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ไร้ลิ้นสิ้นสูญ
นวนิยาย ไร้ลิ้นสิ้นสูญ เล่าเรื่องในสังคมฮ่องกงร่วมสมัย ผ่านชีวิตของครูสัญญาจ้างสองคนคือ “ไหว” และ “หลิง” ที่ทำงานในโรงเรียนมัธยม ท่ามกลางการเปลี่ยนแปลงด้านภาษาและนโยบายการศึกษา โดยเฉพาะการบังคับใช้ภาษาจีนกลางแทนภาษากวางตุ้ง ซึ่งส่งผลกระทบต่อทั้งการทำงานและตัวตนของพวกเขา
เหตุการณ์เริ่มต้นจากการที่ “ไหว” ฆ่าตัวตาย ทำให้เกิดแรงสะเทือนในโรงเรียน แต่คนรอบข้างกลับค่อย ๆ ลืมเธอไป สะท้อนสังคมที่กดทับและหลีกเลี่ยงการพูดถึงปัญหา เรื่องดำเนินไปโดยเผยให้เห็นแรงกดดันของครู ทั้งจากระบบงานที่ไม่มั่นคง การแข่งขัน และการควบคุมทางภาษา ซึ่งเชื่อมโยงกับการเมืองและอำนาจในสังคม แก่นสำคัญของเรื่องคือ “ความเงียบ” หรือการพูดไม่ได้ ที่เป็นทั้งผลของการถูกควบคุม และกลไกเอาตัวรอดของผู้คนในสังคมที่ไม่เปิดให้แสดงความคิดเห็นอย่างอิสระ เป็นนวนิยายสะท้อนชีวิตคนธรรมดาที่ต้องดิ้นรนภายใต้ระบบที่กดทับ ทั้งในระดับอาชีพ ภาษา และจิตใจ จนนำไปสู่วิกฤตส่วนบุคคลและโศกนาฏกรรม
เหตุการณ์เริ่มต้นจากการที่ “ไหว” ฆ่าตัวตาย ทำให้เกิดแรงสะเทือนในโรงเรียน แต่คนรอบข้างกลับค่อย ๆ ลืมเธอไป สะท้อนสังคมที่กดทับและหลีกเลี่ยงการพูดถึงปัญหา เรื่องดำเนินไปโดยเผยให้เห็นแรงกดดันของครู ทั้งจากระบบงานที่ไม่มั่นคง การแข่งขัน และการควบคุมทางภาษา ซึ่งเชื่อมโยงกับการเมืองและอำนาจในสังคม แก่นสำคัญของเรื่องคือ “ความเงียบ” หรือการพูดไม่ได้ ที่เป็นทั้งผลของการถูกควบคุม และกลไกเอาตัวรอดของผู้คนในสังคมที่ไม่เปิดให้แสดงความคิดเห็นอย่างอิสระ เป็นนวนิยายสะท้อนชีวิตคนธรรมดาที่ต้องดิ้นรนภายใต้ระบบที่กดทับ ทั้งในระดับอาชีพ ภาษา และจิตใจ จนนำไปสู่วิกฤตส่วนบุคคลและโศกนาฏกรรม
276 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2019
About the author
Lau Yee-Wa
1 book10 followersLau Yee-Wa is one of Hong Kong's most exciting emerging authors. She studied Chinese Language and Literature and then Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, graduating with a Masters degree before going on to earn her Postgraduate Diploma in Secondary Education. Yee-Wa worked as an editor in a publishing house for five years before her short story 'The Shark' won the prestigious Hong Kong Champion Award for Creative Writing in Chinese in 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews
March 30, 2024
This is a super interesting novel about the impact of cultural tensions in Hong Kong on regular people. I probably wouldn’t have hesitated to give it four stars if it were marketed as literary fiction rather than a psychological thriller. I enjoyed this book, but it wasn’t a thriller at all. There was no sense of danger or surprising twist. Instead, this was a character-driven novel about societal changes.
I very much enjoyed getting a look at Hong Kong culture, and the characters were well-written and felt like real people. Their relationships with one another were multi-layered and dynamic, and there were some absolutely heartbreaking moments that will stick with me. I do feel like the novel was a bit slow and repetitive, which was magnified by the fact that I was expecting a thriller.
I very much enjoyed getting a look at Hong Kong culture, and the characters were well-written and felt like real people. Their relationships with one another were multi-layered and dynamic, and there were some absolutely heartbreaking moments that will stick with me. I do feel like the novel was a bit slow and repetitive, which was magnified by the fact that I was expecting a thriller.
August 11, 2025
Rating: 4.25* of five
The Publisher Says: A gripping psychological thriller that sheds light on the current political situation in Hong Kong.
Tongueless follows two rival teachers at a secondary school in Hong Kong who are instructed to switch from teaching in Cantonese to Mandarin—or lose their jobs. Apolitical and focusing on surviving and thriving in their professional environment, Wai and Ling each approach the challenge differently. Wai, awkward and unpopular, becomes obsessed with Mandarin learning; Ling, knowing how to please her superiors and colleagues, thinks she can tactfully dodge the Mandarin challenge by deploying her social savviness. Wai eventually crumples under the pressure and dies by suicide, leaving her colleague Ling to face seismic political and cultural change alone as she considers how far she will go to survive such a ruthlessly competitive work environment.
Sharp, darkly humorous, and politically pointed, Tongueless presciently engages with important issues facing Hong Kong today during which so much of the city’s uniqueness—especially its language—is at risk of being erased.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: China has been on a multigenerational project to Han-ize all the Sinosphere. Hong Kong's significant Anglophone population has been able to attract some out-of-China interest in the Han's Borg imitation, and from everything I've seen coming out about it in English, resistance is risky if not futile.
As little pale imitators, US fascists are doing their best to marginalize and poison the information space. No one in their dream world will know what to trust, therefore will accept their stupidification without the fuss and bother of rebellion and resistance to them. I think what's happened is that's scare a lot of people. Ones who weren't necessarily thinking about it before. Books like Tongueless can send painful shocks into the ideamakers that encounter it. Set in a very basic institution of Hong Kong culture, a language school, we are prepared in the set-up for those very reactions by those of the characters.
Teacher Wai is a very passive person, unable to put herself forward agreeably, or frame and present an idea persuasively. Her affect is so rigid that she's become faceless, just a messily-dressed part of the crowd. This works well enough while she's left alone to keep doing what she has learned to do. She is blindsided by the mandate to switch from her native Cantonese to the Han people now in charge's Mandarin. It's not like having to use Aussie or Indian slang and adapt to an accent. It's like having to learn, then teach in, Dutch. The alphabet and some words would look familiar but pronunciation let alone grammar? Not a hope. Wai, in her oddly passive way, sets about learning Mandarin but founders agonizingly slowly as the hopelessness of the task sinks in.
Ling's a Mean Girl. She's made it on marginal ability plus ruthless indifference to others' feelings or needs. She hides this behind a surface smarm...sorry, charm...that slips her in under peoples' radar. That route to her success is now closing off because it just won't teach her Mandarin. Poor Wai, with no interpersonal radar, is a prime victim for Ling to hate on. Ling's own focus on surface perfection and flawless presentation of self finds no echo in Wai. She doesn't understand the point of these things and lacks the flexibility to adapt to learning them (or Mandarin) to Ling's contempt...well-masked from others. Wai's failing attempts to survive in this horrible, cruelly indifferent new system lead to a true tragedy.
