The Xi Xi Space: A Unique Tribute to a Great Hong Kong Writer

For more than six decades, the late, acclaimed Hong Kong writer Xi Xi produced over 45 works of fiction, poetry, screenplays and prose for the city, not to mention numerous standalone articles and newspaper columns. Much of her writing, such as her best-known novels, My City – A Hong Kong Story (1979), A Woman Like Me (1984) and Mourning a Breast (1992), took shape at the small, steadfast desk in her To Kwa Wan home, a former industrial area that held her life for half a century. 

Born Cheung Yin in Shanghai in 1937, Xi Xi settled in Hong Kong in 1950 with her family after the Chinese Civil War and published her first short story in 1955. In the 1960s, she adopted Xi Xi (西西, Sai1 Sai1, literally “west west”) as her regular pen name, inspired by the visual form of the Chinese character, which resembles a girl in a skirt, legs akimbo in a hopscotch square; the doubling suggests the skipping motion from square to square.

The playful pseudonym reflects the childlike whimsy and freedom of form that infuse her writing — a spirit also mirrored in her home. In “Boxes” from My Toys (2019), Xi Xi documents her toy collection with reflections: “We know that stepping into a home is, in a sense, stepping into the owner’s inner world,” she writes, “if this truly is their world.”

After Xi Xi passed away on 18 December 2022, at the age of 85, her literary friends and admirers established the Xi Xi Foundation. Three years later, they transferred her inner world from To Kwa Wan to the vertical art village of the Foo Tak Building in Wan Chai, creating The Xi Xi Space to commemorate and promote her work.

The inaugural exhibition, Xi Xi’s Room Boxes: Beginning with Teddy Bears, features two core themes: “Home Living Room” which recreates Xi Xi’s living room in To Kwa Wan, and “Handmade Bears” to showcase her handmade teddy bears. 

Eva Wong Yi and Louise Law Lok-man, curators of the exhibition and co-founders of the Xi Xi Foundation, spent more than two years planning the space. They hope the space can give people an opportunity to understand this influential writer who put Hong Kong on the literary map.

“Interestingly, Xi Xi is very well known in Hong Kong, but has everyone read all of her work? She wrote so much, and so well, that we still haven’t fully grasped the breadth of her writings,” says Law, writer and part-time teacher at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

“Many may know her for her childlike and charming side, but few appreciate the full depth of her world,” she adds. “We hope this space can provide a gateway for people to engage with Xi Xi’s words.”

A home where everyone is invited

In the exhibition, Birds of Passage: A Writer of Our City, a documentary directed by Ho Fuk-yan and adapted from Xi Xi’s semi-autobiographical book, chronicles her life while capturing Hong Kong’s post-war history and its evolution into an international city.

Although she was born in Shanghai, no one would doubt that Xi Xi is a Hong Kong writer. In the preface to The Teddy Bear Chronicles (2009), one of the few of her books translated into English, the British sinologist and literary translator John Minford describes her as a “cosmopolitan Chinese writer” who was “made in Hong Kong.”

When Xi Xi arrived in 1950s Hong Kong, the city was at a historical turning point, with millions of Chinese immigrants forming a new labour force and inspiring a wave of creative output influenced by both Western and Chinese cultures. These cross-cultural currents are reflected in Xi Xi’s aesthetic sensibilities.

In “Home Living Room,” Chinese-style furniture and Western decorations are displayed harmoniously, from shelves filled with books in various genres, toys and handmade teddy bears, exotic decorations, wooden Chinese furniture, to trinkets collected during her travels. “The interior reflects a particular era in Hong Kong’s history,” says Law. “When Xi Xi was at school, her British home economics teacher gave her books on British design, showing the city’s colonial past and Western influence on education.”

Placed around the living room were many antique Chinese pieces, including typical household items from the last century, such as a wooden drum stool, a camphorwood chest from her mother’s dowry, and a cabinet resembling a traditional Chinese medicine chest with 16 drawers. Toys and trinkets from Xi Xi’s travels filled every corner, from a bronze figurine of “The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer” by French Impressionist master Edgar Degas to paintings and her handmade stuffed toys. 

Nearly 90 percent of the items on display came from Xi Xi’s former residence, and the design was based on photographs of her living room at different times. While the living room will remain a permanent exhibit, the curators say they will follow Xi Xi’s practice to occasionally rearrange the setting. For example, during the Christmas season, they added a tiny Christmas tree and festive decorations.

“Xi Xi treated her home like a toy house. She decorated it in the way that felt most comfortable to her and would often change the arrangement,” recalls Wong, known for her Chinese-language short stories and her articles for Zolima CityMag’s Pop Cantonese series. “Whenever we visited her, I could see what she had recently added or rearranged, and wonder how these changes reflected her living conditions and the kind of life she led,” she says.

