A poem by Yu Xuanji (鱼玄机)

赠邻女 

羞日遮罗袖，愁春懒起妆。 

易求无价宝，难得有心郎。

枕上潜垂泪，花间暗断肠。

自能窥宋玉，何必恨王昌？ 

Sent to a neighbour girl 

I block the shame of daylight with a silken sleeve, too listless to get dressed this melancholy spring. 

It’s easy to come by a pearl without price; what’s hard is to find a lover with a heart. 

Hidden teardrops fall on my pillow, my heart breaks secretly among the flowers — 

but still I can peep at Song Yu; why then regret Wang Chang? 

Translated by Leonard Ng

Current Projects

This week shouldn't have been a busy one - all I did in terms of actual work was write up a report, and send a few emails so that article publications and other housekeeping matters would go smoothly. So why am I absolutely knackered, and have been so since Wednesday?

Visual novel. I makes it.

Visual novels belong to a genre of video game that is not very popular outside of East Asia, although this is very slowly changing. Ripped straight from the Wikipedia page (which is, to be fair, reasonably informative):

Visual novels are distinguished from other game types by their extremely minimal gameplay. Typically the majority of player interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving (most recent games offer 'play' or 'fast-forward' toggles that make even this unnecessary).

Most visual novels have multiple storylines and many endings; the gameplay mechanic in these cases typically consists of intermittent multiple-choice decision points, where the player selects a direction in which to take the game. This style of gameplay has been compared to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Most, however, strive for a higher level of plot and character depth than the aforementioned series of interactive children's books. These can be more closely compared to story-driven interactive fiction. While the plots and storytelling of mainstream video games is often criticized, many fans of visual novels hold them up as exceptions and identify this as a strong point of the genre.

In Hong Kong and Japan (and I suspect in China, Taiwan and Korea to some extent too), visual novels for both guys and girls are reasonably popular. Japan most certainly leads the way, with diverse sub-genres of visual novels that can cater to many different demographics.

In keeping with the "creative media" concept of this blog, I decided to expand my silk road storytelling into this field and make A Thousand Hands more or less my own creative platform. Currently my visual novel is powered by Novelty, a very beginner-friendly platform and engine for visual novels. When I'm finally done with it, I'll export, zip, and upload it here at A Thousand Hands, where it will be available to be downloaded and played for free.

Lives of Spice Series

This is a preliminary story listing for my flash fiction series about the Silk Road, Lives of Spice. There isn't a fixed schedule for when I'm uploading each entry, but I'm confident that the current list will be able to showcase just how diverse the cultures of the Silk Road. More will come!

1. What the Caravanserai Does Best (Sogdiana)
2. Snow Meets Rime (Imperial Tibet)
3. Peony (Tang-era Chang'an)
4. Lost and Found (Abbasid Caliphate)
5. Drum, Lute, and Harp (Oasis kingdom of Kucha)
6. Starborn (Oasis kingdom of Khotan)

Lives of Spice

I'm not a professional novelist, although I love stories. I've enjoyed reading about myths and legends since my teens and writing has always been my hobby since I was a kid. After completing my MA at SOAS, one lasting thing I've taken away aside from my degree is a fascination about silk road history. 

The Silk Road is a generalised catchphrase given to the many, many landlocked routes that spanned Eurasia for thousands of years, reaching a decline with the rise of the littoral, naval powers in the 18th century and falling into its current impoverishment and cultural decimation at the hands of modernity. These silk routes were diverse - at the height of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE), Rome served as the western terminus of trade - a truly extraordinary distance, even if neither empire was really aware of each other's existence. By the Tang era (618 - 907), the eastern terminus shifted from Luoyang to Chang'an (Xi'an), and traded freely with Byzantium, Damascus, and Baghdad, centres of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Umayyad, and Abbasid Caliphates respectively. All the while, an extraordinary conglomeration of other powers, such as the Persian dynasties, the Indian kingdoms of South Asia, and the Tibetans contributed their arts, crafts, and cultures to the silk routes flowing between China and the rest of Eurasia.


Central to the survival of these routes were the Central Eurasians - a lamentably underrated and stereotyped people who have found expression in many different cultures, from the Jurchen peoples to the Huns, Sogdians, Mongols, Uighurs, Turks, and others who were "peripheral" to the great sedentary empires. They were the main facilitators of Eurasian history, having imparted not only the horse but also the wheel, writing, and many other inventions to the sedentary powers. They also survived by trade, and their activities in Eurasia ensured the survival of the silk routes for over two millennia.   


I'm starting a series of flash fiction (stories of less than one thousand words - it sounds short but it's actually very appropriate for online platforms) called Lives of Spice on this blog. This series is about people that lived along the timeless silk routes. From a Kuchean courtesan to a Chinese official, from a Tibetan soldier to an Arab writer astride his camels to a sculptor from the oasis kingdom of Khotan and a Turkic princess, Lives of Spice is my light exploration into the relationships, dramas, and affections of medieval Eurasia. If you happen to read some of this flash fiction, thank you for checking it out and I hope you enjoy it.

