Sometimes, I use the pen name Guo Du. It means transition in Chinese. Life’s a series of transitions, a stream of illusions. Moments of consciousness may rise and fall, like waves and ripples. I write to capture them before they return to a sea of mirage.
My award winning novel Man's Last Song is about Homo sapiens, a self-endangered species neglected by conservationists. In 2090, Hong Kong, remnants of the human race facing protracted extinction due to universal sterility look back from the future. With clear “hindsight”, they are baffled by our self-destructive acts which benefited nobody. A “dystopian” tale? Not really. Not to everything else on this planet anyways.
All my writings are in English and Chinese, but not translations.
Writing in two fundamentally different languages is fascinating. While human follies are universal, some ideas and expressions don’t survive over the language divide. To save them, I look for cultural equivalents, changing the setting and dialogues to suit if necessary. When searching for cross-cultural parallels, I often discover fresh angles and alternative approaches. Iteratively, my stories get refined across linguistic boundaries.
My short stories have been anthologised by the Hong Kong Writers Circle, Asia Literary Review, Hong Kong Writers (Chinese), Ethos Books of Singapore, and Akashic Books of New York. I write about an assortment of irregularities at irregular intervals. Older posts are being transplanted gradually from my Google Blog www.guo-du.blogspot.com to this website. Some impressions are expressed in photos instead of words.
【过渡】有时是我的笔名。人生不过一连串的迷惘过渡。在时间的洪流中，偶尔有陣清醒的感觉，犹如激流的水花，疑真似幻，瞬即消逝。希望写了下来，能够多看两眼。
我的得奖英文小说 Man’s Last Song 讲的是有关 “智人” 这没人关心的濒危物种的故事。在 2090 年这不太远的未来，人类由于长期不育，面临绝种。在香港，几个“死剩种” 回望 “昨天”，无法理解我们这一代人为何把自己一步步逼向绝路。这是个沮丧的反面乌托邦故事吗？不一定。由于人类淡出，整个地球竟然回复健康，生气勃勃！
我用中英文双语写作，绝对不是翻译。由于语言和文化的差异，有些东西是不可翻的。如有需要，我会用不同的手法和情节去处理同一情景，以确保异曲同工，和避免翻译作品常有的 “外国口音”。这是 Man’s Last Song 和它的中文姐妹作《笙歌》有些细节不相同的原因。例如 “气功狂想曲”一段，中文可借助家传户晓的道家术语和传说而丰富；英语则要另想办法演绎了。
用中英文交替创作原来可以帮助思潮。我用英文写了一轮后，脑袋开始发胀，会转写中文。很奇怪：情节上的死角，往往会因为语言改变了而活过来。这经验令我领略到文字的影响力。面对同一景况，我的观点竟然会视乎思考用的语言而有异。其实除了禅宗高僧外，一般人的思想全靠语言文字体现，很难脱离文化根源而完全独立。
我的短篇故事都被香港作家，文韵，新加坡的 Ethos Books，和纽约的 Akashic Books 分别出版了。但大部分都可以在这里免费阅读。写作牟利到底不是我们的传统。其他的博客文章，拉拉杂杂也不少，正在逐篇由我的博客 www.guo-du.blogspot.com 转移过来