During the process of organising Xi Xi’s belongings and researching photographs, Wong and Law also noticed the writer’s unique spatial perspective, such as window-in-a-window or cabinets designed like architectural structures, which subtly reflected the density of the city’s housing. “People might expect an exhibition to be spacious, but this is how it was. We didn’t intend to make Xi Xi live in a small, miserable place,” Wong chuckles, noting that the exhibition is a life-sized replica of her former living room — a space that could barely accommodate ten people.

“When you see the recreation of her home, you realise how remarkable Hong Kong truly is. Even in such a cramped, densely packed environment, people can still create extraordinary things, just like Xi Xi, who produced so much remarkable work and transformed this crowded space into her world of ideas,” adds Wong. 

Creativity beyond the written word

As a luminary in Chinese literature, known for capturing Hong Kong’s transition from British rule, many may not know that Xi Xi had an interest in handicrafts. “Xi Xi is a multifaceted writer. When planning the exhibition, we came up with at least 50 possible themes,” Wong giggles. “As this is the first time opening the space to the public, we wanted to give longtime readers a deeper understanding of her world, while also offering newcomers something interesting to discover. The teddy bear felt like a perfect, approachable starting point.”

In “Handmade Bears,” the exhibition showcases Xi Xi’s collections of soft toys, along with the tools and materials she used. Making teddy bears may seem playful, but it is far from a superficial topic — it connects to many aspects of Xi Xi’s life. 

The writer began this hobby in 2000, not purely for enjoyment, but to retrain her right hand after breast cancer treatment left her with nerve damage. “From this, we can see that Xi Xi was a person of remarkable vitality and a deep love for creativity. Even when she could no longer write with one hand, she trained her left hand to continue. She created so many beautiful handicrafts and dolls, which in itself is a testament to her enduring vitality,” says Wong.

Xi Xi’s teddy bears began in the traditional Western style, inspired by the early toys named after US President Theodore Roosevelt in the 1900s and further embodied by Winnie the Pooh in the 1920s. Over time, however, she developed her own uniquely Chinese adaptations, most of which are documented in her book The Teddy Bear Chronicles.

The exhibition features a selection of her stuffed toys, each dressed in historical or fictional costumes, transforming them into bear incarnations of mythological, historical, and literary figures from both Chinese and Western traditions. One bear that cannot be missed — and is probably the most familiar to Xi Xi’s readers — is the Yellow Flying Bear (黃飛熊, wong4 fei1 hung4), whose name shares the pronunciation of the legendary Chinese martial artist Wong Fei-hung. It was the first teddy bear Xi Xi made using yellow mohair, a type of wool obtained from the fleece of the Angora goat.

Other bears on display include the five heroes from Water Margin (水滸傳), one of the Four Great Classical Chinese Novels, believed to have been written during the Ming dynasty. There is also a Judge Bao bear, inspired by the historical Song Dynasty official Bao Zheng (包拯), who is celebrated as a cultural symbol of justice and fairness, complete with his iconic crescent-moon mark on the forehead.

The teddy bear most special to the curator is the Frankenstein bear, inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. Never documented in Xi Xi’s works, it was discovered tucked behind her television, prompting the team to review her past interviews and records to trace its origin. “Even when we think we know Xi Xi’s work, there’s always more to explore. We look forward to uncovering similar inspirations as we organise her other collections,” says Law. “This exhibition shows only a small portion of her treasures; many more remain in storage.”

Cultivating writers like Xi Xi

The “Handmade Bears” theme will run until the end of January next year, and the curators are still selecting the next theme from Xi Xi’s vast universe. But the heart of the space remains the same: to share Xi Xi’s words — after all, there is no better way to commemorate a writer than by reading their words. 

Recalling their first encounter with Xi Xi, Wong and Law were struck by her free-spirited, otherworldly writing. “Unlike the rigid texts at school, Xi Xi’s literary world feels inviting and playful. Her work not only draws you in as a reader but also sparks excitement and inspiration for creativity,” says Wong. 

“Whether in her novels or essays, Xi Xi demonstrates an exceptionally broad vision. Her techniques are diverse, and her stories cover a wide range of themes and styles,” reflects Law. “The books she recommended were equally fascinating, she was like an encyclopedia-type of person.”

They hope the space will preserve Xi Xi’s legacy and inspire a new generation of Hong Kong literary creatives, just as how she inspired them. “For a long time, Hong Kong’s education focused on English literature and traditional Chinese culture. It wasn’t until writers like Xi Xi, writing out of love for the city, that Hong Kong literature truly began,” says Law. “The history of Hong Kong literature is still relatively short. We are slowly developing it and waiting for more people to write about the city.” 

Xi Xi’s Room Boxes: Beginning with Teddy Bears is free of charge and will run until 31 January 2026 at The Xi Xi Space, 7/F, Foo Tak Building, Wan Chai. 

Online pre-registration is required and operates on a first-come, first-served basis.