Hong Kong's 'unofficial history'

In July 2021, Hong Kong writer Ma Ka-fai had to stay in a suite of a resort hotel in Macao for a full 14 days without being able to go outside due to COVID-19 quarantine rules, so he took the chance to conceive his new novel, the last of a trilogy.

After seven days, and still struggling to come up with an idea for the book, Ma was feeling anxious. One night, he finally managed to fall asleep. In a dream, he heard a man asking him, "When will you start writing? I've been waiting for so long."

In a daze, Ma saw a thin man standing by the bed, dressed in a short martial arts outfit and looking like a kung fu master. Ma asked, "Who are you?"

The man cupped his hands and smiled: "I'm a ghost! I love Longtou Fengwei (Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong I) and Yuanyang Liu Qi Si (Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong II)," the first and second books of Ma's trilogy.

Ma paused for a moment, and then let out a joyful "Ha!" As his laughter echoed, the ghost vanished without a trace, and Ma woke up.

That ghost became the protagonist, Hon Tin-yan, in the third novel Shuangtian Zhizun (Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong III), published in May by New Star Press. In the introduction of the book, he recounts the ghost story.

A decade has passed since he published his debut novel Longtou Fengwei in 2016.

The book earned more than 20 literary awards, including being named on the top 10 novels list of Yazhou Zhoukan magazine and topping the fiction category in Southern Weekly's annual best original books list.

At the launch party for Shuangtian Zhizun in Beijing at the end of May, Ma, now 63 years old, said Longtou Fengwei was conceived when he was between 50 and 53 years old, when he "wrote in a free and uninhibited style, with words and plotlines that flowed effortlessly, full of vibrant energy".

The second book, Yuanyang Liu Qi Si, was written when he was between 54 and 57 years old. It moves away from the exuberance of youth and focuses on a deeper exploration, centering on the theme of "keeping secrets".

The final book in the trilogy was written between the ages of 57 and 62. His mindset and life experiences had undergone significant changes, prompting him to reflect on profound issues such as life and death and the true meaning of gains and losses, he says.

The first book follows the life of the protagonist Luk Nam-choi. Luk, a nobody from the countryside of Guangdong province, arrives in Hong Kong in 1936 and rises to be a gang leader in the city.

Against the backdrop of instability due to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the capture of Hong Kong by Japanese forces in 1941, Luk has a forbidden love affair with a British officer.

Film director Johnnie To praises Ma's perspective in examining and portraying this tumultuous period in Hong Kong's history, as "very special and quite spectacular".

The story of Yuanyang Liu Qi Si takes place from the late 1930s to 1967, and focuses on a subordinate of Luk from the first novel, named Shaoyabing. After Luk dies, Shaoyabing reluctantly takes his place as boss and must adapt to his new role and overcome the challenges it presents. By the end of the novel, though, he disappears in mysterious circumstances after a string of bad luck.

Commenting on the novel, a winner of China's top literary award, the 2015 Mao Dun Literary Prize, Jin Yucheng says, "This is a novel I truly love. Its Cantonese undertone is strange yet brilliant, and the tragic emotions of the martial world swell like a vast ocean."