Dear January,

Happy New Year!

I read my horoscope in HK Magazine and it said that my year will be something akin to Lake Vostok, an ancient sub glacial lake discovered in Antarctica 13,000 feet under an ice sheet. The lake is the size of Lake Ontario and was found, untouched, in 1996. Hmmm..

Another Kind of Nation: Contemporary Chinese Poets

My Chinese poet-translator friend, Canran, invited me to a book launch/reading of a new bilingual anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry, edited by Zhang Er and Chen Dongdong. The reading was in Yau Ma Tei and was a great introduction to new writing in China and Hong Kong. It was mostly in Putonghua, so I couldn't understand a word of it; however, it was still great to listen to as I read along in the English translation. I met some great new poets and am excited to encounter them in the near future. I also had a chance to read a new poem I wrote in Hong Kong, although I could only do so in English. I think I will challenge myself and try to translate a poem into Cantonese, well, spoken Cantonese. The anthology is available here at Amazon.

A Hong Kong Holiday

Dan and I were in Hong Kong for the holidays... our roommates left for China and Italy respectively and we had the entire apartment to ourselves. We stopped by my friend and poet Viki Holmes's apartment and shared some mulled wine, mince fruit pies, and chocolate. On Christmas day, I had a lovely dinner with Dan, Helen, and her friends from home in the New Territories. We made a giant traditional Christmas dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc. and watched A Christmas Story. I missed home terribly, but it was great to spend it with great company. For New Year's Eve, Dan and I met up with Alley and her friend from home, Kate, and made a delicious Mexican feast with cherry chocolate chip cookies from our trusty toaster oven. We then met up with Helen and friends at Carnegie's in Wan Chai and spent the rest of the night dancing, laughing, and enjoying the start of the new year. Also, it's getting pretty cold here and we actually had to go out and buy a comforter. Strange how temperature can make you miss home.

Moving Forward

I will be running a creative writing workshop (two sessions) in the spring semester at HKBU, which I'm really excited about. Also, as I'm realizing that I've been in Hong Kong for almost four months now, I am determined to push on and write more. I'm looking forward to travelling more too; I just got my multi-entry China visa!