Sword Maiden Duology on Local Shelf of Bookazine's Tai Kwun Branch

 

 

 

On my recent Hong Kong trip, I made it a point to visit the new Bookazine Tai Kwun branch that was opened a little while ago. Tai Kwun 大館 is the newly transformed arts and culture hub in the Central District. The premises formerly housed the Hollywood Road Central Police Station & Prison and were refurbished to become the elegant arts center of today.

 

On the day of my visit, the place was packed with locals and tourists who came to admire the lovely Christmas decorations and browse around the various interest points (like the Aura Art workshop, two bookshops, the heritage museum, the Japanese tea ceremony workshop etc.) Besides Bookazine, there's another bookshop on ground level, which is Taschen Books from Germany, the renowned publisher/bookseller of luxury art-books. It felt like Tai Kwun is going to be a magnet for people who like books and the arts.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find my recently published Sword Maiden wuxia-myth duology (The Heavenly Sword + The Earthly Blaze) right on the LOCAL shelf of the Bookazine shop! I also spotted a few popular Hong Kong-themed books by other Hong Kong authors, like Jason Ng's Hong Kong Noir, Janice Lee's The Expatriates and Larry Feign's The Flower Boat Girl. As it is well-known that Hong Kong is the birthplace of Jin Yong's and Liang Yusheng's famous wuxia novels, it seems that my wuxia duology is placed on the appropriate "Local" bookshelf and in the right locale (as shown in photos above)! It is fully my intention to have my two books carry on the Hong Kong wuxia legacy, as well as to promote the genre to the Euro-American audience!

 

 

On separate occasions, I also made my rounds to Bookazine's IFC and Prince's Building branches, and was glad to see my books displayed as shown in the two photos above.

 
 

Podcast Review of The Heavenly Sword

 

 The Notes from the Library Podcast has done an amazing and thoughtful podcast review of The Heavenly Sword (Book 1 of the Sword Maiden from the Moon duology). Fans of the wuxia genre or Western fantasy readers who are curious about the genre will find the review interesting/helpful.

Here's the podcast link.

My Favorite (Undersea) Scene from Lost You Forever S1

 

 

Lost You Forever (S1 & S2) is hands down one of my top favorite xianxia cdramas! I only recently caught up with watching Season 1 (2023) and immediately continued to binge-watch the recently released Season 2. I'm still in hangover mode. The acting of all the three male leads (Tan Jianci as Xiang Liu, Zhang Wanyi as Cang Xuan and Deng Wei as Tushan Jing) and the female lead (Yang Zi as Xiao Yao) is superb. I'm especially obsessed with Tan Jianci's portrayal of the cold, cruel yet lovable nine-headed demon Xiang Liu. The intense yet subtle emotions he conveys with his shiny eyes are just electrifying! He is also the singer of the poignant theme song 等不到的等待. The story explores familial love and romantic love with depth and breadth, and muses on the tradeoff between one's ideal/desire and one's sacrifices.

 

My Two Favorite OST Theme Songs from Lost You Forever

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Romance of the White-Haired Maiden by Liang Yusheng

 

 

My review of Vol. 1

 

My review of Vol. 2

 

  

My Ballot of Ten Best Books of the 21st Century

 

 I've been inspired by a bookstagrammer (who was aroused by the New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century List to create her own ballot) to draw this ballot. 

 

The books listed are all on my "favorites" shelf on the Goodreads website, each with my written review. Please feel free to check out my reviews if interested.

 

My Wuxia Duology Now Available at BookazineHK!

 

 Calling all Hong Kong and Southeast Asia WUXIA FANS!

Both books of my wuxia-xianxia duology (The Heavenly Sword and The Earthly Blaze) are now available at all branches of the illustrious Bookazine bookstore chain in Hong Kong! This year being the 100th birth anniversary for both Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng, our two beloved wuxia fiction writers, it's the perfect time to celebrate wuxia literature! Don't miss this duology!