Next time you are out of ideas and struggling with your creative writing homework, go outside, take a walk and have a good look around you. Hong Kong is full of interesting stories waiting to be told.
According to prominent and influential Chinese writer Pai Hsien-yung, also known as Bai Xianyong, this city is a great source of inspiration and a treasure trove full of ideas for writers. That is despite, and perhaps because of, its hectic fast-paced and metropolitan lifestyle.
'The Hong Kong society is very colourful,' Professor Pai told Young Post. 'So complex, [it has] so many happenings, so much good material for fiction.'
The 66-year-old mainland-born, Hong Kong- and Taiwan-educated, literary master was in town last week to give talks to secondary and tertiary students on creative writing.
He was invited by Lingnan University to take part in its creative writing workshop as a guest critic. On Thursday, the university also granted the US-based professor an honorary doctorate degree in literature.
The writing exercise was open to secondary school teachers and students as well as undergraduates in its Chinese department. About 100 secondary school teachers and students took part in a series of writing workshops last month and more than 20 articles were selected for critique. The exercise was organised by Lingnan's Chinese department chair Professor Leung Ping-kwan.
Having read all the submissions, Professor Pai said that romance was still by far the most popular genre among student writers, who are predominantly female. He also noted, in most love stories, good girls always fall for bad boys.