What's funny is that Ling is, on the surface, so good at masking that she presents herself as super-agreeable, and accepts that their language, Cantonese, is no longer going to be the one they're allowed to use...these're good Chinese girls, after all, and Authority Has Spoken. The manner of the adjustment is the difference between Wai's tragedy and Ling's desperate attempts to avoid failure, not the fact of its external imposition leading to resistance. It doesn't.
It's a brutal story. It's told directly...I picture Ling, our PoV character, sitting before an inquisitional interview recounting this story directly to us, the "camera" so to speak, with many soft little smirks and touchings-up of her hair and make-up. Ling is the one who, in Author Lau's subtle hands, shows herself as a slacker caught in a new system that pitilessly highlights her basic failures and failings in relation to that system. The narrative shifts in time though not always seamlessly. The very first pages give away a giant spoiler, but it is needed to set up our time-hopping. Ling is undergoing before our eyes the fate her students, to whom she always showed a smooth face hiding her contempt, worked hard to escape...and she can not do what they tried to do.
Ling escapes Wai's fate. She does not escape the fate of social collaborators everywhere: She loses her camouflage and has no skin underneath it to protect herself. Hiding is not possible; no protection or help is forthcoming.
I sometimes felt the story was in fragments of time or shards of context that did not always scan with my idea of what I had read. There was a reason for that; I'm going to urge you to read the Translator's Note before you start the story. I don't want to spoil certain things but spoilers are part of the book from page one! However, if someone chooses not to follow my advice, they should be able to proceed as they prefer. I myownself think "spoilerphobes" are spoiled, but no need to rehash THAT conversation.
Politically this story of a bullying overbearing linguistic minority imposing its words, values, and culture on hapless victims caught in an economic and social trap, suffering the loss of long-unexamined and too-little valued traditions and freedoms, could not possibly be more timely to read for the entire Anglophone world.
The Publisher Says: A gripping psychological thriller that sheds light on the current political situation in Hong Kong.
Tongueless follows two rival teachers at a secondary school in Hong Kong who are instructed to switch from teaching in Cantonese to Mandarin—or lose their jobs. Apolitical and focusing on surviving and thriving in their professional environment, Wai and Ling each approach the challenge differently. Wai, awkward and unpopular, becomes obsessed with Mandarin learning; Ling, knowing how to please her superiors and colleagues, thinks she can tactfully dodge the Mandarin challenge by deploying her social savviness. Wai eventually crumples under the pressure and dies by suicide, leaving her colleague Ling to face seismic political and cultural change alone as she considers how far she will go to survive such a ruthlessly competitive work environment.
Sharp, darkly humorous, and politically pointed, Tongueless presciently engages with important issues facing Hong Kong today during which so much of the city’s uniqueness—especially its language—is at risk of being erased.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: China has been on a multigenerational project to Han-ize all the Sinosphere. Hong Kong's significant Anglophone population has been able to attract some out-of-China interest in the Han's Borg imitation, and from everything I've seen coming out about it in English, resistance is risky if not futile.
As little pale imitators, US fascists are doing their best to marginalize and poison the information space. No one in their dream world will know what to trust, therefore will accept their stupidification without the fuss and bother of rebellion and resistance to them. I think what's happened is that's scare a lot of people. Ones who weren't necessarily thinking about it before. Books like Tongueless can send painful shocks into the ideamakers that encounter it. Set in a very basic institution of Hong Kong culture, a language school, we are prepared in the set-up for those very reactions by those of the characters.
Teacher Wai is a very passive person, unable to put herself forward agreeably, or frame and present an idea persuasively. Her affect is so rigid that she's become faceless, just a messily-dressed part of the crowd. This works well enough while she's left alone to keep doing what she has learned to do. She is blindsided by the mandate to switch from her native Cantonese to the Han people now in charge's Mandarin. It's not like having to use Aussie or Indian slang and adapt to an accent. It's like having to learn, then teach in, Dutch. The alphabet and some words would look familiar but pronunciation let alone grammar? Not a hope. Wai, in her oddly passive way, sets about learning Mandarin but founders agonizingly slowly as the hopelessness of the task sinks in.
Ling's a Mean Girl. She's made it on marginal ability plus ruthless indifference to others' feelings or needs. She hides this behind a surface smarm...sorry, charm...that slips her in under peoples' radar. That route to her success is now closing off because it just won't teach her Mandarin. Poor Wai, with no interpersonal radar, is a prime victim for Ling to hate on. Ling's own focus on surface perfection and flawless presentation of self finds no echo in Wai. She doesn't understand the point of these things and lacks the flexibility to adapt to learning them (or Mandarin) to Ling's contempt...well-masked from others. Wai's failing attempts to survive in this horrible, cruelly indifferent new system lead to a true tragedy.
What's funny is that Ling is, on the surface, so good at masking that she presents herself as super-agreeable, and accepts that their language, Cantonese, is no longer going to be the one they're allowed to use...these're good Chinese girls, after all, and Authority Has Spoken. The manner of the adjustment is the difference between Wai's tragedy and Ling's desperate attempts to avoid failure, not the fact of its external imposition leading to resistance. It doesn't.
It's a brutal story. It's told directly...I picture Ling, our PoV character, sitting before an inquisitional interview recounting this story directly to us, the "camera" so to speak, with many soft little smirks and touchings-up of her hair and make-up. Ling is the one who, in Author Lau's subtle hands, shows herself as a slacker caught in a new system that pitilessly highlights her basic failures and failings in relation to that system. The narrative shifts in time though not always seamlessly. The very first pages give away a giant spoiler, but it is needed to set up our time-hopping. Ling is undergoing before our eyes the fate her students, to whom she always showed a smooth face hiding her contempt, worked hard to escape...and she can not do what they tried to do.
Ling escapes Wai's fate. She does not escape the fate of social collaborators everywhere: She loses her camouflage and has no skin underneath it to protect herself. Hiding is not possible; no protection or help is forthcoming.
I sometimes felt the story was in fragments of time or shards of context that did not always scan with my idea of what I had read. There was a reason for that; I'm going to urge you to read the Translator's Note before you start the story. I don't want to spoil certain things but spoilers are part of the book from page one! However, if someone chooses not to follow my advice, they should be able to proceed as they prefer. I myownself think "spoilerphobes" are spoiled, but no need to rehash THAT conversation.
Politically this story of a bullying overbearing linguistic minority imposing its words, values, and culture on hapless victims caught in an economic and social trap, suffering the loss of long-unexamined and too-little valued traditions and freedoms, could not possibly be more timely to read for the entire Anglophone world.
March 6, 2024
I'll admit, contemporary lit fic isn't really my jam. I picked this up because of the parallels between Hong Kong and Singapore when it comes to Mandarin usage. (I'm only an immigrant kid. I only know about this through my mother.)
But somehow, I ended up really liking this book!
The author does a really great job making the MC, Ling, a tolerable character. She's a people pleasing gossipy bully and the stereotypical Mean Girl in the teacher cohort. But the author manages to turn her into a well-rounded character that I actually felt sympathy for her at times.
The author also wrote Wai's character in a similarly skillful way. I felt bad for her personally, but I could also feel the annoyance seep through from Ling's headspace whenever she viewed Wai as an outcast with no social skills.
And the way that the author used both characters to approach the topic of Mandarin usage in Hong Kong education and instruction? Honestly, it was perfection.
I know nothing about this topic in Hong Kong, but through both Wai and Ling's experiences and attempts to either learn or dismiss Mandarin, there were layers of depth that I wouldn't be able to understand just by reading news articles or by Googling this topic. The author tackles this topic in such a way that I can understand why both Wai and Ling approached Mandarin learning in their own ways, however flawed they may be.
Thank you to The Feminist Press at CUNY and Edelweiss for this arc.
But somehow, I ended up really liking this book!
The author does a really great job making the MC, Ling, a tolerable character. She's a people pleasing gossipy bully and the stereotypical Mean Girl in the teacher cohort. But the author manages to turn her into a well-rounded character that I actually felt sympathy for her at times.
The author also wrote Wai's character in a similarly skillful way. I felt bad for her personally, but I could also feel the annoyance seep through from Ling's headspace whenever she viewed Wai as an outcast with no social skills.
And the way that the author used both characters to approach the topic of Mandarin usage in Hong Kong education and instruction? Honestly, it was perfection.
I know nothing about this topic in Hong Kong, but through both Wai and Ling's experiences and attempts to either learn or dismiss Mandarin, there were layers of depth that I wouldn't be able to understand just by reading news articles or by Googling this topic. The author tackles this topic in such a way that I can understand why both Wai and Ling approached Mandarin learning in their own ways, however flawed they may be.
Thank you to The Feminist Press at CUNY and Edelweiss for this arc.
August 17, 2024
3.5 stars. This was a really engaging novel about the Chinese language and the pressures of societal conformity on young women. After a teacher at a school commits suicide in the most brutal way because she believes she isn’t ’good enough’, the main character of this novel has to fight for her own identity and place at the language school she works at where they are trying to erase Cantonese from the curriculum.
I learnt so much about the Chinese language and how Mandarin and Cantonese are linked to different cultures and identities. There were some really horrific parts to this book and other parts which were quite political, but the diversity in what was explored worked really well and I found myself really hooked on the book. I would really recommend it if you are looking for a read from Hong Kong or a book which is really going to grab your attention and surprise you at a number of different points through your reading of it.
I learnt so much about the Chinese language and how Mandarin and Cantonese are linked to different cultures and identities. There were some really horrific parts to this book and other parts which were quite political, but the diversity in what was explored worked really well and I found myself really hooked on the book. I would really recommend it if you are looking for a read from Hong Kong or a book which is really going to grab your attention and surprise you at a number of different points through your reading of it.
March 10, 2024
Whats interesting about Tongueless is the brutality of survival in a cut thoat jobs that required you to blend seamlessly in the crowd without standing out. Its a story on languages - the clashing between usage of Cantonese and Mandarin in Hong Kong, the political aspects of the situation that can be gleaned from the school's systemic competitiveness on changing the language to Mandarin to be used in teaching.
As we see Ling's perspective of a contract teacher after the devastating suicide of her colleague Wai and retracing the story from the beginning of these two colleagues's ways of survival in the school. Ling is more of a people pleaser kind of person, she adapted well, camouflaged her personality to suit the person she wants to be in favour with, making sure she befriends everyone, and this was the complete opposite of Wai. Wai was more rigid, sloppy at times, insisted to speak Mandarin as a way to learn the language even though she is really bad at it but her overzealous persistence led to her being snided upon.
As we see Ling's perspective of a contract teacher after the devastating suicide of her colleague Wai and retracing the story from the beginning of these two colleagues's ways of survival in the school. Ling is more of a people pleaser kind of person, she adapted well, camouflaged her personality to suit the person she wants to be in favour with, making sure she befriends everyone, and this was the complete opposite of Wai. Wai was more rigid, sloppy at times, insisted to speak Mandarin as a way to learn the language even though she is really bad at it but her overzealous persistence led to her being snided upon.
November 22, 2024
‘Nature is cruel. If you’re on the lowest level, unless you evolve and become a stronger species, you’ll go extinct.’
‘What about people?’
‘People are a kind of animal. If they don’t work hard, they’ll be eliminated, just like animals.’
Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa is marked as a thriller (and I see it has a horror tag on Goodreads?). It's a bleak literary fiction about contemporary Hong Kong with a heavy dose of politics. This is as much a thriller as Harry Potter is a space opera.
Anyway, I was excited to read this "thriller" because of the language politics and cultural tensions in Hong Kong. I've had the chance to talk to Hong Kong academics and people I know about it, so I thought it'd be fun to see how all of that was used in a fiction novel. But this did not work for me at all.
I don't like mentioning translations unless I want to applaud how well they worked for me. Unfortunately, there was something in the writing that was off-putting as I read. I found it robotic and choppy. It may be the original, I'm not sure. But it was hard to read, it didn't flow well and felt weirdly brief (not precise nor concise, just brief). I don't know if I'm making sense, it just didn't flow. It may just be me. I also got confused with the time jumps, they happened out of nowhere and I didn't get the purpose of the scene addition/jump the majority of times.
Now, Tongueless follows the aftermath of a gruesome suicide by a contract teacher named Wai. Wai was put under a lot of pressure to pass an important Mandarin test in order to have her contract renewed. We see the office politics mixed in with the tense cultural and language politics involving Hong Kong, Great Britain, and Mainland China, through the eyes of Ling, a teacher who sat next to Wai. Wai's suicide was gruesome and it was broadcast live, so there's a lot of attention towards the matter.
Ling as a main POV was... upsetting. She's not likeable. Wai isn't likeable. Nobody is likeable. Ling is the type of person who whines and hates a lot. She's only into skincare and fashion, but it's more a performance than an actual interest... which means that the narration is dull and detached. She's not self-aware, she's not aware of anything going on (which leads to chapters and chapters of confusion until she finally finds things out... it made me feel like the chapters before were just a waste of space), and when she talks about "her hobbies" it's so fucking dull because she's got no actual interest in them.
The office drama was awful. The bullying, the hate, the ableism, the discrimination, classicism, racism. Hard pass.
I don't know. 2 stars because the topic is important, but this didn't work for me AT ALL. If anyone has recommendations about language politics/cultural tension in Hong Kong, I'd be happy to get some!
‘What about people?’
‘People are a kind of animal. If they don’t work hard, they’ll be eliminated, just like animals.’
Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa is marked as a thriller (and I see it has a horror tag on Goodreads?). It's a bleak literary fiction about contemporary Hong Kong with a heavy dose of politics. This is as much a thriller as Harry Potter is a space opera.
Anyway, I was excited to read this "thriller" because of the language politics and cultural tensions in Hong Kong. I've had the chance to talk to Hong Kong academics and people I know about it, so I thought it'd be fun to see how all of that was used in a fiction novel. But this did not work for me at all.
I don't like mentioning translations unless I want to applaud how well they worked for me. Unfortunately, there was something in the writing that was off-putting as I read. I found it robotic and choppy. It may be the original, I'm not sure. But it was hard to read, it didn't flow well and felt weirdly brief (not precise nor concise, just brief). I don't know if I'm making sense, it just didn't flow. It may just be me. I also got confused with the time jumps, they happened out of nowhere and I didn't get the purpose of the scene addition/jump the majority of times.
