Sometimes I lose myself in my frustrationPerhaps of some bad romanceStuck in a complicated situationWe escaped into the wild A million sunbeams seep through the treesA thousand winds whisper in my earsThe Great Escape with our own stavesAnd the routes we choose to take To somewhere no one knowsTo ease our sorrowful souls I drown…
Tag: Erik Cheung
The Tsunami
A WhatsApp-text popped up on my phone, and a notification “ding” tone followed. The screen showed Shelly’s message in a blinding glow. An untimely text from her, although I liked her lots – a very outgoing, intelligent colleague. A promising scholar in the making. “I went to your sharing seminar,” her message read. “Your research…
Reality Check: The Afterlives of Indie Musicians
Zane Stroud and I used to be bandmates; we left the band and started new lives, and Zane is now heading in my direction–to become an academic. Zane and his wife Bessie drove Zoe and me to Clearwater Bay to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. We took this double date quite seriously, because it was our first…
Falling in Love with Long Reads Again
An uneventful day at the office. “Let’s go for lunch. I’ve got something for you,” said Wen, calling from her windowless cubicle to mine. “I double-subscribed it for twelve months,” she handed me a stack of The New Yorker, packed in clear plastic bags. “Hope you don’t mind – they’re all previous issues.” I clearly…
Jabin Law: Live from the Living Room
Prologue I introduced Jabin Law, an independent singer/songwriter from here in Hong Kong, in a previous essay, but I think he deserves a full article about him, for I promised him a review (which has not materialised) on his double-album Ahistorical. Perhaps a reflection on a concert I attended instead. Life under the mask mandate…
Bullied by my Teachers
It was weird. Rick, my former PhD advisor and an established scholar, quit academia and was running a shop. I forget what he sold. He welcomed me with open arms, chatted with me briefly, and walked away. He had another customer to serve. Just as I turned around, my eyes met with Henrietta, my college…
Solitude and Music: The Silence Between the Notes
“Couldn’t put my phone downScrolling patientlyIt’s all the same to meJust faces on a screen, yeah I’m trying to realizeIt’s alright to not be fine on your own” (comethru – Jeremy Zucker) Alone | Together Recently, my musician friend Jabin Law starts a new music project “Alone Together”. Alone Together is a follow-up project of…
Is this a Jook?: Congee Made me Feel Sick
The Trigger: Congee Restaurant December 2017. In a hostel room in Seoul, Zoe was flipping through pages of her itinerary. She was rehearsing in her head where to go and what to eat first. Winter in Seoul is never pleasant to people from the south, as the coldest days in Hong Kong never fall below…
Oyster Sauce Gravy Wingettes: Childhood Memories
It should go without much dispute: for many people, our eating preferences came from the kitchen which our moms didn’t let us enter. The kitchen, soaked in lemon yellow sunlight late in the afternoon, or glowing fluorescent white in the evening, speaks magic. Dish after dish of vegetables and meat filled our grumbling stomachs; brought…
The Negativity of Reviewers Stops with Me
“Don’t let the words get to you”, I said to myself, reluctantly flipping open the reviewers’ comments one more time after letting them settle for months. It my first grant proposal as research staff at my university. What’s unpleasant always comes first, raising a big flag and waving it at you. You can feel the…