Stephen Chow_If we are not afraid of anything_Hong Kong and Macao only

Author: Zhou Yaohui Publisher: Bright Culture Book length: 150mm x 210mm Number of pages: 224 pages ISBN: 978-626-97879-1-3 Publication date: February 2024 【brief introduction】 The author Chow Yiu-fai is one of the three major poets in Hong Kong. He is full of imagination and observation. Starting from the letters A to Z, he lists 128 kinds of strange phobias that exist in daily life. Through different life stories, maybe we can be more accepting of each other's differences and empathize with those fears; or maybe we can rethink whether our fears are also illogical and limit our lives because they are difficult to understand. As the author once said at a symposium: "My inspiration for going to hell came from a philosopher I saw recently. He talked about disasters and how we can face disasters. He put forward a paradoxical idea: Let's just look at this disaster. It is bound to happen, and then think about it in a situation where this disaster is bound to happen, and see what we will do. Simply put, his idea is how we can avoid a disaster, which is to assume that this disaster is bound to happen. occur." (The following is excerpted from the recommendation sequence) Li Zhuoxiong (writer, Golden Melody Award Best Lyricist): The 20 works in "If We Are Not Afraid of Nothing" actually have the flavor of "novel". In the book, "people around me" or "friends of friends" are all "patients" of phobia, and the truth is fake and the fake is the real thing, basically like the line drawing style that appears in the short stories of Kafka or Borges. Each character has its own meaning. What is more interesting in the book is the narrator's "I". "I" also plays a role, with a faint dotted line running through it. At the beginning of "A Countless Spiders, Where to Find People", "I" seemed to be a less involved host, only introducing "patients" to appear in turn. In the final chapter "Y/Z Benwai/Human Beast", "I" ”, I also need to see a psychiatrist. This false confession admits that "I" am not one of the "patients", one of all living beings. Man Kit Wah (Chair Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Metropolitan University of Hong Kong): He is right, we are afraid of everything, and our numbers far exceed the 26 categories in AZ. Zhou Yaohui also said that everything we fear will inevitably happen like what we fear. He did not even discuss how we can reduce fear, including some of the innocence, imagination, and hope that we have lost... He was not mocking, but indirectly quoting Socrates: We are afraid because we are ignorant. The most terrifying thing in the world is not loss, but our failure to grasp happiness. Mak Chun-lung (Hong Kong male singer, actor, director, screenwriter, producer): Do piles of knowledge teach us how to collect piles of knowledge? Fear is the strongest and most invisible resistance in life. If you're afraid of sweating, it's best not to move. If you are afraid of tears, it is best not to love. I'm afraid of many things, but I'm more afraid of putting the cart before the horse and putting the cart before the horse. ...Maybe I am more afraid of the word "fear". (The following is excerpted from the preface of this book) I can continue writing, and we can also think about the things we are afraid of, and then think about it, what would you do if these things were bound to happen? I hope we don't just think about it, but get into the emotion and it actually happens! If it really happened, what we would do, or what we should do, I don’t know. Even if I knew, I shouldn't say it because, I believe everyone has to deal with their own fears. Whatever you are afraid of, it will definitely happen! When we can face our fears, we can begin to live bravely! 【About the Author】 Chow Yiu-fai graduated from the Department of English Language and Comparative Literature of the University of Hong Kong and later worked in various media. He published his first lyric in 1989 and has been writing lyrics and other texts since then. He has published more than a thousand lyrics and many anthologies. Her lyrics include "Forgot He Was Her", "Tianwen", "Meteor", "彳亍", "Love Love Love", "Model", "Small", "Silver Hair", "I Want to Give the World the Longest Life" "Wet Kiss", "Half". Zhou Yaohui's writing is gorgeous and unique, and he walks the line between mainstream and non-mainstream. He has won many lyrics and other literary awards. Moved to the Netherlands from Hong Kong in 1992. In 2011, he received a doctorate from the School of Communication at the University of Amsterdam. He returned to Hong Kong and joined Baptist University, where he is currently a professor in the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing. In recent years, he has also participated in stage and visual art creation. In 2023, Zhou Yaohui won the Best Lyricist Award at the 34th Golden Melody Awards for "Everyone", becoming the first Cantonese song to win this award.