Now, Tongueless follows the aftermath of a gruesome suicide by a contract teacher named Wai. Wai was put under a lot of pressure to pass an important Mandarin test in order to have her contract renewed. We see the office politics mixed in with the tense cultural and language politics involving Hong Kong, Great Britain, and Mainland China, through the eyes of Ling, a teacher who sat next to Wai. Wai's suicide was gruesome and it was broadcast live, so there's a lot of attention towards the matter.
Ling as a main POV was... upsetting. She's not likeable. Wai isn't likeable. Nobody is likeable. Ling is the type of person who whines and hates a lot. She's only into skincare and fashion, but it's more a performance than an actual interest... which means that the narration is dull and detached. She's not self-aware, she's not aware of anything going on (which leads to chapters and chapters of confusion until she finally finds things out... it made me feel like the chapters before were just a waste of space), and when she talks about "her hobbies" it's so fucking dull because she's got no actual interest in them.
The office drama was awful. The bullying, the hate, the ableism, the discrimination, classicism, racism. Hard pass.
I don't know. 2 stars because the topic is important, but this didn't work for me AT ALL. If anyone has recommendations about language politics/cultural tension in Hong Kong, I'd be happy to get some!
July 7, 2024
Tongueless is a brilliant exposition on influence of politics on language. The change in political atmosphere has its impact on education as well; teachers are now expected to teach Mandarin in Chinese language class instead of Cantonese. A tension exists in school, among teachers where learning Mandarin is critical for their continued career in the language department.
Ling, a secondary school teacher, is well liked by her colleagues and students alike. She cares for her appearance, to be liked by all, and plans to escape the mandatory Mandarin learning by leaning on the relationships she has formed in the Chinese language department and the school principal. Wei, newly arrived teacher, is written as a visual contradiction to Ling. It becomes apparent that she is also a contradiction to Ling's personality. She works hard and wants to be better at Mandarin. The story starts days after Wei's suicide - who, unable to handle the stress of learning and work, had decided to take her own life.
By the time the book hits the quarter mark, the positions of Ling and Wei is well established; in the school and the social strata. Ling abuses Wei's need for friendship. Though she jokingly calls Wei to be a "servant", her annoyance with Wei's attitude towards life work hard, be the "best", and be the best fast, doesn't go away. She compares them to the immigrant students - the children from mainland who don't have experience in the real world and shoehorn their pursue into "being good". This is a very interesting point Ling makes and it exposes more about the underlying political themes in the novel. Students from mainland are exposed to real world, the world without a firewall, and she sees the difference becoming more obvious when compared to locals. And Ling believes Wei to be same. Being good wasn't enough to survive in this world, one had to have the apt social constructs to navigate the world and make it work for you.
The two characters around who the story revolves are well rounded and flawed.
The first half of novel ends with Wei's suicide and the second half, the aftermath. Ling perhaps does realize the impact of language change in schools and society, would change the cultural fabric of Hong Kong. Its however the impact she sees on her, personally than the society itself. As its directly impacting her career and the short staffed department has her overworked, she is not the charming person that other teachers in the department surround themselves with. The cultural and political changes that she once ignored, is now affecting her life, her position in school and the camaraderie she shared with her colleagues. The brutal nature of the work place competition has teething at her ankles, and her helplessness to address them only increases.
Lau Yee-Wa turns historical allegories to personal failures, filial disciplines to moral failings and, compare - contrast of strength and smartness. Tongueless is a thought provoking novel with dark humor and fascinating characters.
What a splendid read!!
Ling, a secondary school teacher, is well liked by her colleagues and students alike. She cares for her appearance, to be liked by all, and plans to escape the mandatory Mandarin learning by leaning on the relationships she has formed in the Chinese language department and the school principal. Wei, newly arrived teacher, is written as a visual contradiction to Ling. It becomes apparent that she is also a contradiction to Ling's personality. She works hard and wants to be better at Mandarin. The story starts days after Wei's suicide - who, unable to handle the stress of learning and work, had decided to take her own life.
By the time the book hits the quarter mark, the positions of Ling and Wei is well established; in the school and the social strata. Ling abuses Wei's need for friendship. Though she jokingly calls Wei to be a "servant", her annoyance with Wei's attitude towards life work hard, be the "best", and be the best fast, doesn't go away. She compares them to the immigrant students - the children from mainland who don't have experience in the real world and shoehorn their pursue into "being good". This is a very interesting point Ling makes and it exposes more about the underlying political themes in the novel. Students from mainland are exposed to real world, the world without a firewall, and she sees the difference becoming more obvious when compared to locals. And Ling believes Wei to be same. Being good wasn't enough to survive in this world, one had to have the apt social constructs to navigate the world and make it work for you.
The two characters around who the story revolves are well rounded and flawed.
The first half of novel ends with Wei's suicide and the second half, the aftermath. Ling perhaps does realize the impact of language change in schools and society, would change the cultural fabric of Hong Kong. Its however the impact she sees on her, personally than the society itself. As its directly impacting her career and the short staffed department has her overworked, she is not the charming person that other teachers in the department surround themselves with. The cultural and political changes that she once ignored, is now affecting her life, her position in school and the camaraderie she shared with her colleagues. The brutal nature of the work place competition has teething at her ankles, and her helplessness to address them only increases.
Lau Yee-Wa turns historical allegories to personal failures, filial disciplines to moral failings and, compare - contrast of strength and smartness. Tongueless is a thought provoking novel with dark humor and fascinating characters.
What a splendid read!!
March 19, 2025
An interesting read. The workload and responsibilities of teaching certainly run true, and the mounting pressure definitely does feel insane. I love anything and everything about functions and intricacies of language and as someone who knows quite little about the Chinese language, there were parts of this book that were really enlightening (and the translator's note at the end too!)
Not sure how I feel about the ending, but I do appreciate the 'language changes you' metaphor that I was able to parse from it.
Not sure how I feel about the ending, but I do appreciate the 'language changes you' metaphor that I was able to parse from it.
June 26, 2024
3.5. The back cover of Tongueless describes the book as a “gripping psychological thriller”and then goes on to describe a plot that, while not completely inaccurate, is not a true account of how the story unfolds. This isn’t a thriller by any stretch of the imagination. The blurb by Molly McGhee calling it a “slow-burn social horror” is a bit more fitting.
The summary frames this as a story of two competing teachers who are told to transition from teaching in Cantonese to teaching in Mandarin or lose their jobs and describes the methods each teacher adopts in order to succeed: Wai by obsessively studying Mandarin and Ling by focusing on becoming besties with the principal and head of department. While we find out eventually that the school is considering switching from Cantonese to Mandarin and both teachers do have differing methods of teaching, they are like this from the beginning, well before the language change is announced and they are never explicitly told to make the switch or lose their jobs. What actually happens in the book is much more subtle and implied. If I could go back, I would just go into this book blind.
This book could have been more thriller-esque with a shocking twist if the suicide of Wai wasn’t revealed in the summary and the first page of the book. But revealing this early on allows Lau Yee-Wa to move back and forth in time in the first section, allowing the reader to compare Ling’s attitude and change in confidence from one year to the next. These jumps in time weren’t always fluid and I often felt there were discrepancies or errors in the timelines, both in the current day to day and long term (Ling is said to have taught at this school for both ten years and eight years at different points in the text).
