To There …
WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE : THE THIRD SPACE
Featuring Laura Besley What brought you to Hong Kong ? My boyfriend ( now husband ) and I were working as language teachers in Germany before we moved to Hong Kong . Our contracts were coming to an end and we could have stayed in Europe , but I wanted “ an adventure ”, so we started applying for jobs in the Middle and Far East . We were offered jobs in Oman and Hong Kong and chose Hong Kong because the language centre we would be working for was bigger and there would be more opportunities for progression . We came here on a two year contract in 2009 and are still here ! That happens to a lot of people . Living in Hong Kong has all the excitement of living abroad as well as all the home comforts , which makes it very easy to live here .
What are the advantages of living in Hong Kong for a writer ? My writing really took off in Hong Kong . I hadn ’ t been here long when I joined a book club and through that met someone who was part of the Hong Kong Writers ’ Circle . They were hosting a workshop the following day and he invited me to come along . I went and it was excellent ; I met lots of writers , joined a critique group and later went on to write the HKWC newsletter for a year .
Has your writing output increased since you came to Hong Kong ? Significantly . I had only written a few non-fiction pieces while I was living in Germany and was too shy to show them to anyone outside of my family . They had said they were really good ( they have to say that , don ’ t they ?), but when I first started letting other people read my work I found it really scary . However , the other members of the critique group were very supportive and encouraging , and I found the constructive criticism really helpful . In 2013 I discovered flash fiction ( short fiction usually between 100 and 1000 words ). I decided writing flash fiction was good practise for me as I was good at starting pieces , but very rarely finished them . I took on the challenge of writing one piece a day . I started a blog and put some of my flash fiction pieces up and connected with an online community of writers who were again very encouraging . I also wrote about living in Asia , my travel experiences and the books I had read .
Is there anything you find hard to cope with in Hong Kong ? I find being so far away from home the hardest thing . It ’ s a twelve hour flight and every year the flights are more expensive ; for these reasons I usually only go back once a year . I miss my family a lot and am very grateful for modern communication methods such as Skype . My grandparents lived abroad for years and their only form of communication was letters , which took at least six weeks to arrive .
33 | May 2016