#doretta lau

[theoffingmag]

The snack bar in Chungking Express was located at 3 Lan Kwai Fong, and is now a 7-Eleven and sex toy shop. Meanwhile, the building where Tony Leung’s Cop 663 lived, visible from the Central Mid-Level escalators, is now a giant hole in the ground, awaiting redevelopment.

Fans of the film may be cheered by one thing: the 7-Eleven in question is to be found on the trail of the “7-Eleven Challenge”—a game where you drink a beer at every branch of the store from Sheung Wan to Lan Kwai Fong. There’s quite a few, and the point of the game is to not die. You can sing “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas & the Papas, the de facto theme tune to Chungking Express, while you play it.

Read: Hong Kong Loves - A Cultural Map by Doretta Lau and Emma-Lee Moss

[walrusmagazine]

Amybeth McNulty as Anne Shirley (CBC / Ken Woroner).

The series tries to tackle contemporary issues, but it isn’t really progressive—or fun to watch.

Read “Why the New Anne of Green Gables Lacks Magic” by Doreta Lau at thewalrus.ca.

[theoffingmag]

Anita Mui will always be part of Hong Kong’s identity. Decades in pop music cemented her status as one of the most beloved singers of the Chinese-speaking world, and, as is often the case with Hong Kong pop, this led to a successful career in acting, most notably as a ghost courtesan opposite Leslie Cheung in Rouge.

In 2003, when she knew she was dying of cervical cancer, she announced a series of shows at Hong Kong Coliseum, a location where the top Cantopop stars routinely sell out multi-week concert runs. At her very last show, dressed in a white dress and veil, she married the stage. She died two weeks later.

Read: Hong Kong Loves - A Cultural Map by Doretta Lau and Emma-Lee Moss

[theoffingmag]

Hong Kong Loves: A Cultural Map

[theoffingmag]

Leon Lai-Ming, also one of the Four Heavenly Kings, had his greatest acting role in Fallen Angels, Wong Kar-Wai’s unofficial follow-up to Chungking Express. In the film, Lai’s Killer meets Karen Mok’s Blondie after hours in a basement McDonald’s. As they leave the restaurant, ascending to street level with the red and yellow glow of the logo suddenly rendered dream-like behind them, it begins to rain.

This song playing during this scene is Shirley Kwan’s rendition of “Forget Him,” a song that first appeared on the 1980 Cantonese album by Teresa Teng, the undisputed queen of Chinese pop. Kwan’s version took the original ballad and twisted it, drenching the vocals in atmosphere. This gave the song the otherworldly quality that is as essential to a Wong Kar-Wai film as McDonald’s is to a Hong Kong romance.

Read: Hong Kong Loves - A Cultural Map by Doretta Lau and Emma-Lee Moss

[theoffingmag]

In 1988, the label signed a young singer from the Mainland called Shirley Wong, who later changed her name to Faye. Faye Wong would reshape the landscape of Hong Kong music, daring to experiment sonically while flouting the strict rules surrounding hitmakers of the era. Her taste for the avant garde earned her the affectionate nickname, “the Chinese Bjork.” In 1994, Cinepoly released Random Thoughts, Wong’s first collaboration with the Cocteau Twins, which opens one of the most interesting chapters in East/West musical relations.

Read: Hong Kong Loves - A Cultural Map by Doretta Lau and Emma-Lee Moss

[canadianbooks]

How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? by Doretta Lau

... from Nightwood ...

Building on the success of the Journey Prize-shortlisted title story, the stories of How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? present an updated and whimsical new take on what it means to be Canadian. Lau alludes to the personal and political histories of a number of young Asian Canadian characters to explain their unique perspectives of the world, artfully fusing pure delusion and abstract perception with heartbreaking reality.

Correspondingly, the book's title refers to an interview with Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, who when asked about the Shanghai Sharks, the team that shaped his formative sporting years, responded, "How does a single blade of grass thank the sun?" Lau's stories feature the children and grandchildren of immigrants, transnational adoptees and multiracial adults who came of age in the 1990s--all struggling to find a place in the Western world and using the only language they know to express their hopes, fears and expectations.

This edition published in 2014.

[roommagazine]

Read our conversation with Doretta Lau, our fiction contest judge, about her writing process, her shorty story collection, How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun, and her advice to emerging writers.

You can also read one of her short stories, “Best Practices for Time Travel”, published exclusively in Room 38.3, here.