Writing in Difficult Times 困頓之書

by 黃裕邦 (Editor), 李薇婷, Nicholas Wong

Writing has always been a difficult subject to talk about, let alone writing an honest account about how one’s creative process is complicated by global lockdown and personal hardships. In Writing in Difficult Times, eleven young promising writers from Hong Kong wallow in some of their perhaps most confusing and troubling moments in life, and share their struggles. How do writers committed to crafted language maintain a dialogue with themselves? How does the dense urban living space affect creative outputs and thoughts? How do writers reflect on and evaluate gender roles, motherhood, and time? What roles does memory play in writing, if memory’s own language is not allowed to communicate? Each personal essay in this collection is available in both Chinese and English, hoping to build a timely and genuine connection with its readers, regardless of location and cultural background. Each word is a courageous sharing that makes a significant contribution to bilingual Hong Kong literary writings today.

寫作總是難以言說的事，更遑論誠實地書寫因為全球封關而變得更為複雜的個人難關。在《困頓之書》裏，十一位香港作家以文字述說當下，分享他們的種種掙扎：在這個全球共同面對的苦痛時刻­­裏，作家們如果雕鏤文字來和自己保持通話？高度密集的城市生活空間又如何影響他們的創作與思緒？他們又如何反思性別角色、母性與時間？本書的每篇文字均以中、英雙語呈現，希望能夠跨越文化和語言的限制，與讀者建立真誠的溝通。書內每一字一句，均是一次勇敢的分享，試圖以雙語的香港文學，回應全球狀態。

196 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2021

Reviews

[c · Rating 5 out of 5]

i couldn’t put this down. i was up at 4am, still reading, but when it was clear that i wasn’t going to finish i tried to go to bed, but was kept up by thoughts swimming around in my head. it’s a really interesting collection of psychological essays and fragmented prose written by HK writers and their thoughts, musings, and coping mechanisms over the past three years, bound by a common thread: how can we live a day that is a little bit better, and stay true to the voice inside us?

this is a book about hk that’s also not about hk: it’s an interrogation of language and lifestyle. how do you write good dialogue? can you temporarily detach from your trauma to gain perspective and breathing room? at what point should you re-engage with your trauma, and is this a choice you can consciously make? who gets to contribute to the hk narrative? how can you fully immerse yourself in the present? what role does sacrifice have in the hk identity? how do you write about 2019-2021 events in a codified way, and how will this be read by current readers (who will read this with the lived experience of 2019-2021), and readers of the future/readers who have little to no understanding of hk 2019-2021? how can a chinese sympathiser be pro-democracy in the burmese context? an bonus of this book: its bilingual, so maybe after some time i’ll read these essays in the opposite language and re-experience the feeling (privilege!) of reading these essays for the first time again.

also another thought ... with translators finally getting more recognition in anglo lit, will bilingual anthologies like this become more popular 🥺

[rainberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

在NLB相遇，没有想到是香港近期的文学作品。
就像编者在前言里所写：难道时间不够艰难了吗，究竟有什么人会嫌自己的日子过得不够辛苦，还有空去了解一些香港作家的写作之苦？其实不光是写作之苦，是一起经历的所有痛苦。

favourite: survival and cowardice, mothers, liminal

[xtie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some gorgeous nuggets in here about grief, memories, what makes a craft yours, what makes you you without your craft, that constant sense of isolation I’ve felt in the past few years …

I appreciate that hk also had a very different covid experience to the rest of the world and so the essays don’t just run the gamut of pandemic writing. Some essays did shine brighter than others - those that did felt really sardonic but delicately crafted; I know the editors felt that they didn’t want to generalise about the works in total but I really felt this sense of… difficulty and struggle amongst the more memorable pieces.

💛