Tales of Two Cities, one village

At last month’s Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, I talked to author Cheryl Tan about the joys of Singlish and her book written in the city-state’s patois, Sarong Party Girls. Also in artsy Ubud, which once a year becomes haven for fans of the written word in all forms, I asked whether the Hong Kong-Singapore rivalry has become a war of words with authors of the Singapore Writers Group/Hong Kong Writers Circle collaboration, Tales of Two Cities. Asia’s two most international cities present unique challenges and opportunities for writers of all stripes.

Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is a blogger for Forbes, editor at large for Inside Asian Gaming and author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, high finance, and cheap lingerie. See his bio, online archive and more at www.muhammadcohen.com; follow him on Facebook and Twitter @MuhammadCohen.

Tags: Hong Kong International Literary Festival, Hong Kong On Air, Hong Kong writing, Hong Kong-Singapore rivalry, Singapore Writers Festival, Singapore writing, South China Morning Post, This Week in Asia, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival