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Several young female love-story writers in Hong Kong are being hyped as particularly talented in regard to their capablities in illustrating women’s feelings and experiences.
Among
them is Miss Zita Law, whose writes under the pen name “Deep Snow”.
“Love is the main theme of my stories.
“I also write about ghosts and phantoms that help to portray the theme,” said she.
That is why she uses “Deep Snow” as her pseudonym. It matches the style of her stories.
Miss Law has been a full-time writer for two and a half years. Being a writer was her aspiration when she was small.
“I really love writing. You have greater desire to write when you read more.
“Besides, I believe I am creative, which is an important quality for a writer,” she said.
Miss Law started writing when she was a Year 3 student at The University of Hong Kong.
“I wrote a 5,000-word love story each issue for a weekly magazine. They all were about lives of tertiary students,” she said.
As a full-time writer, she writes love stories as well as prose for periodicals.
Her columns can be found in five print media and two web sites.
Miss Law admitted that writing is physically taxing. Normally, she writes more than 10 hours a day.
Her romance novels usually have about 150,000 words. It takes her about 3 months to write one.
Besides, she collect a lot of information and reads lots of books before writing on a specific topic.
She said that everyone can be an expert of love, depending on their ability to write and express themselves.
Another famous female writer is Miss Canny Leung Chi Shan.
She is also a full-time writer, but she is rather different because of her versatility.
Besides writing love stories, she writes plays and lyrics. She also writes columns for newspapers and magazines.
At the same time, she works as an emcee for a TV programme, a radio programme and an online programme.
She said that she wanted to be a writer because she loved the free and happy lifestyle of a writer.
She submitted her first lyrics for publication in 1992.
She continued to be a part-time writer of lyrics for 5 years.
At the same time, she had a full time marketing job in a fashion company.
It was not until 1997 that Miss Leung changed her interest in writing and became a novelist instead.
“I thought I could only be regarded as a writer if I could publish a novel,” said Miss Leung. “Also, in face of the economic recession in 1997, I thought I should change to another job.”
Miss Leung’s first novel was published in 1998.
“I just write what I like.
“Nevertheless, all my novels and prose carry a specific message.
“Based on the theme, I start thinking about the plot, characters and so on,” said Miss Leung
So far, she has been a full-time writer for nearly 2 years.
She has produced around 10 publications.
Having a clear objective is her key to success.
Said she: “Secondly, I do my planning well and my planning is strategic.
“Finally, I always strive for improvement. I have lots of expectations.”
However, her versatility is actually an obstacle for her to develop a writing career.
Miss Leung said, “Time management is always my problem.
“But an even greater difficulty is how to keep myself concentrated on my work.”
Still she agreed that a writer enjoyed a great deal of freedom.
“It is possible for writers to delay their work. However, we should be responsible,” said she.
Miss Leung said that self-discipline is highly essential.
She
normally works all day long.
“Even if I am not actually writing, I construct themes of stories in my mind from time to time,” said Miss Leung.
Prof. Cheung Tak Sing, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, commented on the popularity of these female writers.
He said that the broadening of channels of communication could account for the popularity of these young female writers.
Ms. Rachel Tsang, a representative of Ming Pao Publications, also said that there were more and more channels for writers to publish their books.
The Internet is one of them.
“There is always a group of people who love to read love stories.
Mr. Lau Man Leung, a representative of Cosmos Books, added, “Moreover, contemporary young female writers are more sensitive to the needs of readers.”
According to Prof. Winton Au, professor in the Department of Psychology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, teenagers are more physically and mentally interested in friendship and love.
“Reading love stories can offer them fantasy and room for imagination,” he said.
There are considerable discrepancies between the content of love stories and the real world.
However, this is how readers can experience fantasies.
“According to idealistic principles, everyone wants to find ways and things that satisfy and cheer up himself or herself. Imagination is certainly one of the ways to make yourself happy,” said Prof. Au.
Some Chinese teachers criticise love story writers for their poor writing skills.
One of these critics, a Chinese teacher of S.K.H. Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School, expressed her views this way:
“Generally, the language proficiency of most contemporary love story writers is acceptable. But just a few of them are satisfactory,” she said.
“Few contemporary love story writers experience breakthroughs in the content, topics and style of their stories,” she said.
She thought they should widen their scope of knowledge instead of repeating their previous works.
“To be a good writer, you should enrich your life experience because writing needs lots of inspiration and creativity,” she said.
Mr. Lau of Cosmos Books agreed. “Contemporary romance writers have worse writing skills compared to those of the past.
“Their literary accomplishments and style of rhetoric are not good enough. They certainly need to improve their writing skills.”
Apart from being accused of having poor writing skills, romance writers are also criticised for being too subjective when writing about men.
Said Miss Leung: “I think novels’ contents are not necessarily objective.
“To write an attractive story, I have to use different angles, different characters with different stances.”
Miss Law said her stories are objective because she is trying to bring up the idea of equality between the two sexes.
“I believe that all writers are not aiming to insult men,” said she. “We are just expressing the feelings of women.”
As for language proficiency, Miss Leung admitted that she is poor in writing, but she doesn’t see this as a problem.
“Though language ability is vital, I believe that the ability to express yourself is most important,” said Miss Leung.
Miss Leung said a direct way of expression can be excellent if the message is clearly delivered.
Yet she said she would make an effort to improve her writing skills.
Miss Law resolutely denied that her writing skill is below standard.
“This may be due to the increased usage of Cantonese in my prose,” Miss Law said.
Apart from the writer’s effort, the role of publisher is equally important.
Rachel Tsang of Ming Pao said, “Publishers should discover more good books and this would allow more writers to share their life experience with readers.
“Publishers should act as the ones who enhance the transmission of
knowledge and culture,” she said.
