As a part of “City Literary Awards 2020”, talks and workshops were organised to introduce prose, novel and poetry. These activities kicked off in November 2019 and will continue till January 2020.
Organised by Department of Chinese and History of CityU, and sponsored by Tin Ka Ping Foundation and Mr Zhang Da Peng, “City Literary Awards 2020” aims at enhancing Chinese creative writing standard of the younger generation in Hong Kong. The talks and workshops targeted at students from local secondary and tertiary institutions, especially those who consider participating in the writing competition. Submissions will close on 28 February 2020.
Mr CHAN Chi-Kian and Mr YAN Pui-kei, both being local writers and teachers in secondary schools, shared knowledge of novel writing on two consecutive Saturdays in November. Chan’s session on 23 November 2019 introduced the fundamental elements of a novel, while the one by Yan on 30 November 2019 delved deeper into the soul of novel creation. With their substantial experience in writing, notably campus and youth novels, they gave participants fascinating insights into planning and plotting their pieces.
On 7 December 2019, Hong Kong poet Ms LAW Lok-man spoke on new poetry. New poetry usually does not have consistent styles and structures, compared with Tang poetry and other classic Chinese poetry. Yet, that does not mean it is totally free. During the talk, Law presented examples of new poetry to help the audience understand this genre of creative writing.
Following the introduction by Law, two other local poets Mr KWUN Moon-nam and Ms LEUNG She-kwan hosted workshops on writing poems on 14 and 21 December 2019. The first workshop themed around the descriptive, narrative and lyrical features of new poetry, while the second one focused on the creation and appreciation of poetry works.
Renowned screenwriter Dr Ben WONG King-fai, whose works include Golden Horse Awards winning Life without Principle, was invited to deliver a talk also on 21 December 2019. With a list of screenplays and novels draw heavily on local cultures, Wong is undoubtedly a right person to examine city literature and the keys to writing stories of the past, present and future of Hong Kong.
A talk and two workshops on prose writing will be held on 4, 11 and 18 January 2020 respectively. Details can be found here. Seats are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis for the talk, while pre-registration through this page is required for the workshops.
Cover photo: Literature enthusiasts gathered to explore the essential elements of a novel.
Photo 2: Mr Yan Pui-kei gave an inspirational talk on novel creation.
Photo 3: Ms LAW Lok-man introduced new poetry by presenting a few examples.
Photo 4: The small group size of the workshops has facilitated more interaction between the speaker and the participants.
