Kwong Yee-man imagines the future world to be grey and sunless, covered with sand and dust, and with no traces of trees or flowers remaining. The surviving population wears masks due to the excessive pollution and lack of oxygen. This is the setting of her short story that won this year's Young Post short story competition.
'I love sci-fi stories. I always wanted to write a story about the future,' says the 16-year-old Form Five student from Po Leung Kuk Centenary Li Shiu Chung Memorial College. 'It gives me space to imagine things and allows my creative juices to flow.'
The science student loves to push her creativity to the limit and even won a local science competition by creating a shoe polish using her own hair.
The title of the YP competition - 'I found a book' - grabbed Yee-man's attention. 'I thought to myself: What could I write about? Then, ideas flew in, and I knew I would write something about the environment.' So she created a female character, Erica, who found a book by accident and had no idea if the content was real.
'Erica did not know what the objects in the book, such as flowers or trees, were, because in her time, she had never seen any of them,' the young author explains. 'After discovering the ancient book, she set off on a special journey and learned about the past when the land had trees and plants, and the sun was shining in a big, blue sky.'
Like other students, Yee-man is learning about global warming and there are recycling activities in school, but she thinks it is not enough. 'These activities have more impact on junior students,' she says. 'However, when students get to senior forms, they don't seem to care. Perhaps it's because there is a lot more happening in their lives.'