Translating this text must have been challenging, Jennifer Feeley describes in her Translator’s Note that the original is written in a mix of standard written Chinese, Cantonese, and Mandarin. I admire the work that went into translation, but I was also reminded frequently that I was reading a translation. There were several similes scattered throughout that just didn’t make any sense. I’m not sure if Feeley was trying to adhere to a strict literal translation (I don’t think this is the case because in the note at the end she explains her thought process on why she didn’t opt for a literal translation for a particular sentence), but the chosen descriptions often read as awkward or meaningless in English.
Structure and translation aside, the content of this book is what really intrigued me. I learned a lot about the politics of language in China, and Hong Kong specifically. Tongueless shines light on the shifting dynamics and growing push for Mandarin and how this may eventually lead to the extinction of the Cantonese language and the rich and unique Hong along culture that is associated with it.
This book is well worth the read as it reveals the intense working conditions and mounting pressure that teachers in Hong Kong are under to conform and the lack of choice they have in the matter. Success feels impossible and this despair leads both teachers to take dramatic action.
The summary frames this as a story of two competing teachers who are told to transition from teaching in Cantonese to teaching in Mandarin or lose their jobs and describes the methods each teacher adopts in order to succeed: Wai by obsessively studying Mandarin and Ling by focusing on becoming besties with the principal and head of department. While we find out eventually that the school is considering switching from Cantonese to Mandarin and both teachers do have differing methods of teaching, they are like this from the beginning, well before the language change is announced and they are never explicitly told to make the switch or lose their jobs. What actually happens in the book is much more subtle and implied. If I could go back, I would just go into this book blind.
This book could have been more thriller-esque with a shocking twist if the suicide of Wai wasn’t revealed in the summary and the first page of the book. But revealing this early on allows Lau Yee-Wa to move back and forth in time in the first section, allowing the reader to compare Ling’s attitude and change in confidence from one year to the next. These jumps in time weren’t always fluid and I often felt there were discrepancies or errors in the timelines, both in the current day to day and long term (Ling is said to have taught at this school for both ten years and eight years at different points in the text).
Translating this text must have been challenging, Jennifer Feeley describes in her Translator’s Note that the original is written in a mix of standard written Chinese, Cantonese, and Mandarin. I admire the work that went into translation, but I was also reminded frequently that I was reading a translation. There were several similes scattered throughout that just didn’t make any sense. I’m not sure if Feeley was trying to adhere to a strict literal translation (I don’t think this is the case because in the note at the end she explains her thought process on why she didn’t opt for a literal translation for a particular sentence), but the chosen descriptions often read as awkward or meaningless in English.
Structure and translation aside, the content of this book is what really intrigued me. I learned a lot about the politics of language in China, and Hong Kong specifically. Tongueless shines light on the shifting dynamics and growing push for Mandarin and how this may eventually lead to the extinction of the Cantonese language and the rich and unique Hong along culture that is associated with it.
This book is well worth the read as it reveals the intense working conditions and mounting pressure that teachers in Hong Kong are under to conform and the lack of choice they have in the matter. Success feels impossible and this despair leads both teachers to take dramatic action.
March 5, 2026
I wanted way more out of this. Not a thriller, and felt flat without anything really happening or moving the story forward. I also don't know if this was a translation issue but the writing felt repetitive and choppy at times. It started out very strong, but then just didn't really go anywhere, or say anything compelling.
October 29, 2026
Ketika mendapat informasi kalau Tongueless akan diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia oleh Naomi Midori, aku langsung memantapkan hati untuk membaca versi Indonesianya saja. Apalagi diterjemahkan dari bahasa Mandarin, bukan bahasa Inggris. Setelah membaca hasil terjemahan Naomi, aku percaya bahwa yang dia kerjakan pasti menawan.
--
Aku memantapkan hati untuk segera membaca Kelu begitu pulang dari diskusi bukunya di Gramedia Jalma Melawai (24/10). Diskusi tersebut membahas bagaimana identitas manusia tidaklah sederhana. Tidak bisa sekadar mengikuti tulisan yang tertera dalam KTP (misal, untuk WNI). Pun, tidak bisa sekadar mengatakan di mana kita dilahirkan.
Kebingugan terhadap identitas inilah yang diangkat oleh Lau Yee-Wa (selanjutnya akan disingkat dengan LYW) melalui novel Kelu. Namun, alih-alih menjadikannya seperti novel yang penuh ceramah ala boomers, LYW menyajikannya lewat cerita ala psychological thriller.
Kematian Wai yang begitu tiba-tiba sekaligus mengerikan rupanya menyimpan hal yang "tersembunyi" dari tatanan sosial masyarakat Hong Kong. Ling, rekan kerja yang kubikelnya bersebelahan dengannya, menjadi tokoh utama novel Kelu ini. Kita diajak mengamati kehidupan Ling, sebelum dan sesudah kematian Wai. Dari lika-liku itulah, pembaca seakan diberi kaca pembesar dan telinga ekstra untuk melihat sekaligus mendengarkan percakapan tentang "Apa artinya menjadi orang Hong-Kong?"
Barangkali kalau hanya membaca untuk mengetahui apa yang terjadi pada Ling setelah kematian Wai, novel Kelu menjadi tidak berarti. Sebab, kita jadi tidak memerhatikan detil-detil narasi ataupun percakapan yang dibangun oleh para tokoh yang menggugat dimana posisi kebudayaan Hong-Kong dan bahasa Kanton. Misalnya saja, lewat materi yang Ling bawakan pada kelas Bahasa Mandarin di kelas 2D (jenjang SMP di Sekolah Menengah Shing Din), pertanyaan tentang "Siapa orang Hong-Kong" kita bisa merenungi betapa bingungnya menjadi orang Hong-Kong. Ada budaya Inggris akibat penjajahan tapi di sisi lain juga masih melekat budaya Tiongkok.
Belum lagi posisi Bahasa Kanton dan Bahasa Mandarin yang saling berlomba menjadi bahasa "nasional" di Hong-Kong. Orang-orang Hong-Kong merasa menggunakan Bahasa Kanton sudah tidak relevan karena semakin banyak orang Cina Daratan yang datang ke Hong-Kong dan tampak lebih tinggi kelas sosialnya. Sedangkan, orang Cina Daratan merasa tidak bisa mendapatkan pekerjaan yang layak karena mereka tidak bisa Bahasa Kanton.
Tidak berhenti sampai situ saja. LYW juga menyoroti bagaimana Ling pekerjaan seperti guru juga rentan terhadap pemutusan hubungan kerja. Bahkan, mengabdi bertahun-tahun pada sebuah institusi tidak otomatis menjadikanmu mudah mendapatkan posisi sebagai "karyawan tetap". (Wow teringat UU Ciptaker hehe). Guru bahasa Mandarin, seperti Ling dan Wai, yang belum lulus ujian kefasihan berbahasa, maka tidak bisa mendapatkan 100% gaji. Padahal, beban kerjanya juga sama beratnya dengan guru yang sudah lulus ujian kefasihan berbahasa. Hmm...kok akal-akalan ini semakin mirip dengan sebuah negara tertentu ya...
Bagiku yang ingin mendapatkan lebih banyak insights tentang kebingungan identitas dan bagaimana kekuasaan bisa membuat diri kita kehilangan "akar" (termasuk dalam kebebasan penggunaan bahasa), Kelu kurang menyematkan hal tersebut. Malah, lebih condong mengomentari kondisi sosial ekonomi, hubungan ibu dan anak, juga beban kerja yang harus diampu oleh seorang guru. Mungkin...ketimbang dipromosikan sebagai buku yang membahas hilangnya bahasa, lebih baik dijelaskan saja bahwa Kelu adalah novel yang sarat kritik sosial terhadap Hong-Kong.
