Setting the scene
The scene is to be filmed in a diner in Los Angeles, but the story is set in Manhattan. Solution?Continue Reading
Category: Thoughts on Writing
The click of the lid of a perfectly made box
At the start of the Cultural Revolution, when hardliners seized control of his studio, noted film director Hu Xiaofeng (胡小峰)Continue Reading
A room of her own
At the height of her fame in the 1960s, Pauline de Rothschild (1908-1976) was frequently photographed by Vogue and admiredContinue Reading
The trouble with transitions
“Why do my Hong Kong employees have such a fondness for words like ‘moreover’ and ‘furthermore’?” I once heard aContinue Reading
Copy that
In the days of her youth, when Zhang Chonghe (张充和) honed her art at the feet of the master calligrapherContinue Reading
Writing as an observational science
Even though I sat through my compulsory physics and chemistry classes in secondary school not understanding a word, oddly enough,Continue Reading
The power of an entrance
The one thing that doesn’t get easier with time even for experienced writers is the art of striking the rightContinue Reading
文字的脈象
我在大陸居住期間，有幸遇上一位好中醫，被她針灸的過程神奇極了：每當她给我施針，我皮下一感到一股流動的氣，她就會立馬停手，她似乎知道已刺進穴位，不需要把針插得更深。
