5.8.2024
The joy of writing is the opportunity of sharing what I believe. The pain of writing is me seeing deadlines looming larger and larger.
A writer does not simply write. He has to sell books so that the publisher’s fingers will not get burned. Ultimately, he has one moral duty: to write well to attract readers. He can be deprived of time but he cannot lose his quality and style.
Online media platform is often called a “content farm” these days. Writers are the various kinds of “animals”. They write on different specific topics attracting the target group of readers. They collectively generate a large amount of textual web contents which result in massive reader page views. At the end of the day, the goal is to generate huge advertising revenue through “micro targeting” in the media world.
I wrote in the 1980s, but took many years’ break in the 1990s. I started to write again about 10 years ago but no longer for newspapers and magazines. My new bosses are online media which, during the current trend, put focus on news and gossips rather than serious contributions from freelance contributors.
I used to freely write essays and proses. Whatever my mind can conceive and believe, it can be the topic of my writing. Freedom is never won; it is given. Now, the online media editors ably plan and arrange writers one after another in a particular order. There is a splendid array of contents on the table and each writer is responsible for a dish which can attract a reader to try so that he will become a sticky fan. My job is to write on arts and culture; and occasionally on law as I am a lawyer. I am hopefully a good animal nowadays.
When we think about change, we know life was one thing and now it becomes another. A veteran writer in Hong Kong went through taking a bus to deliver articles to a newspaper headquarter, later simply faxing it to the editor, and presently just transmitting an essay through a computer or mobile phone! Well, as a writer for 40 years, I think the secret of change is, as Socrates said, “To focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
My new book依依得捨 (Departure Time) has just been released by Cosmos Books (天地圖書).I am grateful to it. It is my new book in 2024! This is my 13th publication, a collection of my art and cultural essays. I also thank Hong Kong Trade Development Council for allowing me a talk in the Book Fair in 2024 to promote my book. Enjoy it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffM3f1NCk6o
You can support and buy from any bookstore including Cosmos Books (天地圖書), Joint Publishing (三聯書店), The Commercial Press (商務印書館). Alternatively, you can click on the links below or any online book shops:
Cosmos Books:
https://www.cosmosbooks.com.hk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=988855141
hkbookcity.com:
https://www.hkbookcity.com/showbook2.php?serial_no=28307697
yesasia.com:
A kind gesture can reach my heart that your generosity will make it beat. I work hard in silence and let my result be the noise.
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