Tapi, jika kamu mencari novel yang mencekam dari penulis Hong-Kong (kayaknya jarang ya di Indonesia?), Kelu bisa menjadi opsi.
--
Aku memantapkan hati untuk segera membaca Kelu begitu pulang dari diskusi bukunya di Gramedia Jalma Melawai (24/10). Diskusi tersebut membahas bagaimana identitas manusia tidaklah sederhana. Tidak bisa sekadar mengikuti tulisan yang tertera dalam KTP (misal, untuk WNI). Pun, tidak bisa sekadar mengatakan di mana kita dilahirkan.
Kebingugan terhadap identitas inilah yang diangkat oleh Lau Yee-Wa (selanjutnya akan disingkat dengan LYW) melalui novel Kelu. Namun, alih-alih menjadikannya seperti novel yang penuh ceramah ala boomers, LYW menyajikannya lewat cerita ala psychological thriller.
Kematian Wai yang begitu tiba-tiba sekaligus mengerikan rupanya menyimpan hal yang "tersembunyi" dari tatanan sosial masyarakat Hong Kong. Ling, rekan kerja yang kubikelnya bersebelahan dengannya, menjadi tokoh utama novel Kelu ini. Kita diajak mengamati kehidupan Ling, sebelum dan sesudah kematian Wai. Dari lika-liku itulah, pembaca seakan diberi kaca pembesar dan telinga ekstra untuk melihat sekaligus mendengarkan percakapan tentang "Apa artinya menjadi orang Hong-Kong?"
Barangkali kalau hanya membaca untuk mengetahui apa yang terjadi pada Ling setelah kematian Wai, novel Kelu menjadi tidak berarti. Sebab, kita jadi tidak memerhatikan detil-detil narasi ataupun percakapan yang dibangun oleh para tokoh yang menggugat dimana posisi kebudayaan Hong-Kong dan bahasa Kanton. Misalnya saja, lewat materi yang Ling bawakan pada kelas Bahasa Mandarin di kelas 2D (jenjang SMP di Sekolah Menengah Shing Din), pertanyaan tentang "Siapa orang Hong-Kong" kita bisa merenungi betapa bingungnya menjadi orang Hong-Kong. Ada budaya Inggris akibat penjajahan tapi di sisi lain juga masih melekat budaya Tiongkok.
Belum lagi posisi Bahasa Kanton dan Bahasa Mandarin yang saling berlomba menjadi bahasa "nasional" di Hong-Kong. Orang-orang Hong-Kong merasa menggunakan Bahasa Kanton sudah tidak relevan karena semakin banyak orang Cina Daratan yang datang ke Hong-Kong dan tampak lebih tinggi kelas sosialnya. Sedangkan, orang Cina Daratan merasa tidak bisa mendapatkan pekerjaan yang layak karena mereka tidak bisa Bahasa Kanton.
Tidak berhenti sampai situ saja. LYW juga menyoroti bagaimana Ling pekerjaan seperti guru juga rentan terhadap pemutusan hubungan kerja. Bahkan, mengabdi bertahun-tahun pada sebuah institusi tidak otomatis menjadikanmu mudah mendapatkan posisi sebagai "karyawan tetap". (Wow teringat UU Ciptaker hehe). Guru bahasa Mandarin, seperti Ling dan Wai, yang belum lulus ujian kefasihan berbahasa, maka tidak bisa mendapatkan 100% gaji. Padahal, beban kerjanya juga sama beratnya dengan guru yang sudah lulus ujian kefasihan berbahasa. Hmm...kok akal-akalan ini semakin mirip dengan sebuah negara tertentu ya...
Bagiku yang ingin mendapatkan lebih banyak insights tentang kebingungan identitas dan bagaimana kekuasaan bisa membuat diri kita kehilangan "akar" (termasuk dalam kebebasan penggunaan bahasa), Kelu kurang menyematkan hal tersebut. Malah, lebih condong mengomentari kondisi sosial ekonomi, hubungan ibu dan anak, juga beban kerja yang harus diampu oleh seorang guru. Mungkin...ketimbang dipromosikan sebagai buku yang membahas hilangnya bahasa, lebih baik dijelaskan saja bahwa Kelu adalah novel yang sarat kritik sosial terhadap Hong-Kong.
Tapi, jika kamu mencari novel yang mencekam dari penulis Hong-Kong (kayaknya jarang ya di Indonesia?), Kelu bisa menjadi opsi.
Read
February 15, 2025this book is a slow, interesting psychological study, maybe even a thriller, with the shifting, trapping political climate of hong kong used as the background. although difficult to continue at times, the portrayal of the two main characters is fascinating, as the subtle yet continuous changes to the both of them seem very realistic and increasingly more terrifying
and even though i'm not amazed, the concept itself is enough to recommend "tongueless," i don't think i've read a book like this one
also, the translator's note is informative and definitely needed (i am a little biased tho lmao)
"How come the principal isn't responsible for hounding Miss Yu to death, but students are punished for their wrongdoings?"
"'How's your Mandarin?'
'It's coming along. You can test me any time.'
'You've got this.'"
and even though i'm not amazed, the concept itself is enough to recommend "tongueless," i don't think i've read a book like this one
also, the translator's note is informative and definitely needed (i am a little biased tho lmao)
"How come the principal isn't responsible for hounding Miss Yu to death, but students are punished for their wrongdoings?"
"'How's your Mandarin?'
'It's coming along. You can test me any time.'
'You've got this.'"
August 17, 2024
TONGUELESS |
TY @feministpress for the #gifted copy. Already out now!
Two teachers at a school in Hong Kong vie for job security amid a changing landscape of language integration and pedagogy.
Can bullying the weak and uninitiated ultimately provide a greater good? We see this idea played out in multiple scenarios throughout the book. We see this in the case of the bullied woman, Wai, who fights tooth and nail to improve her Mandarin speaking skills despite being scorned by her colleagues, bullied by the principal and ridiculed for slipups by students. We also see this demonstrated in a class discussion on the state of Hong Kong being a British colony. The teacher, our MC, takes the position that this has helped to improve Hong Kong and its citizens, straddling a Western and Chinese culture, that they were made the better for it. But were they really made the better for it?
In the case of Wai, obviously not, she commits suicide (which you find out in the 1st chapter) for being belittled by everyone into seeing herself as incapable, lazy and dumb. Through the course of the book, our MC, who was the main instigator of bullying Wai finds herself in a similar situation as Wai, fighting to obsessively improve her Mandarin speaking proficiency. But throughout the book we see the status that mainlanders of China carry over Hong Kongers, speakers of standard putonghua, who work hard and fight hard. It's the Hong Kongers who retreat into trying to change their luck by utilizing whatever "clever" devices they can, outwitting their competition, changing their looks through surgery, and attempting to get ahead no matter how much that puts them into debt.
I found it fascinating to read as this focuses on the lives of people who have such a complicated, unique history from a language standpoint - having been brought up to learn English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Now that HK has been "recently" reabsorbed into the greater China, we see the fears and anxiety of how its people fear their culture, language, and future will be overshadowed and replaced.
TY @feministpress for the #gifted copy. Already out now!