My workplace was taken over by the Japanese Army

Care about your workplace? Don't fret. If it can survive an occupation by the Imperial Japanese Army, you can probably be optimistic about its chances in most other situations.

The construction of Wang Fat Ching She was completed in 1938, and inaugurated as a Buddhist institute a year later - the same year World War II kicked off, according to Western writers. So it wasn't exactly the most stable time to start up a non-profit institution... 1937 anyone? Eurocentric historians still say the Second World War began in 1939, but 1937 was the year a colonial Asian power invaded a continental giant, with huge repercussions for both sides.

By 1940 the shadow of the Pacific War loomed high across the Buddhist world, with many clergy and laypeople alike fleeing their seminaries, temples, and monasteries. Wang Fat Ching She was one of the only Buddhist learning centres that was tenaciously occupied. During the Autumn, one of its lecturers, Ven. Bo Jing, fled to another temple, and then to Shanghai. By 1941, Imperial Japan’s military had crossed the border into Hong Kong, and Wang Fat Ching She was seized and converted into a logistics centre. All religious activities, of course, ceased for quite some time... until 1945, Wang Fat Ching She had remained unable to do what it was supposed to do as an institution.

After the departure of the Japanese army, laypeople with ties to Wang Fat Ching She turned to the philanthropic group Tung Lin Kok Yuen to form a committee to administrate and supervise the recovering temple. Eventually the temple itself would be donated to TLKY, in 1960 after the temple's owner, Mrs. Wong, immigrated to the States.

So that was a snapshot of modern Asian history, captured in a single temple on a small hill in quiet Tsuen Wan. It's difficult not to be more or less optimistic about its future. We didn't get blown to bits and we didn't suffer the tragedies that accompany wartime - massacres, rape, enslavement, mass bombing. The new century presents different challenges like red tape and funding, but compared to what Hong Kong and China were staring in the face over seventy years ago, it's probably not so bad.

We're also on top of a hill with a steep driveway, so we might survive global warming for a bit longer too.

My new piece about Buddhism and culture

“What used to be done by Religion has to be done alone by Art."

– Saburo Hasegawa, in a letter to Isamu Noguchi. January 12, 1951.

I never thought there could be such a deep bond between Zen Buddhism and the avant-garde art world and its cultural critique. But Ellen Pearlman has demonstrated otherwise in her book "Nothing and Everything". I was assigned to write a review about her study of Zen's influence on the New York avant-garde scene. I find it difficult to write as a journalist and as a postmodern artist at the same time, because I’m not an artist. By contrast, Nothing and Everything is a book more about art than religion and presupposes a decent knowledge or interest in American avant-garde. Despite this, one “credential” I do have is that I’m a Buddhist and someone who publicly writes about Buddhism. So I probably do have a small stake in understanding the New York collaboration between Saburo Hasegawa, the first Japanese abstract painter, the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and Franz Kline the European-American painter. There are many more such ties, and if you're interested, the article is right here.

Social Entrepreneurship

I've been long fascinated by the idea of becoming a social entrepreneur. This came about through my genuine belief in the good intentions behind David Cameron's Big Society concept (riddled with problems though it may currently be). This is obviously my own bias since I have spent the last two years working for a non-profit and I have seen firsthand the power volunteers and selfless activists can wield. I believe strongly in what the Ho Family have done since the 1880's - their radical philanthropy is not technically social entrepreneurship, but the point is that great people do great things, and doing great things can make people great. I've done nowhere near as much volunteering as some of my friends have, but it only takes an earnest conversation to be radically inspired by people who are driven to make a difference in the local (or global) community.

So to anyone who might be reading this, I posit this question to you: What do you think is a truly urgent issue in Hong Kong or London that needs to be addressed? I wish to start a social entrepreneurship. I see myself as a cultural critic, a commentator on issues of faith and religion in society, and having a catholic interest in almost all social issues in almost every major country. What kind of entrepreneurship would suit "A Thousand Hands" that support social and cultural creativity and innovation?

Some of my prouder pieces

I've been writing to earn my bread and milk for a few years now (since 2010). Below is a small selection of randomly selected bits and pieces about culture, art, and Buddhist spirituality (and even politics, although that was a one-off). Most of my stuff is published on Buddhistdoor International, though I've written elsewhere (indicated below). As a proud Londoner, I also have a fortnightly column on MouthLondon.

• Memories of a Mad Sage: A Review of Crazy Wisdom (a movie about a Tibetan master)
• London: Europe's Epicenter of Buddhism (MouthLondon magazine)
• Dead Compassion: Wang Yue and the Failure of Religion (an angry rant about the social problems laid bare in China following the totally needless death of a little girl)
• Buddhist Geopolitics in Eurasia: The Place of Buddhism in the new Chinese, Indian, Russian, and American Great Game (Asia Sentinel)
• Living (and Dying) without Regrets