City at the End of Time 形象香港: Poems by Leung Ping-kwan 梁秉鈞詩選

Ping-kwan Leung

Jun 2012 · Echoes: Classics of Hong Kong Culture and History Book 14 · Hong Kong University Press

About this ebook

Written by Leung Ping-kwan in the 1980s and 1990s, this volume of poetry evokes the complexity of Hong Kong city life in the critical moments preceding the 1997 handover. The poet muses upon the problems of cultural identity and the passing of time, and explores the relationship between poetry and other genres and media within a cross-cultural and cross-border context. An introduction by Ackbar Abbas in the original edition relates Leung’s writing to the cultural and political space of Hong Kong in the 1990s. This expanded bilingual version adds a new essay by Esther Cheung, and also a recent conversation between Leung and three critics, which provides insights on how Leung’s poetry still resonates powerfully after two decades. The book invites readers to look afresh at Leung’s meditative poetry and probe into the contradictory realities of this changing postcolonial city.

Ratings and reviews

Hong Kong Charles Dickens

About the author

Leung Ping-kwan, better known under his pen name Ye Si, is the author of Foodscape (1997), Clothink (1998), Travelling with a Bitter Melon (2002), Islands and Continents (2006), Shifting Borders (2009), Hong Kong Culture (1995), and Hong Kong Literature and Cinema (2011). He is Director of the Centre for Humanities Research and Chair Professor of Comparative Literature at Lingnan University.

Esther Cheung is associate professor of comparative literature at the University of Hong Kong, and author of Made in Hong Kong.