"Children of Darkness" by Hong Kong author Wong Bik-wan wins “The 5th Dream of the Red Chamber Award”

Chairman of the final judging panel Professor Chung Ling (5th from right), Professor Douglas Robinson, Dean of Faculty of Arts (3rd from left), unveil the winning novel with members of the final judging panel
 
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HKBU announced the winner of “The 5th Dream of the Red Chamber Award: The World’s Distinguished Novel in Chinese” today (17 July). The prize was awarded to Children of Darkness by local author Ms Wong Bik-wan. This is the first time a Hong Kong writer has won “The Dream of the Red Chamber Award” since its launch in 2006. A prize presentation ceremony will be held in September at which Ms Wong will be awarded HK$300,000. 
 
In a live telephone interview conducted during the press briefing to announce the Award result, Ms Wong Bik-wan said that she is pleased and surprised to have won the Award. She hoped readers could listen to the voice of the leading characters of the story who are the marginalised in society. She said the Award not only belongs to her but to a group of people.
 
Ms Wong Pik-wan was born in Hong Kong in 1961. She is a qualified lawyer and worked as a journalist. She has won a number of literary awards, including the awards for the novel of the 3rd and 12th Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature, the essay award of the 4th Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature, the 6th Hong Kong Book Prize, and the 2012 Yazhou Zhoukan 10 Best Novels Award. Her works have been selected and included in a number of literary book collections in Taiwan.
 
The judges also proposed The Chronicles of Zhalie by Yan Lianke and Beware of the Siskin by Su Tong as winners of the Jury Award. The Book of Day and Night by Han Shaogong, I Did Not Kill My Husband by Liu Zhenyun and The Matchmaker by Ye Guangqin were Highly Recommended by the judging panel.
 
The final judging panel comprised Professor Chung Ling, novelist and poet, Master of Cheng Yu Tung College of University of Macau; Professor Michael Berryof University of California, Santa Barbara; Professor Wang Anyi, novelist, winner of “The 4th Dream of the Red Chamber Award” for her novel Scent of Heaven and professor of Fudan University; Professor Chen Siheof Fudan University; Professor Chen I-chihof National Taiwan Normal University; and Professor Huang Ziping, Honorary Professor of HKBU.
 
"The Dream of the Red Chamber Award” runs every two years. It aims to encourage the publication of excellent Chinese novels worldwide and to recognise outstanding Chinese novels by writers from around the world in order to enhance the standards of Chinese novel-writing. For details on the Award, please visit http://redchamber.hkbu.edu.hk.