Interviewer (Me):

Who inspired you to write? Your primary school teacher? 

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Author (Also Me):

Yes, my mom, who happens to be a teacher. She got me addicted to books and my dad fueled my obsession with words. My favourite childhood activity wasn't going to playgrounds or parties, but going on trips to a dingy bookstore in Kowloon City underneath a bridge, where books were sold by weight, and we would choose the flimsiest paperbacks to make the most out of every kilo.

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Interviewer:

What's behind your first story about Hong Kong?

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Author: 

Having lived in Hong Kong my whole life, I realise that there are hardly any stories that tell of the real Hong Kong, not just Hong Kong in the eyes of others: not Suzie Wong's Hong Kong, not Jackie Chan's Hong Kong; and certainly not Hong Kong in a Crazy Rich Asians’ alternate universe. So, like J R R Tolkien who was motivated by a desire to write an epic for his own people, I, on a much, much more humble scale, want to do the same for Hongkongers.

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Interviewer:

Why do you consider yourself qualified to write about this city?

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Author:

I don't think I am, but someone has to do the job! (self-deprecating laugh) I was born and bred in Hong Kong, a city I love with all its strengths and flaws: its gritty pavement, super highways, soft earth, and calm waters. Believe it or not, I even love the pollution, the humidity and density, the brashness, the no-nonsense morality of each and every one of the seven million people living in this land.

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Interviewer:

And how would you describe Hong Kong in one word?

 

Author:

Intriguing! 

 

Hong Kong is messy, fun, humourless, exciting, lonely, shallow, complicated, pious, ruthless, insulated, embracing, impatient, tolerant, indefatigable, tenacious. I want to tell of extraordinary stories that happen to ordinary Hongkongers. Because what I see in this tiny city is unique but at the same time, not so different from anywhere else in the world.

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Interview:

That's more than one word.

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Author:

Sorry.

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Interviewer:

The heroine in the story, Jasmine Spitfire -- where does the inspiration come from?

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Author:

I've always been a big fan of local pop culture and history -- ancient TV programmes, black-and-white movies we had in those good old days: Chinese gods and goddesses with their celestial dramas, the monsters and their slayers, detectives, triad bosses, tragic figures, and comic heroes. 

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But amongst them, my beloved is Lui Sark Sau, 女殺手，The Woman Assassin. She is my perfect protagonist -- spunky, stubborn, unstoppable, and a little reluctant; definitely a character, never a caricature. She is the reason I started writing the Human Whisperer series.

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She is my Jasmine Spitfire.

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Interviewer:

Do you see a lot of yourself in this character?

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Author:

Not one bit. While I can describe myself in seven words—“an enthusiast of everything, master of none”—Jasmine Spitfire is different. She is big-hearted, and a drama-queen. She makes things happen and everything happens to her, amplified a hundred-fold. She is my Walter Mitty. I can leave the old and saggy husks of my pedantic self and transmogrified into her sassy, alluring costume, at least for a few hours a day. So does everybody, to a certain extent.

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In her, I am the reluctant hero; a feminist who doesn't know she's a stunning feminist; a counsellor who gets up from her armchair to go fix the world. 

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Through her, I can be fun and spontaneous. I toss out pithy one-liners, excellent come-backs and my humour is unstoppable (because I have all the time in the world to craft each and every word sprouting from my mouth. Type, delete, re-type, until I smile smugly at wit). I unearth truths, catch perverts, abort terrorist attacks, save damsels and princes, decode complicated ciphers, read unreadable minds, and come face-to-face with murderers, psychopaths, arsonists.

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I even have a true adversary.  I've broken my legs, shattered bones, dislocated shoulders, singed hair, busted spleens. No, I haven't busted my spleen yet. Maybe next time.  And yet I'm still intact; hunted, haunted, but undaunted.

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Interviewer:

My last question. So, should we say your stories are social commentaries of Hong Kong?

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Author:

Oh, just let them keep you up all night! I hope you enjoy Jasmine Spitfire's adventures as much as I did writing them. While it is fiction, sometimes, life imitates art, or is it the other way around?