Encore: The hidden corners of Emma's Hong Kong — fishing villages, beaches and ancestral graveyards

Emma Pei Yin, an Australian novelist born in London and raised in both England and Hong Kong, shares her deeply personal journey of identity, loss, and resilience in this intimate episode of Conversations. From her formative years in Royal Tunbridge Wells, where she was raised by her grandparents and immersed in Cantonese culture, to her traumatic adolescence in Hong Kong after her family's return, Emma recounts the profound cultural dislocation and family estrangement she experienced. Her childhood in England was marked by warmth and freedom, but her move to Hong Kong at 14 brought sudden rigidity from her parents, who adopted strict traditional expectations. This shift, coupled with a sexual assault at 17 and a forced abortion, left her emotionally shattered and disconnected from her family. Yet, the enduring love and quiet strength of her grandparents—especially her grandmother’s unwavering hope and joy—became her anchor. Emma eventually fled to Australia, where she rebuilt her life and found her voice as a writer. Her debut novel, *When Sleeping Women Wake*, draws on her grandfather’s wartime stories and the forgotten histories of Hong Kong’s rural communities, particularly the Hakka people and the East River Resistance. The book serves as both a tribute to her ancestors and a powerful exploration of resistance, memory, and female resilience during the Japanese occupation. Emma reflects on the changing face of Hong Kong—its fading neon lights, eroding colonial architecture, and the growing dominance of Mandarin—while expressing a deep yearning to return before it’s too late. Her reunion with her parents after years of silence brought emotional whiplash, but also the possibility of healing. Ultimately, Emma’s story is one of quiet courage: not the absence of fear, but the decision to move forward anyway, carrying her grandparents’ love like a compass through the storms of her past.