Philip Chatting

As Leaves Blow Philip Chatting

A black comedy set in Hong Kong. It explores the reactions to cultural distinctions in an international, but otherwise unremarkable, group of Hong Kong residents; namely whether to embrace, recoil, explain, attempt to change, stay oblivious, or pretend there are none. Set in a residential area of Hong Kong, where people of differing communities live, "As Leaves Blow" explores, in a darkly humorous way, the issue of how people respond to the cultural manifestations of an international city. The book has no central character other than the narrow suburban lane, the common location, where everyone in the tale lives and visits and where private games are played out. This is not a virtuous story, but is rather about human-kind's weaknesses, stupidity and inflexibility, with a final message that we are all the product and slaves of cultural conditioning."It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single Englishman in possession of nothing more than a Hong Kong work visa, must be in need of a Chinese wife."-Lawrence Gray, Founding President, Hong Kong Writers' Circle, author of Odds and Sods, Cop Show Heaven and Adam's Franchise."As Leaves Blow stages a modern-day Hong Kong problem play.... The first comedic then farcical arras that veils As Leaves Blow eventually opens to expose a critique of tragic socioeconomic inequality."-Jason S Polley, Associate Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University.