kaureads nick

“Despite my attempts to translate some of their lyrics here from Cantonese, the essence of these intimate and exquisite, yet 鳩, lyrics is impossible to capture. They feel like soft inside jokes whispered into your ear just before bed, jokes only Cantonese speakers understand.”
― Karen Cheung, The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir

“If we want to write shit poems about Hong Kong, then let us write shit poems about Hong Kong. If I want to exploit my pain, then let me exploit it until my heart can no longer take it.”
― Karen Cheung, The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir

“Look closer at this street corner: The sun is setting. The vendor at the newspaper stand packs up the dailies and puts away the cartons of eggs. Students with laptops in their arms shuffle out of the cha chaan teng. Elderly couples and their poodles take a stroll by the pier. You can still hear the uproar of the crowds that once gathered on the steep slopes for film screenings, festivals, protests. The florists at the wet market put away the last lilies. The last tram slots itself into the station. And then the scene dissolves again. Maybe you can’t save this place; maybe it isn’t even worth saving. But for a moment, there was a sliver of what this city could have become. And that is why we’re still here.”
― Karen Cheung, The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir

“That can be said of certain places. The closer you get to them, the uglier they become.”
― Riley Sager, Lock Every Door