DO
YOU FIND reading interesting? If not, it might just be because you have not been
trying hard enough.
"Words
are very interesting. But to enjoy reading or writing, you have to put in the
time and effort to learn and grasp the fundamental ability," says
award-winning local author Dung Kai-cheung.
Dung
recently worked with several artists to produce a stage show called Fragmental
Body Trilogy, which looks at the relationship between the body and the mind.
He
created the programme brochure and booklet which featured six articles, each
with a theme related to the human body. When writing, he tried to think of how
he could use words to stimulate the senses.
"The
nature of words has created a barrier - readers can't feel the experience
directly from what is being described in words.
"They
have to transform what they read into feelings," he says.
For
Dung, words are not like other media such as video or dance.
"People
cannot get excitement and enjoyment from reading without going through a
learning process," the author says.
"But
young people nowadays don't have the patience to do this. They prefer something
which they get satisfaction out of more easily."
Since
1992, Dung - a comparative literature master from the University of Hong Kong -
has written more than 10 books, including the award-winning novel The Double
Body and the short-story collection The Rose Of The Name.
has
read, such as Czech author Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
Self-awareness,
observation, information gathering and research are other sources of
inspiration.
For
Dung, imagination is an important key to linking up all these elements to create
a story. "Writing is like an adventure."
Everything
in the story did not exist, but during the writing process, a possible world
emerges where something brand new can appear, the 34-year-old says. "I get
all sorts of things and experiences from it."
Besides
writing books, Dung set up Doo Foo Kei Writecraft last year, where he runs
writing workshops for students.
"It's
quite meaningful. Students seldom have the opportunity to take part in
interesting and fun writing activities outside the classroom," he says.
Games
and fun activities are used during the workshops to stimulate students'
imagination.
Holding
the workshops is also a good way for the author to earn a living. He laments it
is impossible to make a living creating literature in Hong Kong.
Through
the workshops, Dung has discovered that students are not that keen on writing,
and when they do, all tend to write in a similar way.
"When
they are free to write, it is often not something they have created by
themselves. It all comes from what they have picked up from school and the mass
media.
"It
means that everybody does similar things, reads the same newspaper, watches the
same TV programmes and films, and listens to the same singers.
"The
world becomes so narrow and homogeneous," he says.