Dear Hong Kong Quotes

“Modern love is complicated, 複雜, a term that is even more complicated in Chinese, used as it is for anything too difficult to explain, tackle or resolve, much like the state of our city in these times. Umbrellas foster revolutions and filibustering passes for a political process. To be 複雜 is almost to deny resolution. Perhaps we are afraid of the possible outcome, and to deny ... what is it we deny? Accountability? Fault? Responsibility?”
― Xu Xi, Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy to a City

“The trouble with a deep freeze is that you have no idea what will happen when you unfreeze, esp after such a prolonged time. As it is, you worry about defrosting the chicken that has sat in your freezer for a month or so, purchased with all good intentions to cook & consume before its use-by-date, but somehow, chicken never quite appeals to my home-cooking taste buds when all the Chinese cuisines in HK restaurants do a much better job than you can imagine. Future tense is like that: desire suspended, more imaginary than real.”
― Xu Xi, Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy to a City