Flower Spirits, Drifting Leaves, and Trees of Transcendence

Abstract

Covering the formerly British colonial space, Hong Kong’s parks, gardens, and urban plants constitute hybrid transit zones, where local, colonial, and transnational horticultural legacies intersect. Drawing from material ecology, plant philosophy, and theories of sense perception, I will examine how these entities reclaim a realm of aesthetic agency in Leung Ping-kwan’s poetry. I argue that the poet’s lyrical dialogues with plants unfold within lingering memories of spiritual, emotional, and sensual landscapes from the past, thus delineating a utopian space where cosmopolitan values and the principle of trans-species conviviality configure visionary politics of a future cityscape. In this way, the poems disrupt the ideology of mastering nature and momentarily overcome the political, cultural, and material mutilation of non-human “others.” Positioned as messengers of an unjustly and more and more forbiddingly partitioned reality, Leung’s vegetal interlocutors gently suggest a different approach towards life on earth and in urban environments while simultaneously addressing critical issues concerning history, community, and postcolonial worlds.