Two teachers at a school in Hong Kong vie for job security amid a changing landscape of language integration and pedagogy.
Can bullying the weak and uninitiated ultimately provide a greater good? We see this idea played out in multiple scenarios throughout the book. We see this in the case of the bullied woman, Wai, who fights tooth and nail to improve her Mandarin speaking skills despite being scorned by her colleagues, bullied by the principal and ridiculed for slipups by students. We also see this demonstrated in a class discussion on the state of Hong Kong being a British colony. The teacher, our MC, takes the position that this has helped to improve Hong Kong and its citizens, straddling a Western and Chinese culture, that they were made the better for it. But were they really made the better for it?
In the case of Wai, obviously not, she commits suicide (which you find out in the 1st chapter) for being belittled by everyone into seeing herself as incapable, lazy and dumb. Through the course of the book, our MC, who was the main instigator of bullying Wai finds herself in a similar situation as Wai, fighting to obsessively improve her Mandarin speaking proficiency. But throughout the book we see the status that mainlanders of China carry over Hong Kongers, speakers of standard putonghua, who work hard and fight hard. It's the Hong Kongers who retreat into trying to change their luck by utilizing whatever "clever" devices they can, outwitting their competition, changing their looks through surgery, and attempting to get ahead no matter how much that puts them into debt.
I found it fascinating to read as this focuses on the lives of people who have such a complicated, unique history from a language standpoint - having been brought up to learn English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Now that HK has been "recently" reabsorbed into the greater China, we see the fears and anxiety of how its people fear their culture, language, and future will be overshadowed and replaced.
Read
January 13, 2025memorable + unique storytelling that explores the teaching profession and education system in Hong Kong (particularly re. use of language). you can truly feel the exhaustion and pressure experienced by the characters, especially wai and ling. kudos to the author & translator who also included an informative translator's note at the end.
January 9, 2025
I really enjoyed this book and how it highlights the cultural tensions in Hong Kong and the importance of language to people’s identity.
September 29, 2024
Reading this right before finally getting to Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses is an interesting experience. My main reaction to this novel is that it is a perfect example of modern literary-adjacent fiction finally losing the plot. Quite literally - not much happens in the book, either in terms of events or character development/character conflict. I found it quite boring for that reason. However, I am very aware (and see the references in Salesses) that East Asian, especially Chiense fiction, is often criticised by Western readers for that exact reason, ignoring completely different cultural conventions of storytelling in Chinese literary tradition.
Am I falling foul of not seeing past Western expectations of what craft is? Completely possible. I do also think that many contemporary Western novels have the same issue, and I did really enjoy Butter, even though similar critiques can be applied to it. In Tongueless, I wasn't sure why the ideas and messages the author discussed were presented in fiction, rather than essay, form. The novel is about the advent of Mandarin in the predominantly Cantonese speaking Hong Kong and about the steady erosion of linguistic diversity and freedom under the CCP. It gave me an interesting insight into contemporary Hong Kong society and helped me to contextualise what I've heard from my students and friends. It was interesting to learn about the cultural and financial pressures piled on Chinese teachers. The social pressure to look the part by always having the latest designer clothes was surprising and fascinating. However, I am always suspicious of novels that predominantly teach me something, as I believe that it should be the primary purpose of non-fiction, not fiction.
I found the protagonists - two female Chinese language teachers, one subservient to the other - unlikable, which is normally a win in my books, and I was looking forward to their complex and twisted relationship. However, not much was happening between them, and their relationship turned out to be not as interesting as I had hoped (here I can compare it unfavourably to Butter). I would have enjoyed the novel if it had been about half the length.
Am I falling foul of not seeing past Western expectations of what craft is? Completely possible. I do also think that many contemporary Western novels have the same issue, and I did really enjoy Butter, even though similar critiques can be applied to it. In Tongueless, I wasn't sure why the ideas and messages the author discussed were presented in fiction, rather than essay, form. The novel is about the advent of Mandarin in the predominantly Cantonese speaking Hong Kong and about the steady erosion of linguistic diversity and freedom under the CCP. It gave me an interesting insight into contemporary Hong Kong society and helped me to contextualise what I've heard from my students and friends. It was interesting to learn about the cultural and financial pressures piled on Chinese teachers. The social pressure to look the part by always having the latest designer clothes was surprising and fascinating. However, I am always suspicious of novels that predominantly teach me something, as I believe that it should be the primary purpose of non-fiction, not fiction.
I found the protagonists - two female Chinese language teachers, one subservient to the other - unlikable, which is normally a win in my books, and I was looking forward to their complex and twisted relationship. However, not much was happening between them, and their relationship turned out to be not as interesting as I had hoped (here I can compare it unfavourably to Butter). I would have enjoyed the novel if it had been about half the length.
September 7, 2025
"Only by speaking properly will others respect you. In Hong Kong if you speak English like a foreigner you are superiors to others. The same is true for speaking Mandarin."(p.108)
Aku selalu yakin perubahan sejarah itu tidak hanya terjadi di episentrum. Saya selalu membayangkan peristiwa sejarah itu seperti gelombang air ketika kita lempar sebuah batu, gelombangnya menyebar ke seluruh permukaan. Bedanya hanya tinggi-rendahnya amplitudo tersebut. Seperti kalau bahasa saya, “mencatat sejarah dari tepian.” Persis novel ini. Meski novel ini sama sekali tidak menyebut “represi negara”, tetapi jelas ini adalah efek domino dari perubahan pemerintah.
Hong Kong menerapkan aturan “trilingual and bilaterate”, peraturan yang memaksa sekolah untuk aktif berkomunikasi dalam tiga bahasa —English, Kanton, dan Mandarin, sekaligus mahir dalam dua bahasa tulis-menulis —English dan Mandarin. Lihat ada “bahasa” yang direpresi untuk hilang, bahasa Kanton. Akibatnya di sebuah sekolah guru yang belum mahir dalam bahasa Mandarin, mengalami depresi dan ujungnya bunuh diri.
Sekolah dan sistem sosial diam saja, tidak merespon. Murid-murid cuek bahkan menertawakan Wai —guru yang belum mahir Mandarin, dengan logat Kanton untuk English dan Mandarin.
Namun, perubahan ini bukan hanya efek peraturan 1998 yang memaksa orang untuk lebih memakai English dan Mandarin. Ini ada kaitannya dengan sjearah Hong Kong (yang pernah dijajah English dan merasa inferior oleh orang-orang Mainland).
Wai dan Ling dua guru kontrak di departemen bahasa China di sekolah SMA, mereka akrab kemudian menjadi sangat menjauh ketika Wai yang guru baru, merasa harus menjadi “budak” sekolah. Wai bunuh diri, dan sekolah menutup media dari kebenaran.
Lebih dari itu kisah Wai dan Ling adalah kisah generasi “z” Hong Kong yang terimpit banyak hal: tuntutan sosial, kudu cantik, kudu punya aset cepat.
Menurutku novel ini sangat dekat dengan kita yang ang-ing-eng terhadap sosial.
March 7, 2026
Lau Yee-Wa’s Tongueless is a novel about language, but more precisely about the violence embedded in language politics. Set against Hong Kong’s contested present, it dramatizes how Cantonese, Mandarin, and English are not neutral tools of communication but instruments of surveillance, exclusion, and power. The book’s satire is sharp, sometimes absurd, but always deliberate: every exchange is a reminder that the tongue itself can be policed, and silence can be both resistance and erasure.
