The wonder years
Friends and collaborators of Xi Xi, who passed on last December, remember the writer for her childlike, playful spirit. A series of events this month will honor her memory. Faye Bradley reports.
On March 12, friends, family and fellow writers will gather at the Fringe Club in Central to celebrate the life and legacy of the iconic Hong Kong writer Xi Xi. The Hong Kong International Literary Festival (HKILF)-hosted bilingual event - Remembering Xi Xi | Her Life, Her Work, Her Hong Kong - will see novelists Dorothy Tse and Wong Yi and poet and literary editor Louise Law Lok-man pay tribute to a beloved literary predecessor.
Xi Xi died on Dec 18 last year. She was 85. The news was announced by her friends from Su Yeh Publications, a now-defunct enterprise cofounded by the writer.
In 2019, Xi Xi made history as the first Hong Kong recipient of the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. She also won Sweden's Cikada Prize the same year. Other recognitions include the Commitment Award at the Hsing Yun Awards for Global Chinese Literature in 2014; and the Ba-Fang Literary Journal Award for Creative Writing, back in 1990. She was tipped to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2022, according to The New Republic magazine.
"Xi Xi is probably Hong Kong's most beloved author," says Jennifer Feeley, the writer's friend and translator. "I have no doubt that Hong Kong writers, scholars and artists will ensure that her legacy lives on."
