First Person: Xu Xi
Critically acclaimed author Xu Xi was named a “pioneer English-language writer in Asia” by the New York Times. She has also been short listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Now, a writer-in-residence at City University, overseeing the MFA pilot program for Asian Writing in English, she talks to Beverly Cheng ahead of her creative writing workshop at the Hong Kong Book Fair.
I’m an English speaker. I speak Cantonese, but my parents were overseas Chinese “wah kiu” from Indonesia. We all felt a bit foreign [in Hong Kong]. Back in the 60s this was not a good place to be a bit foreign.
My mother got a visa to go to America. My father didn’t want to go. He was an independent businessman and he probably couldn’t have done what he did [in America].
Our life here was very international. When you go to America as a family, you run a laundromat.
When I was about 15, I discovered that there was something called a “world passport.” I tried to get it. I later realized that the passport was only recognized by minor African countries and no one allowed you to travel on it.
A borderless world is what I would really like.
I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve traveled on an Indonesian passport, which is really difficult to travel on. But I could travel to Russia easily and I went into East Germany before the wall went down.