“A writer, like an acrobat, must occasionally try a stunt that is too much for him,’ The New Yorker editorial writer E. B. White once counseled. I lack the nerve to knowingly […]
Writer as acrobat
To write well, sweat the small stuff
It was only after My Fair Lady was showing in the cinemas that its set designer Cecil Beaton noticed a mistake he had overlooked: towards the end of the film, in the […]
在國安法的陰霾下，我的靈魂伴侶是…吳佩慈
這個題目聽起來好像很荒謬，我這個身處於水深火熱的香港、隨時觸犯國安法的獨立雙語作家，跟已搭上大陸富豪、每天過著養尊處優的生活的吳佩慈，按理說反差應該不能更大才對！怎能說她是我的靈魂伴侶？
It’s the DSE English Language paper that deserves a bad grade
Recently, a Hong Kong parent reached out to me. My child has to sit for her DSE in a few weeks, she said. Can you help her tackle the writing section of […]
Learning the ABCs of persuasive writing from 陳茂波’s WSJ letter
Many people in Hong Kong cheered when the Wall Street Journal branded Paul Chan Mo-po (陳茂波) an “illusionist” for bothering to write to the paper to persuade its readers that Hong Kong […]
What’s buzzing?
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that anyone who has watched Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” (1967) – a film about a bored housewife moonlighting as a prostitute – […]
The power of the passive voice
“Rules are made to be broken.” This phrase sprang to mind after I read Buckingham Palace’s response to the interview Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had with Oprah. In our school days, […]
“A huge, bleeding effort”
When I came across this piece on writer’s block written by the New Yorker cultural critic Joan Acocella – I’ve long been in awe of her uncanny ability to narrate complex content […]
