To honour Xi Xi and her generous contribution to literature and Hong Kong, Cha is publishing a special feature entitled “Xi Xi: Can We Say”, edited by Jennifer Feeley and Tammy Lai-Ming Ho. … Continue reading[CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS] Xi Xi: Can We Say—A Special Feature

In Ann Hui’s recent documentary Elegies (2023), Xi Xi makes an appearance as one of Hui’s most loved contemporary Hong Kong poets. Wearing a bright red hat that exudes a Paddingtonian charm, Xi Xi talks about her creative inspirations, fondly holding a teddy bear she handcrafted. Though the conversation was originally part of Fruit Chan’s documentary on Xi Xi My City (2015), Hui shrewdly adapts it to commemorate the late writer’s playful seriousness that has long captured us readers, and has since remained close to our hearts.
… Continue readingThis Is Not an Object: Reading the Inanimate in Xi Xi’s Work

This essay uses Heidegger’s philosophy of being to interpret Xi Xi’s novel I City (Wocheng 我城, 1975). It shows that I City is not merely a Hong Kong story but is a canonical work of world literature that engages in a dialogue with continental European philosophy. … Continue readingReading Xi Xi’s I City through Heidegger

A hippo brings his
favourite shopping bag
and tries to buy an XL T-shirt
… Continue readingA Day of Hippo

When I get out of bed I thank my bears for having kept me company while I slept. Then at the end of the day, as I go back to bed, I push them gently with my shoulder, to make space for myself and the book I hold in my hands, before I turn off the light and hug the bears again. I don’t know if you like to sleep with bears—I have managed to never have to sleep without at least one. Some of those that stay with me are less used to the uncertainties of travels, or are not so mobile, so we are reunited every time I am in a not-too-temporary home.
… Continue readingThe Importance of Bears

Translator’s note: Liu connects with Xi Xi’s work in various places in the poem. It starts with the title that is named after a short story by Xi Xi written from the perspective of a cancer patient: the protagonist recounts her own death experience and looks back on her life from her hospital bed. … Continue readingDisintegration 解體