‘Will I get into trouble?’: Hong Kong writers seek creative freedom in Taiwan

TAIPEI/HONG KONG – Originally from Hong Kong but now based in Taipei, Ms Gigi Leung furiously pokes the lemon slices in her iced tea with her spoon.

“Taiwanese people don’t do this, but I cannot drink my iced lemon tea any other way. I am from Hong Kong after all,” the writer told The Straits Times over lunch.

After living in Taiwan for four years, there are some things about her native Hong Kong that the 30-year-old misses greatly.

“Cantonese soup is another one – it actually has flavour,” she confided with a laugh. 

But among the things she does like in her new home is more freedom when it comes to writing.

Ms Leung is one of a string of Hong Kong writers who have relocated to democratic Taiwan in recent years to pursue literary careers, as the space for creative and publishing freedoms is perceived to have shrunk in their home city. 

This comes after Beijing imposed a sweeping National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong in 2020, which criminalises acts of secession and subversion.

Despite government claims that freedoms of speech, press, and publication are protected under the law, it has become potentially risky to write, print or sell content that could be interpreted as a threat to national security. 

Hong Kong libraries have since pulled hundreds of books, such as those related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, while booksellers have avoided stocking politically sensitive works for fear of violating the law. 

For instance, Ms Leanne Liu, who owns Hong Kong’s Boundary Bookstore, said her firm has taken several books off its shelves.

“We’ve removed books that provide direct commentaries on Hong Kong society and politics, as well as those about (Hong Kong media mogul) Jimmy Lai,” Ms Liu told ST.

Her independent bookshop publishes and sells mostly works of literature.

Lai, founder of the city’s defunct Apple Daily newspaper and a high-profile pro-democracy activist, is in jail facing charges under the NSL.

Hong Kong publishers have also encountered an increasing number of obstacles in their operations. 

Several were barred from joining the Hong Kong Book Fair, the city’s biggest annual book event, in 2025, with the authorities not providing reasons for the rejections. Others, meanwhile, were instructed to remove specific titles. 

The NSL now makes it imperative for Hong Kong publishers to “check every word and phrasing in every book very carefully one by one before releasing any to the public… because you never know when a seemingly innocuous line could end up sparking controversy”, Mr Leslie Ng, 60, editor-in-chief of Bbluesky Publishing, told ST. 

“Publishers often have to err on the side of safety and caution,” he said, adding that his firm mainly carries children’s books and a range of novels, most of which do not touch on politics.

Ms Leung, the writer, said: “The problem is that no one knows where the red lines are, so there is also a lot of self-censorship going on.” 

Before her 2022 novel Everyday Movement found a publisher in Taiwan, a Hong Kong counterpart had indicated interest – on the condition that it be heavily edited.

Centred on the lives of two women caught in the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the book examines questions of patriotism and belonging as democracy starts to crumble. 

A conversation that Ms Leung had with her Taiwanese editor indicated a stark contrast between Hong Kong and Taiwan publishers’ attitudes towards producing her book.

“I told him that my novel contained some ‘sensitive’ material, and asked if it was possible to refuse any requests for edits,” she recalled. 

“He replied that he did not understand what constituted ‘sensitive’, that there was anything that could not be published.” 

Over in Hong Kong, it was a different story.

The book was one of several titles removed from shelves at the 2024 Hong Kong Book Fair, after organisers cited “legal advice”. 

“It has become apparent that my work would run into many restrictions if I stayed in Hong Kong. This is why I have to write in Taiwan,” said Ms Leung, who has won multiple Taiwanese literary awards, including the prestigious Golden Tripod in 2024. 

The English translation of Everyday Movement will be released worldwide in February 2026.

Fellow Taipei-based Hong Kong writer Mukyu, whose real name is Fung Bak Kui, said that there is a lot of “guesswork” when it comes to what can or cannot be published back home.

“We know that anything outrightly politically sensitive will not be allowed, but it’s what we call ‘borderline writing’ that is cause for concern,” he said. “Everyone is just guessing all the time. Is this content okay? Will it get anyone into trouble?” 

The 31-year-old is the award-winning author of Perhaps In The Smoke (2022), a short story collection looking at the sense of grief and loss in the aftermath of the 2019 movement. 

That year, Hong Kong was rocked by mass, often-violent anti-government protests that left society deeply divided. The NSL imposed by Beijing in its aftermath contributed to a mass exodus of locals and foreigners alike.

Mr Fung, who settled in Taiwan after arriving on the island in 2017 to study literature, noted that it is not just Taiwan’s creative freedom that makes writing there so enticing. 

“The Taiwanese publishing industry is more open to investing in new and unknown writers,” said Mr Fung, whose book was awarded the 2023 Taipei International Book Exhibition Prize for fiction.

Shrinking publishing revenue in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, publishing revenues and readership – already shrinking for years – are now being further battered by the city’s tighter political restrictions, Bbluesky’s Mr Ng said. 

“The authorities are always finding ways and means to disrupt our participation in every activity and restrict our operations,” he said. 

“While many local readers still support us, the gap between balancing the costs of publishing and the revenue derived from it just makes it very hard for us independent publishers to survive.” 

Since the NSL was imposed, the number of Hong Kongers who have migrated elsewhere has burgeoned. An estimated 600,000 have left the city since 2020. 

Much of Mr Fung’s work examines the experience of the Hong Kong diaspora. His next book Generations, due to be released in January 2026, tells the stories of Hong Kongers across eight generations as they adjust to their new lives in Taiwan.

It is being published by Taiwan’s SpringHill Publishing, which has already released eight Hong Kong-themed books over the past few years. They touch on different aspects of the special administrative region – from law to philosophy and cinema. 

Ms Chuang Jui-lin, SpringHill’s editor-in-chief, said that she has always been interested in Hong Kong stories. 

“As the creative space has seen more restrictions in Hong Kong, Taiwanese publishers began to think, ‘what can we do to keep telling their story?’

“It is now becoming more common for Hong Kong writers to try to get their books published in Taiwan, even those who are still living in Hong Kong. They don’t have to worry about the lack of creative freedom in Taiwan,” said Ms Chuang. 

While there are no official figures on the number of Hong Kong writers plying their trade in Taiwan, Taiwanese publishers say that are receiving more proposals from them.

Still, this remains an option only for a select few, according to Bbluesky’s Mr Ng. 

“It may seem more secure for them to publish in Taiwan and shift the books back to Hong Kong to sell. But this is an option suitable only for those who can leave the city and be based outside of Hong Kong,” he said. 

“For as long as the author and publisher of the book remain physically situated in Hong Kong, they are not any safer.” 

Some detractors also argue that Hong Kong writers may no longer be able to deliver authentic stories about Hong Kong if they have been away for too long.

But Ms Leung, the author, believes otherwise.

“Sometimes you must leave the mountain in order to see how it’s shaped,” she said. “I would never have actively considered all the unique aspects of Hong Kong if I never left.”