共有好幾十隻.^[10] She “walks close to the walls, between the red birds” 她走近牆邊，走入那些紅色的鳥兒中間. The “birds listen to and obey her!” 鳥兒是聽話的！^[11] “Each of her birds have names. Good Bò Bò. Fā Fā was naughty yesterday, and Wá Wá hasn’t eaten for a few days” 她的鳥兒都有名字。柏柏乖，發發昨天淘氣，娃娃幾天不吃東西了.^[12] The birds fly in the room. “She touches the wings of one of the birds” (喬撫著一頭鳥的翅膀), and a bird “stops on [the narrator’s] fingertip” (停在我的指尖).^[13] Although the birds are painted on the walls, Qiáo regarded them as alive. Imagination becomes reality in this passage.

Modernism

Modernism seeks to write novels in a way that reflects a human being's inner thoughts, which are often fragmented. Yesi's novels also write about different moments in life that are perhaps not consistent. In the novel Paper Cut-outs, linkage between the two seemingly separate story lines is imagined and drawn by readers. There is no clear message imposed by the author. Paper cut-outs are like fragmented moments, words, and phrases, which are all broken into parts. The connections between the fragments are vague; ambiguity is an important feature of modernism.

Chinese literature

Chinese literature also heavily influences Yesi's work. Elements of Chinese culture, like folk and opera, can be seen in his works. Elements of Cantonese opera can be seen in his work Paper Cut-outs. Also, he inherited some of the traditional Chinese forms of writing. For example, his Bittermelon poem praises this plant, which symbolizes virtues stressed in Chinese culture – patience and endurance. The narrator credits bittermelon for its “silence”, saying it "keep[s] the bitter taste to [itself]”.^[7] This means being willing and able to endure suffering and not making others feel pity. The poem echoes the Chinese literary tradition of praising an object that symbolizes virtue and good people.

Other art media

Yesi was not satisfied with just language. Other art media were also sources of inspiration; for example performance art, photography, and film. He “entered into countless dialogues with artists of different media”,^[5] and even collaborated with them to write literary works. For example, dancer Mui Cheuk Yin performed the dance “Kikikoko”,^[14] and Yesi wrote a poem inspired by her performance – Ladder Street.^[5] Yesi's work is also influenced by his interest in film. He often writes as if he is shooting a scene with his camera. For example, the narrator keeps looking for an angle in Images of Hong Kong and in another poem, City of Films^[5] is introspective in evaluating the best way to capture Hong Kong like a movie shooting:

...then in the second half, find you're your enemy's son
life goes on without knowing what’s happened
if reality's too hard, there’s always soft focus
the world's still out there, the PR guy’s at the door
with new schemes for artful promotion
and for the film a new title

Achievements

Yesi was recognized as both a writer and a scholar, received various literary awards, and was invited as visiting scholar to universities across the globe. The German professor Wolfgang Kubin commented that Yesi was “a rare Hong Kong writer with a global vision”.^[5]

Some examples of recognition are provided as follows:^[5]

Awards

Artist of the Year Award by the Hong Kong Artists’ Guild (1992)
Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature by the Urban Council
Leisure and Cultural Services Department (Postcards from Prague, 1991; Midway, 1996; Postcolonial Affairs of Food and the Heart, 2011)
Medal of Honor by the government of Hong Kong(2006)
Best Artist Award by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (2010)
Hong Kong Book Prize by Radio Television Hong Kong (Flavors of the Floating World, 2012)
Author of the Year by the Hong Kong Book Fair 2012 and his work and collaborative art pieces were exhibited in his retrospective exhibition themed “Dialogues in the Humanities”

Visiting scholar, various universities

York University, Canada (1995)^[15]
Heidelberg University (2000)
University of Tokyo (2003)
University of Zurich (2004)
Fulbright Fellowship to do research at Harvard University for six months (2006)

Publications^[16]

Creative writing

Books (in Chinese)

2009《後殖民食物與愛情》(Postcolonial Affairs of Food and the Heart). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press (OUP), 278pp.
2009《越界的行程》(Journeys across Borders: Selected Stories). Hong Kong and Singapore: Ming Pao Monthly and Ching Nan Publications. 420 pp.

