For subscribers
TBR (To Be Read)
Can Singapore have a dedicated writers’ room to peek into the lives of literary legends?
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The Xi Xi Space in Hong Kong's Foo Tak Building introduces readers to the life of the late Hong Kong writer and features a reconstruction of her living space.
ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO
SINGAPORE – Midway up 14 flights of stairs to an independent bookstore in Hong Kong – the unreliable lift at the vertical arts enclave in Foo Tak Building had broken down again – I happened upon The Xi Xi Space, a cramped unit on the seventh floor dedicated to a writer I’ve encountered only through a few poems but knew little about.
Born in Shanghai before moving to Hong Kong at age 12, the late giant of Sinophone letters was influential in the Chinese-speaking world – her 1983 novel A Woman Like Me inspired the late Singaporean writer Yeng Pway Ngon’s 1987 novel A Man Like Me. In their best works, they captured their respective cities in flux.
