Office Joy

I’ve started writing and revising at HKU, where Alley is sharing her office with Helen and me. It’s a big difference from writing in my cramped apartment, constantly shaking with construction. Writing in Hong Kong is ridiculously difficult. Everything I write seems fragmented. In my apartment, there’s always something distracting me. I always end up doing domestic things: washing laundry, hanging up laundry, checking if laundry is dry (during the winter, I used my hair dryer), taking down laundry, folding laundry, emptying my drawers and refolding my laundry. Needless to say, it’s nice to be working on a quiet campus again.

Side note

On a side note, my short story "The Loves of Mao" will be featured in Guernica, a magazine of politics and art at the end of this month. And a poem is forthcoming in Berkeley Poetry Review. There's also a poem in Octopus (issue 10).

Plus, I just booked my ticket to Taiwan!

Green and Gray

This past Saturday, Dan and I went hiking near Shek O (on the eastern part of HK island), along the Dragon's Back Trail. It reminded me that Hong Kong is actually a really green place, once you leave the city streets. It was a really foggy day, so we weren’t able to see any of the views. But it was beautiful, regardless. The air smelled of leaves and clean moss. As we climbed higher, the wind grew more intense and we were drenched in mist. All we could see was white. For all we knew, we were in the middle of nowhere, wandering into ocean. Dan threw a rock out into the white. We walked slowly and watched an entire nest of ants walk across the trail. Dan gave me a piece of bamboo and I ran around, poking at things like I was a kid again.

In contrast, Alley, David, and I crossed the border and visited Shenzhen on Sunday, the "overnight city". The city was exactly what I imagined: a frenzy of cheap goods (including piles of sneakers taller than me), huge crowds of people, ugly construction, pollution, and an endless gray sky. And then again, there were other parts of Shenzhen that I liked: the pineapple and sugar cane stands, Lotus Hill Park, and the wide city streets.

At Long Last

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog!

- In March, I went to the mainland to visit family in Taishan, which is about three hours away from Guangzhou. Dan and I took the train, met my cousin at the station, and took a bus south to the small city of Taishan. The last time I saw my family in China was 7 years ago, when I was 16. My grandpa and grandma were also visiting (from Seattle) and it was great to see them again, especially my bad ass grandpa. He started smoking from this crazy old water pipe during lunch, a day before he went into surgery (which I didn't know about until I got there). The second day we were there, we went to the mountain, where my mother grew up. It was the Grave Sweeping Holiday and we all walked up the mountain to family grave sites. We cleared the graves (of weeds, garbage, etc.), offered food, gave respects, lit firecrackers, etc. After going to three sites, we all sat down and had a huge feast. I wonder what it was like for Dan to be there during it all. He was, for sure, the first white guy in the village. Strangely enough, even though I expected to be an outsider, my family treated me as if I belonged there - as if I needed to be there. My uncle told me later to come back to Taishan more often - not to visit, but because "this is your home. And you should always come home." I don't know what to make of this, since I don't know what this "home" means, but I was touched by their acceptance of me: the one who can barely speak Chinese. I also got to see my great grandmother (my mother's grandmother), who is 90 years old. She lives alone in her village, but has many friends, I'm sure. She's super cute and still really sharp. She was cooking rice when we surprised her and she kept moving about, trying to cut us oranges.

My grandmother and my great grandmother (the only one missing is my mom)

Most of our time spent in the mainland was with my family, living the Chinese life: going to my cousin's best friend's nail shop, playing volleyball with some random strangers, grabbing food at midnight at some highway restaurant, yum cha in a crowded, smoky room, staying with my grandpa at the hospital, etc.

I'm planning on going back to Taishan one more time before I leave Asia. My cousin's getting married in June and I can't miss it. She's marrying a Korean guy; on the phone, she spoke to him in English, Korean, and Mandarin.

- The HK Literary Festival (March 2-12) was a blast. I've been volunteering with them since last fall, so it was great to see it all come together. I also participated in a few events, including a reading with local and international poets at the Fringe, an event called "A Sense of Home" with local writers and Yiyun Li (I read fiction), and a PoetryLive! reading for secondary school students. This last event was my favorite. Imagine an auditorium filled with pre-teens and teens cheering for poetry. The energy was incredible.