Prose

2012 《書與城市》(Books and the City). Beijing: Zhejiang University Press 浙江大學出版社, 264 pp.
2011 《人間滋味》(Tastes of the Floating World). Hong Kong: Enrich Publishing 天窗, 221 pp. Winner, 2011 Hong Kong Book Prize
2005 《也斯的香港》(Hong Kong in the Eyes of Ye Si). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing 三聯, 176 pp.
2002 《在柏林走路》(Walking in Berlin). Hong Kong: OUP牛津, 197 pp.
2002 《新果自然來》(New Fruits from Taiwan). Hong Kong: OUP牛津, 100 pp.
2000 《越界的月亮》(Moon Across Borders). Hangzhou: Zhejiang Literary Press 淅江文藝, 256 pp.
1996 《越界書簡》(Letters Across Borders). Hong Kong: Youth Literary Bookstore青文, 186 pp.
1991 《昆明的除夕》(New Year's Eve in Qunming). Hong Kong: Breakthrough; reprint: OUP牛津, 2002.
1988 《城市筆記》(City Notes). Taipei: Dongdai 東大, 246 pp.
1987 《山光水影》(Lights and Shadows). Reprint; Hong Kong: OUP牛津, 2002, 218 pp.
1981 《街巷人物》(Landscapes and Portraits). Reprint; Hong Kong: OUP牛津, 2002, 254 pp.
1978 《神話午餐》(Myths and Lunches). Taipei: Hung-fan 洪範, 230 pp
1972 《灰鴿早晨的話》(Grey Pigeon Mornings). Taipei: Yu-shi 幼獅, 180 pp.

Poetry

2012 《東西》(East-West) Beijing: Chinese Drama Publishing, 中國戲劇出版社 208 pp.
2007 《蔬菜的政治》(Vegetable Politics) Hong Kong : OUP, 144pp.
2000 《東西》(East West Matters). Hong Kong: OUP 牛津, 174 pp.
1996 《博物館》(Museum Pieces). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Arts Centre 香港藝術中心, 20 pp.
1995 《遊離的詩》(A Poetry of Moving Signs). Hong Kong: OUP 牛津, 142 pp.
1985 《遊詩》(The Journeys). Hong Kong: Institute for the Promotion of Chinese Culture, 66 pp.
1979 《雷聲與蟬嗚》(The Thunderbolt and the Cicada Song). Hong Kong: The Thumb Press 大拇指, 294 pp.

Fiction

2000 《布拉格的明信片》(Postcards from Prague). Hong Kong: Chuangjian, 1990, 192 pp. (Reprint : Hong Kong, Youth Book Store 青文, 2000, 236 pp.)
1996 《煩惱娃娃的旅程》(Journey of the Trouble Dolls). Quilin: Lijiang Publications 漓江, 210 pp.
1994 《記憶的城市‧ 虛構的城市》(Cities of Memory, Cities of Fabrication). Hong Kong: OUP, 264 pp.
1988 《三魚集》(Three Fish). Hong Kong: Tianyuan 田園, 298 pp.
1987 《島和大陸》(The Islands and Continents). Reprint; Hong Kong: OUP 牛津, 2002, 208 pp.
1982^{[dubious – discuss]} 《剪紙》(Paper Cutouts). Reprint; Hong Kong: OUP 牛津, 2002, 142 pp.
1979 《養龍人師門》(Shih-man the Dragon-keeper). Taipei: Min-chun 民眾, Reprint; Hong Kong: OUP 牛津, 2002, 218 pp.

Selected Works

1995 《浮藻》(Floating Weeds: Selected Poems) Beijing: Zhongguo Wenlian 中國文聯, 314 pp.
1995 《半途：梁秉鈞詩選》(Mid way: Selected Poems) Hong Kong: Writers‘ Association Publication 作聯, 336 pp.
1994 《尋找空間》(Searching For Space: Selected Stories). Beijing: Beijing People's University Press 中國人民大學, 334 pp.
1989 《梁秉鈞卷》(Selected Works of Leung Ping-kwan). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co.三聯, 386 pp.