What makes the novel compelling is its refusal to soften the disorientation of living in a city where linguistic identity is under siege. Lau’s prose captures the absurdity of bureaucratic language reforms and the intimacy of everyday speech, showing how even tools like Pinyin—designed to standardize pronunciation—become part of the machinery that reduces language to conformity.
Tongueless belongs in the company of independent presses that champion uncompromising voices. Published by Serpent’s Tail, it is not a book that entertains lightly; it unsettles, provokes, and insists on being read as a record of cultural upheaval. Its nomination for the Chommanard International Women’s Literary Award, with the ceremony coming up on March 28, 2026—a ceremony I plan to attend—underscores its urgency and relevance. Lau Yee-Wa’s novel is a reminder that literature can be both electric and necessary, a work that refuses to let language remain innocent. In a world where words are weaponized, Tongueless proves that fiction can still bite back.
What makes the novel compelling is its refusal to soften the disorientation of living in a city where linguistic identity is under siege. Lau’s prose captures the absurdity of bureaucratic language reforms and the intimacy of everyday speech, showing how even tools like Pinyin—designed to standardize pronunciation—become part of the machinery that reduces language to conformity.
Tongueless belongs in the company of independent presses that champion uncompromising voices. Published by Serpent’s Tail, it is not a book that entertains lightly; it unsettles, provokes, and insists on being read as a record of cultural upheaval. Its nomination for the Chommanard International Women’s Literary Award, with the ceremony coming up on March 28, 2026—a ceremony I plan to attend—underscores its urgency and relevance. Lau Yee-Wa’s novel is a reminder that literature can be both electric and necessary, a work that refuses to let language remain innocent. In a world where words are weaponized, Tongueless proves that fiction can still bite back.
September 17, 2024
interesting premise
March 9, 2026
As much as I want to give this book 4 stars, I can’t. So 3.5/5. Why?
Well, it tackles a lot of topics but doesn’t fully delve into them, and it feels the synopsis is selling a slightly different book than this actually is.
After reading the synopsis, I expected a Cantonese versus Mandarin battle of sorts. I expected a Wai versus Ling take on Mandarin creeping into this Hong Kong school. Maybe even Wai’s perspective. But the book felt more about materialism than language. As someone whose family can speak Cantonese, I want to preserve the language and hoped that someone would stand up to the mandate to switch to Mandarin and the way that plays into politics in Hong Kong. I didn’t get that at all and instead had to suffer through a person’s musings as she bullies someone else and constantly shops to avoid her problems.
In this way, the book was written well. I couldn’t stand Ling. From the consumerism to the bullying, she’s so unlikeable. Contrasted to Wai, who we get nothing about, I feel like Ling’s approach to the switch to Mandarin is so flippant (in itself a statement). Is that what most HKers think about the mainland/Mandarin? If so, I worry.
A note on Wai’s treatment. It felt strange that Ling and her coworkers were bullying Wai, whose Mandarin studies I associated with mainland China. Basically, I wondered if we, the reader, are meant to sympathize with the mainland or not.
The translator’s notes mention many social issues simmering under the main plot, and I agree. The housing issues, treatment of disabled people, etc. Why couldn’t we get more of that? In the end, I wanted a ra-ra book about Cantonese language preservation and celebration and didn’t get that and thusly am disappointed.
Well, it tackles a lot of topics but doesn’t fully delve into them, and it feels the synopsis is selling a slightly different book than this actually is.
After reading the synopsis, I expected a Cantonese versus Mandarin battle of sorts. I expected a Wai versus Ling take on Mandarin creeping into this Hong Kong school. Maybe even Wai’s perspective. But the book felt more about materialism than language. As someone whose family can speak Cantonese, I want to preserve the language and hoped that someone would stand up to the mandate to switch to Mandarin and the way that plays into politics in Hong Kong. I didn’t get that at all and instead had to suffer through a person’s musings as she bullies someone else and constantly shops to avoid her problems.
In this way, the book was written well. I couldn’t stand Ling. From the consumerism to the bullying, she’s so unlikeable. Contrasted to Wai, who we get nothing about, I feel like Ling’s approach to the switch to Mandarin is so flippant (in itself a statement). Is that what most HKers think about the mainland/Mandarin? If so, I worry.
A note on Wai’s treatment. It felt strange that Ling and her coworkers were bullying Wai, whose Mandarin studies I associated with mainland China. Basically, I wondered if we, the reader, are meant to sympathize with the mainland or not.
The translator’s notes mention many social issues simmering under the main plot, and I agree. The housing issues, treatment of disabled people, etc. Why couldn’t we get more of that? In the end, I wanted a ra-ra book about Cantonese language preservation and celebration and didn’t get that and thusly am disappointed.
September 9, 2024
Amazing translation. There are some linguistic elements it’s impossible for the reader to pick up on in English, but I appreciate the creative ways the translator worked to convey them. As for the story itself, Lau builds a setting where pressure squeezes her two main characters from all sides. I would have liked to see it play out slightly more, but she leaves us on a precipice with Ling, not knowing whether she will be fired, unable to pay off her credit card debt, or afford the home her mother forced her to purchase. I think the squeeze more than its ultimate conclusion is more Lau’s point, which she layers on really well, doing a beautiful job of describing contemporary Hong Kong as a continuously evolving places and how it’s residents are in many ways being pushed to the brink.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2025
This was a fantastic psychological thriller! It follows the story of two secondary school teachers in Hong Kong who are forced to switch from teaching in Cantonese to Mandarin or else they’re going to get fired.
Despite that the main characters are unlikeable, I was so stressed for both of them. The book was just so well written, and I found it difficult to put down. There was lots of office drama and bullying going on, and the characters were so vivid.
Despite that the main characters are unlikeable, I was so stressed for both of them. The book was just so well written, and I found it difficult to put down. There was lots of office drama and bullying going on, and the characters were so vivid.
March 13, 2026
I need a break from psychological thrillers after this. I saw a review describe this as a “slow-moving social horror” rather than a thriller, and I think I’d agree with that. Really interesting book though, I imagine reading it in Chinese and having a better understanding of the Cantonese vs Mandarin throughout the text would make this book even more impactful.
Also would not recommend reading on an empty stomach while in the middle seat of an airplane. Very anxiety inducing and a book I will be thinking about for a while
Also would not recommend reading on an empty stomach while in the middle seat of an airplane. Very anxiety inducing and a book I will be thinking about for a while
September 15, 2024
Interesting to learn more about Hong Kong’s political situation but beyond that 🤷🏻♀️ Didn’t do much for me. Also VERY SAD AND DISTURBING !! Which isn’t a bad thing at all, just, woah
July 17, 2025
Time to learn Mandarin.
August 3, 2026
don't know if it was a gripping psychological thriller as described
April 18, 2026
One of those books where everyone is miserable so not exactly a fun read. But I did learn a lot about Hong Kong! I wish the translator’s note had been at the beginning because I was missing a lot of the context about Cantonese vs. Mandarin.
October 2, 2024
I was excited to read this. Yet despite compelling themes, the storytelling translated into English felt choppy and clumsy - not a gripping horror or thriller as marketed. The original version may be more effective, especially in exploring the interplay between Mandarin and Cantonese.
August 18, 2025
3.5. okay
attempted-maybe-forever-dnf
September 15, 2024dnf
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