Leung Ping-kwan, (traditional Chinese: 梁秉鈞; simplified Chinese: 梁秉钧; Pinyin: Liáng Bǐngjūn, 12 March 1949 – 5 January 2013) pen name Yěsī (Chinese: 也斯), was a Hong Kong poet, novelist, essayist, translator, teacher, and scholar who received the Hong Kong Medal of Honour (MH). He was an important long-time cultural figure in Hong Kong.
Life Yesi was born in Xinhui District in Guangdong during 1949. The same year, his family settled in Hong Kong, and he was raised there. His father died when he was four. He began writing in the 1960s and quickly became known as a translator of foreign-language literature and for his editorial work on a number of literary publications targeted at young Chinese readers in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. After graduating from Hong Kong Baptist College, now Hong Kong Baptist University, with a bachelor's degree in English (BA in English Language and Literature), Yesi got a job first as a secondary school teacher, then as the editor of the arts supplement of the South China Morning Post (SCMP). In 1978, he went to America for further studies. In 1984, Yesi obtained his PhD in comparative literature at the University of California, San Diego. His thesis was titled "Aesthetics of Opposition: A Study of the Modernist Generation of Chinese Poets, 1936-1949". Yesi returned to Hong Kong after earning his doctorate. He taught at the Department of English Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong. In 1998 he obtained a position as a professor in comparative literature in the Chinese Department at Lingnan University. Later on, he also became director of the Research Institute for the Humanities. He specialized in teaching literature and film, comparative literature, the literature of Hong Kong, modern literary criticism, and Chinese literary writing. Yesi had achievements across many areas of literature, including poetry, prose, novels, drama, and literary and cultural criticism. He wrote mostly in Chinese. However, his English works were also published in the Hong Kong magazine Muse and his poetry and prose have been translated into English, French, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese, and German. In 2010, Yesi stated publicly that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on 5 January 2013.
Timeline
Information in this table is extracted from Leung's biography in the book "Leung Ping Kwan (1949 – 2013), A Retrospective".
"Yesi" "Yesi" is a combination of two meaningless words, both interjections, in Chinese. According to Yesi, people usually adopt a pen name that contains meanings, which would give the readers a fixed feeling or impression towards their works before they read them. Yesi wanted to break out of this, hence, he used the combination of two meaningless words, which usually appear in classical Chinese literary works, as his pen name.
Prominent themes and concerns Images of Hong Kong This poem embodies the spirit and concerns of Yesi's work, including tone and recurrent themes. Later, this poem would be used as an example for further analysis of Yesi's style.
We need a fresh angle, nothing added nothing taken away, Always at the edge of things and between places. Write with a different color for each voice; … So now, once again, they say it’s time to remodel and each of us finds himself looking around for –what?
Observation, perception, and angle Many of Yesi's works are concerned with the way we look at the world, and also how we are perceived by other people—trying to discover new angles for observing the world, while inevitably the object of others’ perception as well. The opening sentence of “Images of Hong Kong” clearly declares: “I need a new angle”. In many of Yesi's works, the narrator wants not only to see the world, but also to look at it in a unique way, different from mainstream perceptions.
However, Yesi's narrators are introspective and aware that they are part of what's happening. The novel Paper Cut-outs (剪紙) is composed of two story lines, each about the narrator's interaction with a female friend. The two story lines can be read as separate stories, yet, they contrast and complement each other in details and contents. Both his friends faced a catastrophe nearly at the end of the story, and the narrator says: 人與人之間的關係互相牽連，混合了我們這些其他人的感情。我們這些旁觀者一下子也牽涉其中了，我們可以指責某種偏激行為…但當不幸的事發生了，我們可以置身事外嗎?” (161) (Translation: A relationship would be affected by other relationships. Observers’ feelings are mixed into the relationship of the observed. Outsiders and observers are also part of what he or she is observing. We can blame certain violent acts… However, when tragedy happens, who can be responsibility-free?) The narrator feels sorry for what happened to his friends, and for not being able to do anything, except narrate and watch the problem grow, and turn into a catastrophe.
Flânerie Observation in Yesi's poems almost always associated with flânerie. More precisely, the narrator is very often a flâneur. Yesi writes about different places and even flânerie itself. Images of Hong Kong includes many different locations: Guangguang studio in Nathan Road, Star Ferry clock tower, Aberdeen, China Club, and so on. In the poem On a Road, A Wanderer:
I choose my own direction big fish glide in the aquariums food stalls offer whopper fishballs I'm not lured … I don’t have to see so clearly … if by chance the city glare blinds me I glance away, keeping my own pace
The above describes how the narrator strolling unaffected by the surroundings. He observes and sees “big fish glide”, “food stalls”, and so on, yet uses the outer appearance of the city, to search his heart. It is notable that he “[doesn’t] have to see so clearly”. Again, the narrator keeps himself different from others.
Nostalgia and history There is very often a sense of pity for the disappearing past in Yesi’s works. For example, in Images of Hong Kong, the people do not paint on photos “any more”, and the “old portrait” cannot be reproduced. Like this portrait, in many of Yesi's works, we can see things that are disappearing with the past. Also, the narrator says that history is a “montage of images”, and evaluates if Hong Kong's past is only figures of famous buildings like the Star Ferry. He suggests that the past should be read with “a fresh angle" and reviews the way to looking into the past.
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