- I'm figuring out my plans for next year. It was a hard decision, but I've decided to go to Iowa, over Columbia. And the best part? I don't have to take out any loans! I'm going to be teaching in the fall too, in the Rhetoric department. I'm super excited, but nervous. This will be my first time in the Midwest (well, I was in Boulder for a month, but it was such a short time) and far, far away from the ocean. But I think it's time to live in a small town, after living in the city for a year. I also met Xu Xi, a writer here in Hong Kong, who will be a visiting professor in the Non-Fiction program at Iowa next spring.

- Amazing contemporary Chinese novelist Han Shaogong is coming to Hong Kong this month. He's a visiting writer at HKBU and I will be meeting him at the reception/dinner tomorrow! I'm so excited. I read his novel A Dictionary of Maqiao two years ago at Bard and was blown away by. Both innovative and moving, it's the story of a rural village during the Cultural Revolution, written in the form of a dictionary. Read it.

- Check out the new May issue of MiPoesias! It's filled with poems and recipes. It also features a poem I wrote during my lovely summer at Bucknell. You can download it as a PDF or buy a copy from Amazon!

March-ing Along

This past week was the HK-China Fulbright Research Forum, which included 3 1/2 days of discussion groups and reflection on our projects. It was amazing to meet Fulbrighters from China and Taiwan (I believe there are about 80 China Fulbrighters) and learn more about their projects and experiences abroad. I'm so impressed by everyone... what a amazing group of articulate, driven, talented, innovative, passionate, and interesting people! I'm just proud to be a part of it all. The conference also served as a means of mid-point reflection. After filling out my mid-point review, I realized that I have to step it up a notch and stay motivated in order to finish. I can't believe it's March already. Looking back, I feel as if I've accomplished certain things, but need to work on others (i.e. learning Cantonese). I feel disjointed in terms of my creative work, since I've started a few poetry manuscripts and haven't been able to finish them. Hong Kong is shortening my attention span! Also, I have a bunch of individual short stories and poems floating around. I need to really sit down and put it all together. And of course, keep producing work.

On a random side note, we met Martin Yan of PBS's Yan Can Cook during a lunch for the Better HK Foundation! I grew up watching the show and it was pretty hilarious meeting him (my mom used to say she could have a tv show because of him).





I'm also hearing back from MFA programs now and have been accepted to Iowa and Columbia. I'm really excited about this...

Workshops and Art

This past Thursday and Friday night, I taught two undergraduate poetry workshops at HKBU. They both went really well! The theme was “Writing the City” and we looked at contemporary poems by Hong Kong poet Leung Ping-Kwan and did some writing exercises (postcard poems, list poems, writing as walking/running). It was really fun since the students came from all different backgrounds (translation, visual arts, European studies, business, etc.). I greatly appreciated their curiosity and openness. Some really difficult and important questions were also posed; for instance: what is the future of poetry? What is the future of the Book (considering online books, text-message novels, etc.)? This was my first time teaching a college-level class and, I have to say, I really enjoyed it. At the end of one class, I realized my cheeks were flushed…. not because I was nervous, but because I was just so excited to be teaching.

Yesterday, Alley, Michaele, and I visited the Old Central Police Station, which is now hosting (through March 15th) a massive art and architecture exhibit called “Refabricating City”. It’s quite impressive. Great use of the space, plus some really innovative curators. To see an installation in the middle of a prisoner’s cell: really powerful. Some rooms were fun (i.e. an entire floor covered with computer keyboards) and others eerie (i.e. an installation called “hands up, hands down” in a completely dark and barren room, only containing a cross and a touch lamp with clouds).

Back in Hong Kong...

It's strange how relieved I am to be back in this city. Going up the Mid Levels escalator to my apartment, everything just seemed so familiar and real. Which is exactly what I didn't feel during my first five months here. I'm realizing that: yes, I am actually living in Hong Kong. For the time being, this is where I am. And it's great.