Visitors attend the 33rd Hong Kong Book Fair in Hong Kong, south China, July 19, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Hong Kong is more than a mere city, but is also an enduring ethos that encapsulates a generation's dreams of prosperity, pop culture, and cosmopolitan lifestyle, Chinese mainland writer Xu Zhiyuan said on Wednesday at the 33rd Hong Kong Book Fair.

The city’s annual book fair opened on Wednesday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, with over 600 cultural events including talks, seminars, workshops, and performances, scheduled to take place. Among the events, the “eight seminar series”, which invites celebrities to deliver a formal address, is popular among bookworms, and seen as a flagship event of the fair. 

During his speech, Xu talked about Liang’s exile and shared how he was moved by Liang's spirit, leading him to devote his passions to immortalizing this reformer's story in a five-volume biography

Xu was the first to speak in the “Renowned Writers” series, a part of the "eight seminar series".

READ MORE: China Daily Hong Kong at the HK book fair

Born in 1976, Xu graduated from the Peking University in 2000. He worked as a journalist before finding his true calling as an author and cemented his reputation by writing dozens of books over the years. Xu also pens columns for Yazhou Zhoukan and FT Chinese and is one of the founders of One Way Space, an integrated creative agency overseeing cultural businesses such as libraries, audio and video programs.

In 2016, Xu embarked on a new endeavor,hosting a talk show called Thirteen Invitations. Each season, Xu chatted to 13 personalities to shed light on the complexities of modern China and the wider world. His guests ranged from Hollywood filmmaker Christopher Nolan to Chinese directors like Jiang Wen and Zhang Yimou, to Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. The show's take on arts, culture, and the human experience resonated widely with China's youth, bringing Xu’s voice into the consciousness of a new generation.

In an interview with China Daily on Wednesday, Xu revealed said that he wanted to invite some of the city’s cultural big shots, including Hong Kong directors Ann Hui On-wah and Wong Kar-wai, to appear on Thirteen Invitations, as he was quite fascinated by the creativity of their movies.

“When I was in university, many of my classmates hailed from diverse regions of China, and almost every province had an area dubbed ‘little Hong Kong,’” mused Xu, adding that the city exercised a fascinating allure, with its widely-acknowledged title of “Pearl of the Orient”.

Xu’s speech on Wednesday was focused on Liang Qichao, one of the most influential intellectuals and enlightened thinkers of modern China.

Born in 1873 in Guangdong province, Liang dedicated his life to China's modernization and reform. As a politician, educator, historian, writer, calligrapher, and lecturer, he tirelessly strove to advance China's journey toward modernization.

In his youth, Liang initiated the Gongche Shangshu movement alongside his teacher Kang Youwei. This movement is considered China’s first modern political movement. Then in 1898, echoing Kang's call, Liang helped launch the Hundred Days’Reform – a series of reforms aimed at modernizing China by adopting Western institutions. Although the reforms failed, forcing Liang into exile, he continued to expand the political consciousness of overseas Chinese as he traveled to Japan, the United States, Australia and beyond. 

During his speech, Xu talked about Liang’s exile and shared how he was moved by Liang's spirit, leading him to devote his passions to immortalizing this reformer's story in a five-volume biography.

It is Liang’s great openness to the world, flexibility to adapt, and strong curiosity for the unknown that made him feel compelled to write, Xu said. 

However, Xu’s purpose in writing this tome transcends his own preoccupation, as he wants to record China’s historical transformations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Xu was frank about his ambitions, stating “I’m writing it as an epic.”

This opus began in 2015. The first book, chronicling Liang’s early reformist years, was published in 2019. That year, Xu visited Hong Kong to discuss his tome at the book fair.

READ MORE: Fairgoers lavish praise on HK's flagship book event

Four years later, before the release of the second volume, Xu returned to Hong Kong and delivered another speech at the book fair, once again continuing his tribute to Liang. 

Xu’s lecture at the fair this year drew sustained applause from the audience. All 500 seats at the lecture theatre were taken up, and more people stood against the walls to listen to the talk. 

The “Renowned Writers” seminar series will continue this week, featuring other heavyweight Chinese writers such as Yu Hua, Ma Boyong, and Feng Tang.