To Pierce the Material Screen: An Anthology of 20th-Century Hong Kong Literature (Vol. II, Essays and Poetry)

1. History’s Alleyways
Yin Jiang: A Spell — 3
Huang Lu: Hawkers of Olives — 4
Lu Yi Shi: Song on a Rainy Day — 5
Fan Sin Piu: Passing My Father’s Old Shop — 6
Tao Jie: The Rings of a Tree — 7
Han Mu: On this Land there once Lived — 9
Yip Fai: The Old Chap in the Shop of Paper Effigies — 11
Du Du: Going to the Movies — 13
Stephen Soong: Trite Language — 15
Xia Guo: The Emotional Appeal of Wonton Noodles — 20
Xiao Si: A History in Books — 23

2. Local Habitations
Li Yuzhong: In the City, the Month of May — 29
Shu Xiang Cheng: Cable Car on Victoria Peak — 30
Margaret Ng: A Place of One’s Own — 31
Xiao Si: Night Market — 33
Tang Da Jiang: Having Tea — 35
Wu Yin Ching: High Street — 36
Choi Chi Fung: Sleepwalk in the Suburbs — 41
Ma Kwok Ming: My Childhood in Tsuen Wan (excerpts) — 42
Chan Chi Tak: Boat and Home — 45
DEL: The Eight-thirty Train — 47

3. Distant Vistas
Liu Mu Xia: Skyscraper — 51
Joseph S. M. Lau: Potato-eating Days (excerpts) — 52
Gu Cangwu: Seeing Snow the Second Time — 57
Wan Kin Lau: Sunday, Overcast — 59
Yu Feng: The Kite — 60
Chan Siu Wah: White Hair — 62
Qiu Cheng: Return — 65
Tsai Yim Pui: Decathlon — 66

4. China ‧ China
Chen Jiangfan: Eventide — 71
Li Kuang: Doors — 72
He Da: The Times — 73
Ronald P. Mar: The Prodigal Sons who Burnt their Harps — 74
Kun Nan: Hail, the Steeds of Legend — 76
Ji Hun: Loss — 80
Dai Tian: The Story of the Stone — 81
Yuan Yuan: Good Work Undone — 83
Tsai Yim Pui: Six Martyrs — 86
Wong Pok: On Forbearance — 87

5. Third Side of the Strait
Xu Su: Reading History Plays — 93
Xu Xu: Freedom Not to Speak — 94
Yu Kwang-chung: The Kowloon-Canton Railway — 97
Laurence Wong: I Fear I May Grow Old before Frost Fall — 98
Dong Qiao: This Generation — 100
Lau Wai Shing: On Passing by Train through Tangshan — 103
Chung Wai Man: Conch Shells in the Mist — 104
Chan Chi Tak: Flag — 106
Li Yue: Sacred Territory — 108

6. 1997
Ah Lian: If I Had Roots Too — 113
Ha Gong: The Legalization of Rape — 115
Ha Gong: Getting High — 117
Ji Hun: I’m Afraid I’ll Fall Asleep Before Dawn — 119
Cheung Siu Por: Refused Entry to Peking University — 121
Cheung Siu Por: Ears Pressed to Echo Wall — 122
Chang Chak Yan: A Tale of Tangled Lines — 123
Chan Chi Wa: Images of Hong Kong in the Tourist Association’s Publicity Films — 127

7. Of Life and Living
Shu Xiang Cheng: Ten Lines — 131
Cao Juren: Having Drifted over the Sea of Life (excerpts) — 132
Wong Man: Obdurate — 138
Si Guo: Unemployed — 139
Lau Wai Shing: A Moth in the Strip Light — 145
Hui Tik Cheung: Falling — 147
Chung Ling Ling: Those Aches and Pains — 148
Wong Leung Wo: At Midnight, I Saw your Little Shoes Hanging at the Bathroom Window—to Ying-ying — 151
Yin Jiang: Flying Ants over Water — 153
Xi Xi: Elegy for a Breast (excerpts) — 155
Tang Siu Wa: Stilled — 164

8. Fairground Mirrors
Ou Wai Ou: Love Takes a Bus — 169
San Su: Paying One’s Last Respects is Both a Source of Anguish for the Living and an Insult to the Dead — 170
Chai Wa Wa: True Confession — 173
Wang Ting Zhi: Support the Construction of Daya Bay Nuclear Plant — 175
Xiao Xi: ‘You Don’t Want Roses’ — 177
Zhang Wenda: I’m All for Fox Fairies — 178
Gaylord Kai Loh Leung: Homage to the Toilet — 181
Xiang Zhuang: The Overdevelopment of Language — 183

9. A Grain of Sand
Yin Han: A Small Fish — 187
Hung Chi: The Stewed-Pork Vendor — 190
P. K. Leung: Not Just Another New Year’s Painting — 191
Wu Yin Ching: Garment Reading — 192
Huang Canran: Loneliness — 194
Chan Tak Kam: Blind Fortune-tellers — 195
P. K. Leung: Bittermelon — 198
Fan Sin Piu: Afternoon Anxieties — 199
Liu Wai Tong: To a Young Lady in an MTR Train — 200
Lee Ying Ho: No Exit — 202

10. All are Written unto Me
Huang Canran: ‘Who am I?’ — 207
Heather Tu: The Witch’s Song — 208
Yip Fai: The Nut in a Drawer — 210
Heather Tu: Denial of the Flesh — 211
Xu Su: Giving up Smoking — 212
Zhao Tao: My Life with Mirrors — 223
Gu Cangwu: On the Tower — 227
Ho Fuk Yan: Letter Writing — 228
Wong Leung Wo: Still Unborn — 229

Notes on Authors — 230
Notes on Translators — 248

'These two volumes offer a striking selection of Hong Kong 20th-century writing translated into English. The dynamic entrepot was for long considered something of a cultural desert but isn't so now. These books show that in reality it wasn't one for most of the last century either, at least as far as writing was concerned.'
—Bradley Winterton, Taipei Times

'These works blend traditional and modern Chinese culture with each other and with other cultures—Eastern and Western—to provide an introduction to the fabric of Hong Kong literature.'
—Translation Review