Books

(in English)

2020 Lotus Leaves (Selected Poems of Leung Ping-kwan, translated by John Minford). Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, CUHK, 2020, 280pp.
2020 Dragons (Shorter Fiction of Leung Ping-kwan, translated by Wendy Chan, Jasmine Tong Man and David Morgan). Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2020, 188pp.
2015 Paper Cuts (Novel, translated by Brian Holton). Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, CUHK, 2015, 160pp.
2010 Amblings (Selected poems on art and places, translated by Kit Kelen and others). Macau: ASM, 2010, 239pp.
2009 Shifting Borders (Selected poems about Macau, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, translated by Kit Kelen and others). Macau: ASM, 2009, 198pp.
2007 Islands and Continents: Short Stories by Leung Ping-kwan (Selected stories, edited by John Minford, translated by Brian Holton and others) Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.^[17]
2002 Travelling With a Bitter Melon 帶一枚苦瓜旅行 ("Selected poems: 1973-1998", edited by Martha Cheung). Hong Kong: Asia 2000, 352 pp.
1998 Clothink. 衣想 (Bilingual edition of poetry translated by John Minford and others). Hong Kong: Youth Literary Bookstore, 46 pp.
1997 Foodscape. 食事地域誌(Bilingual edition of poetry translated by Martha Cheung). Hong Kong: The Original Photograph Club Limited, 22 pp.
1992 City at the End of Time.^[18] 形象香港 (Bilingual edition of poetry co-edited and co-translated with Gordon T. Osing). Hong Kong: Department of Comparative Literature, University of Hong Kong & Twilight Books, 186 pp.

Books (in French)

2012 En ces jours instables (poems translated by Camille Loivier), Hong Kong: MCCM Creations.
2010 Artichaut (poem by P.K.Leung, painting by Paul Magendie) Édition Nihil Obstat.
2006 De ci de là des choses (Selected poems, edited and translated by Annie Curien) Paris : You Feng, 96pp.
2001 Îles et Continents (Selected stories, edited and translated by Annie Curien). Paris: Gallimard, 154pp.

Books (in German)

2012 Sichtbares und Verborgenes Gedhte (The Visible and the Invisible Poems translated by Andrea Riemenschnitter and Helen Wallimann), Hong Kong: MCCM Creations.
2009 Von Jade und Holz (poems trans.Wolfgang Kubin). Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava Verlag. 136 pp.
2000 Von Politik und den Früchten des Feldes (A selection of poems translated by Wolfgang Kubin). Berlin: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, 81 pp.
2000 Seltsame Geschichten von Vögeln und Blumen (A selection of poems translated by Wolfgang Kubin). Hong Kong： Goethe Institute, 48 pp.

Books (in Japanese)

2011《也斯詩集》池上貞子編日本: 思潮社, 181pp.

Books (in Portuguese)

2012 Mapa Refeito^[19] (poems trans. Beatriz Brasil). Macau: Publicado pela Associação de Estória em Macau. 117pp.

Stories, poems and essays (in various foreign languages)

2017 La moule et l'identité culturelle, Alcool fraîchement distillé et Discours sur le porc, (trad. Gwennaël Gaffric), in "Jentayu: Woks et Marmites", 2017, no 5, 21-41-58.
2004 Poetry and Politics translated into Japanese by Shozo Fujii, in Eureka: Poetry and Criticism, 5/2004. no 492 Vol.36-5, 221-230.
2004 Nourriture et identité culturelle, (trad. Emilie Huang), in "Hong Kong: Approches Littéraires", Jan-Mar 2004, Paris: Éditions You-feng Libraire Éditeur. 53-67.
2004 Chercher son chemin à Kyôto, in "ALIBIS: Dialogues littéraires franco-chinois" 3/2004, Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l‘homme. 17-34.^[20]
2004 L‘écriture en décalage de temps, in Écrire au present, 3/2004, Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l‘homme. 31-37.
2004 Hong Kong Culture and Hong Kong Literature, in Lan-BLUE, a bilingual cultural journal in Japanese and Chinese, no.13, 105-120.
2003 Liebe in Zeiten von Sars, in Orientierungen Zeitschrift zur Kultur Asiens 2/2003, Munich: Edition Global.133-135.
2003 Die Stadt mit der Maske, in Orientierungen Zeitschrift zur Kultur Asiens 2/2003, Munich: Edit ion Global.136-144.
2002 Poetry from the Artist‘s Brush, "Coloured Verses", Hong Kong: Galerie Klee. i-iv
2001 Engager le passé (Engaging the Past), in Annie Curien and Jin Siyan eds. Littérature chinoise., 11/2001, Paris： Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l‘homme, 91-97.
2001 Ville monster et autres poèmes (7 poems and an interview), Poésie 2001, No. 88, June 2001, 56-78.
2001 Postcolonial Affairs of Food and the Heart, Persimmon, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Winter), 42-57.
2000 Zwei Gedichte und ein Essay zum Thema Wasser (Two Poems and an Essay on the Theme of Water in German translation) in Wasser, ed. Bernd Busch und Larissa Förster. Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH, Bonn, 266-269.
2000 Foodscape (a series of 10 poems), translated into Japanese by Shozo Fujii, in Eureka: Poetry and Criticism, August, 42-53.
2000 Cinema and Urban Imagination: Eileen Chang as a Scriptwriter, translated into Japanese by Akinari Sato in China Express: Beijing~Shanghai~Hong Kong~Taipei . Tokyo : Nippon Academy Awards Institute, 52-57.
1999 Seltsame Geschichten von Vögeln und Blumn (Eleven poems in German Translation). Sprache im technischen Zeitalter, No. 152 (December), 495-505.
1998 The First Day, ―The Story of Hong Kong, ―The Walled City in Kowloon: a space we shared and―The Sorrows of Lan Kwan Fong, trans. and ed. Martha Cheung in Hong Kong Collage. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 99-106; 3-16; 34-39; 5-98.
1998 Ausblutende Zeichen (―The Chinese Language that has Died Many Times in German translation), Lettre International, No. 41(July), 44-45.
1997 Bilder von Hong Kong‖ and ―Tiger Balm Garden‖ (two poems translated by German poet Joachim Sartorius), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (30 May, Nr. 122, Seite 41).
1997 Cities of Memory, Cities of Fabrication (excerpts). English translation by Richard Sheung. Renditions, No. 47 & 48, 93-104.
1997 Pun Choi on New Year‘s Eve (poem) and Cities of Memory, Cities of Fabrication (excerpts) Japanese translation. The Subarn Monthly (July), 184-203.
1996 Vier Postkarten Aus Prag (Postcards from Prague). German translation by Beate Rusch, Die Zeitschrift der Kultur, No. 9 (Sept.), 8-9.
1995 Thirteen poems translated and selected in From the Bluest Part of the Harbour: Poems from Hong Kong, ed. Andrew Parkin. Hong Kong, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 21-43.
1994 The Leaf on the Edge, Distinguished Leaves and Street -Lamp and the Tin Leaf. Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, 12 (Spring). 173-174.
1994 Morning in a Foreign Land, Poetry Canada 14:3 (May). 22.
1994 Four Poems in English, Dutch and French translation. Brussel Kunsten Festival des Arts, May
1994 Two Poems in Yugoslavian translation, Antologija Savremene Kineske Poezije. Boegrad: Filip Visnjic, 202-206.
1994 Transcendence and the Fax Machine in Running Wild: New Chinese Writers, ed. David Der-Wei Wang with Jeanne Tai. New York: Columbia University Press, 13-20.
1993 Six Poems "Position 1:1" (Spring). 18-23.
1993 Unterwegs Gedichte (Seven poems in German translation). Minims Sinica 2 (1991). 105-119.
1991 Auntie Li's Pocket Watch, "Worlds of Modern Chinese Fiction", ed. Michael S. Duke. New York and London: M.E. Sharpe, 311-318.

Critical Writing