Campus Digest

HKBU presents Dream of the Red Chamber Award to local author Wong Bik-wan

18 Sep 2014

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Ms Wong Bik-wan receives the grand prize of The Dream of the Red Chamber Award
Ms Wong Bik-wan (5th from left, 1st row) poses a photo with Ms. Cynthia Liu (centre, 1st row), Mr. Zhang Da-peng (2nd from right, 1st row), Mrs Pamela Chan (4th from right, 1st row), Professor Albert Chan (3rd from left, 1st row), Mr Andy Lee (2nd from right, 2nd row), Professor Chung Ling (3rd from left, 1st row), Professor Douglas Robinson (right, 1st row), Dr. Lim Chin-chown (2nd from left, 2nd row), members of the judging panels and representatives of the publishers.

 

HKBU today presented the grand prize of the 5th Dream of the Red Chamber Award to local author Ms Wong Bik-wan for her novel Children of Darkness. This is the first time a Hong Kong writer has won the Dream of the Red Chamber Award since its launch in 2006. The prize included a cash award of HK$300,000.

 

Ms Wong Bik-wan was delighted to receive the award. She said: “An award is not merely an honour, it also brings responsibility… I thank this award for bringing me an opportunity to understand my limitation and responsibility. I am proceeding with caution but in high spirits about my next novel as well as the coming challenges. I will gladly bear the added responsibility and exercise my free will as I forge ahead without fears.”

 

The Chairperson of the final judging panel, Professor Chung Ling, said: “The Children of Darkness tells the story of a group of people marginalised by society… The novel captures Ms Wong Bik-wan’s unique writing style, displaying restraint and rationale in simple form, and sympathetically illustrates the lives of those in purgatory.”

 

Officiating at today’s ceremony were Ms Cynthia Liu, Deputy Director (Culture), Leisure and Cultural Services Department; Mr Zhang Da-peng, President of Y Cee Chemicals Ltd and donor to the Dream of the Red Chamber Award; Mrs Pamela Chan, Deputy Chairman of the Council and the Court of HKBU; Professor Albert Chan, President and Vice-Chancellor; Professor Douglas Robinson, Dean of Arts; and Dr Lim Chin-chown, Convenor, Planning Committee of the 5th Dream of the Red Chamber Award.

 

Ms Wong Bik-wan was born in Hong Kong in 1961. She is a qualified lawyer and worked as a journalist. She has won a number of literary awards, including the awards for the novel of the 3rd, 6th and 12th Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature, the essay award of the 4th Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature, the 6th Hong Kong Book Prize, and the 2012 Yazhou Zhoukan 10 Best Novels Award. Her works have been selected and included in a number of literary book collections in Taiwan.

 

Launched by HKBU’s Faculty of Arts in 2006, The Dream of the Red Chamber Award runs every two years. It aims to encourage the publication of excellent Chinese novels worldwide, and to recognise outstanding Chinese novel writers from around the world to enhance the standards of Chinese novel-writing. For details, please refer to the website http://redchamber.hkbu.edu.hk.