Between Tides

Between Tides, set on Peng Chau Island, presents a poetic prose that interweaves personal experiences with dreams. The author uses a gentle touch to depict the inner world of islanders, transforming understated details—like the sleeping yellow dog in front of the Tin Hau Temple, the kapok catkins drifting across the entire island, and the cries of the neighbor's child—into the breath of life. The cyclical interplay between humans and the heavens, heaven and earth, earth and sea, and sea and humans emerges naturally.

On the small island, the author moves into a house with a garden, gradually sharing the solitude of existence with storms, sunsets, mountains, caterpillars, and the warmth of a sleeping partner.

Between Tides is a poetic and philosophical work of prose that, starting from Peng Chau Island, explores various life themes such as the individual and the island, humans and non-human islanders, islands and cities, and dreams and reality.

"We all sway in this world, just like everyone else on the island, either squatting, standing, or walking, each finding balance in the tides of life in their own way."

"Since arriving on the island, two rains have fallen intermittently for several days and nights. One was the rain at the turn of spring and summer, isolating us from the outside world; the other was the fine rain sliding down the damp rooftop and hitting the corrugated iron skirt of the house. The former erased the background, while the latter depicted life."

"Ah Qim mumbled as she passed me, and I, clutching white kapok flowers, followed her. The wind continued unabated, the kapok flowers drifted freely with it, and the entire small island was blanketed in a 'snowfall,' a vast expanse of white."

"If one day a bored inmate picked up a telescope and looked at our island, would he see our little mountain house? Would he find amusement in our window?"

"The old man carried them back into the house. A while later, the smell of burning drifted through the air. Summer died in the kitchen, and autumn slowly emerged from that rising wisp of smoke."