Leung Ping-kwan

(Liang Bingjun; a.k.a.Ye Si)

b. 1948, Guangdong

Poet, writer, professor

After receiving a bilingual education in Hong Kong, Leung Ping-kwan received a PhD in the USA. He is Professor of Chinese at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He is a poet, writer and critic, interested in all aspects of culture, including photography and cinema. His first publications were translations of foreign literature in the 1970s. In both his poems and his stories, Leung expresses his doubts, hesitations, wanderings and sensitive curiosity, all through objective landscapes as well as through the ordinary things of daily life. One of his books of poetry is entitled Dongxi (which can be translated as either ‘Things’ or ‘East-West’, 2000). Islands and Continents (Dao yü dalu, 1987) figures the many moods of the protagonist, who travels in his memories through the years and to various places, including mainland China, the USA and, of course, Hong Kong. His contributions as a researcher of Hong Kong culture are considered of major importance; see especially his book Hong Kong Culture (Xianggang wenhua, 1995).

Because Leung often feels that life and its cultural expression in Hong Kong are too narrow, he likes to collaborate with artists in experimental ways: for example, with the photographer Lee Ka-sing, he published Foodscape (Shishi diyu zhi) in 1997.

Further reading

Leung, Ping-kwan (1992). City at the End of Time (Xingxiang Xianggang). Trans. Gordon T. Osing. Hong Kong: Twilight Books Company, University of Hong Kong [bilingual edition of poems].

——(2001). Iles et continents. Trans. Annie Curien. Paris: Gallimard.

——(2002). Travelling with a Bitter Melon (Dai yimei kugua luxing). Trans. Martha P.Y.Cheung. Hong Kong: Asia 2000 [bilingual edition of poetry].

ANNIE CURIEN