please watch the above video. you won't regret it :)
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"Time is an illusion. Timing is art."
— Stefan Edmunds
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S Y N O P S I S
Wen has loved Mei ever since they met as a pair of scrawny three-year-old family friends with milk-stained fingers and flour-powdered cheeks.
When Wen is orphaned from a car accident at four, he and his brother Wangmin are signed off to live with their cousin Mochou, who, at the young age of twenty-four, has no desire to be a parent. So after school and during the holidays, Wen finds himself with Mei's family, where he finds a home.
It seems like everything happens during the holidays. Maybe, if Wen finds the courage to catch his chance before time steals it away, things will happen in his favor, too.
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C A S T
li meifeng | 李美風 - mei
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yuan wenkang | 袁文康 - wen
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S E T T I N G
hong kong | 香港
2000 - 2021
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W A R N I N G S
+ swearing
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A N O T E O N L A N G U A G E
first, this novel is set in hong kong.
to understand the pronunciation of the characters' names, it's important to address the difference between mandarin and cantonese.
cantonese is a chinese dialect that originated in the city of guangzhou and is spoken in primarily hong kong and macau. it is also spoken in the southeastern province of guangdong, of which guangzhou is the capital.
mandarin refers to a group of chinese dialects spoken in primarily northern and southwestern china.
cantonese sounds like a different version of mandarin—it has no written form but is spoken similarly.
with that said, mei's name li meifengis the mandarin romanization. in cantonese, its romanization is lei meifong. similarly, wen's name yuan wenkang in cantonese is romanized as yoon menhong.
so if this novella occurs in cantonese-speaking hong kong, why are mandarin romanizations being used?
because cantonese has a very, very particular pronunciation that makes its romanizations equally difficult to translate. to put this into perspective, imagine a single syllable like fei...with nine different tones, all of which have different meanings.
so, to keep things simple, the names of characters will be written by their mandarin romanizations. for short, the protagonists will be mei and wen.
(because i'm also not about to have people reading about a boy whose name is romanized and thus mispronounced as...men)
that aside, all other romanized phrases will be cantonese. cantonese is a beautiful language. there's lots of dimensions to it that i wish to share with you guys ♡
and honestly, anything set in hong kong would not be complete without it.
