Story by Lilian Lee

Novelist, journalist, and screenwriter, Hong Kong-born Lilian Lee has been a formidable figure in her hometown’s cultural scene for more than 40 years—though, as only a handful of her novels have appeared in translation, non-Sinophone audiences can best experience the signature romantic melancholy of her work through the films that she’s written. The quality of the directors Lee has worked with speaks volumes of the esteem in which she’s held, their ranks including Stanley Kwan (Rouge), Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine), and Fruit Chan (Three… Extremes), among other luminaries. A writer equally adept at describing the rhythms of quotidian contemporary urban life and delving into the deep well of traditional Chinese folklore—often, as in Rouge, in the same work—Lee’s contributions to Hong Kong cinema have added inestimably to its glory.