Food is Heaven by novelist Ge Liang wins the first prize of HKBU’s 10th Dream of the Red Chamber Award
Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has announced the winners of the 10th Dream of the Red Chamber Award: The World’s Distinguished Novel in Chinese. The novel Food is Heaven (《燕食記》) written by renowned novelist Professor Ge Liang (葛亮) has been awarded the first prize.
The Award’s judging panel praised the novel for its skillfully crafted characters, vivid and considerable details, and poignant vignettes from everyday life, which the readers find captivating.
The judging panel for the 10th Dream of the Red Chamber Award decided to present the first prize to Professor Ge Liang for his work after four hours of discussion and voting at its meeting on 21 August. The award presentation ceremony will be held in November this year.
Professor Chung Ling, Chairman of the judging panel and Emeritus Professor of HKBU, remarked: “The flashback structure of Food is Heaven is meticulously structured with intricately intertwined plots, and repeated suspense and climaxes, making it truly fascinating.”
Professor Chung added: “Beginning in 1920, the story chronicles the lives of three generations of characters from different walks of life over the course of a century. The main plot revolves around two renowned chefs, a master chef and his apprentice, whose stories reveal the restaurant scenes in Guangzhou and Hong Kong throughout the past century. It flawlessly integrates the richness of Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisines into the plot.”
Mr Ngan Shun-kau, a member of the judging panel and acclaimed literary critic, said: “The author excels in storytelling with skillfully crafted characters, ultimately converging on the evolution and development of food cultures in both Guangdong Province and Hong Kong. The author conducted extensive research for this book, infusing it with vivid and considerable details, and poignant vignettes from everyday life, which the readers find captivating.”
Professor Ge Liang is a globally celebrated author, currently serving as Professor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature under the Academy of Chinese, History, Religion and Philosophy at HKBU. He is the author of the novels Food is Heaven, Paper Hawk, Scarlet Finch, Hidden Spirit and Hair Cutting, as well as the cultural essays Reflection of the World and Pears and Dates. His works have been translated into English, French, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Korean.
Professor Ge has garnered prestigious accolades, including the 8th Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of the leading Chinese-language literary awards in the world; the annual book award by the China Society for Book Review; the special prize from the jury of the book award by Tencent and Commercial Daily; and the 1st and 14th Hong Kong Book Prize. His magnum opus, Scarlet Finch, Paper Hawk and Food is Heaven, have been recognised as “Top Ten Chinese Novels” by Yazhou Zhoukan. Paper Hawk and Food is Heaven have also been nominated as finalists for the esteemed 10th and 11th Mao Dun Literature Prize respectively. Professor Ge is also the recipient of the Artist of the Year (Literary Arts) of the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards, Southern People Weekly’s Person of the Year, the Global Chinese-language Writer of the Year and the Cross-Straits Writer of the Year.
The Jury Award of the 10th Dream of the Red Chamber Award were presented to Margins of Time (《餘地》) by Ku Yu-ling (顧玉玲) and Beiliu (《北流》) by Lin Bai (林白) . Chronicles from the Liaozhai Studio (《聊齋本紀》) by Yan Lianke (閻連科), Tears of Trees: Anu, Ana, Amiha's story (《木淚》) by Chung Wenyin (鍾文音) and Baoshui Village (《寶水》) by Qiao Ye (喬葉) were honoured with the Highly Recommended Award.
This year, the judging panel comprised Professor Wang Yao (王堯), the Yangtze River Scholar Professor by the Ministry of Education and Dean of the Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities of Soochow University, Mr Kan Yao-ming (甘耀明), novelist and the First Prize winner of the 9th Dream of the Red Chamber Award for his novel Becoming Bunun; Professor Shiu Wen-wei (須文蔚), Dean of the College of Liberal Arts of the National Taiwan Normal University; Professor Huang Ziping (黃子平), expert in modern Chinese literature studies and Emeritus Professor of HKBU; Professor Chung Ling (鍾玲), novelist, poet and Emeritus Professor of HKBU; Mr Ngan Shun-kau (顏純鈎), acclaimed literary critic; and Professor Carlos Rojas, sinologist and Professor of the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of Duke University.
The Dream of the Red Chamber Award, held biennially by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at HKBU, is sponsored by Mr Zhang Dapeng, President of Y. Cee Chemicals Limited. It aims to encourage the publication of excellent Chinese novels, recognise outstanding Chinese novels by writers from around the world, and enhance the standards, quality, and global reputation of Chinese novel writing.
Original Chinese novels of 80,000 words or more, published either in 2022 or 2023, were eligible for the 10th Dream of the Red Chamber Award. As more than 1,000 Chinese novels are published each year, the organising committee of the Award has invited publishing companies and eligible persons to nominate the entries since the Award’s inauguration to streamline the selection process. For further details about the Award, please visit the Facebook Page.
