What's at the Praya 海旁？

Non-local students have many ways to explore and leave traces of their vibrant university life in Hong Kong. Finance student Zhu Yiqing chose to found the literary magazine Praya 海旁 in 2014 with the aim of recording people's lives and thoughts through authentic and profound words.

After recruiting students through social media, Zhu and a group of students started their publishing journey by naming the magazine Praya after Kennedy Town Praya, which they see as a place for ambitious youth to gather to talk and share ideas. With Praya, they see it as an experiential platform through which literary ideas can be exchanged, and works in different literary forms submitted by writers are shared in each issue. So far, four issues have been published, each under a different theme: “No People are Uninteresting”, “How did We Fall in Love”, “The Golden Age” and “Farewell, Babel”.

Praya are available for sale through social media channels, such as WeChat and its Facebook page海旁Praya; recently Praya has also been available for sale in some mainstream bookstores, such as, University Bookstore on campus. 

The production of Praya was greatly assisted by funding from the Centre of Development and Resources for students, HKU in the year of 2014-15 through the Campus Internationalization and Integration Funding Scheme. However, the team still had to contribute their own money to make the publication come to fruition.

Praya will soon publish an issue in the fourth quarter of 2016 with the theme “Me”. Article and photo submissions are welcome at praya.hku@gmail.com.

Current editorial board members: 

Zhou Fangwen 周方聞 (LLB Year 3); Guo Yanan 郭雅楠 (BSocSc 2016; MPhil Year 1); Peng Fengjiao (BSc 2016); Pan Xuetan潘雪譚 (BSc Year 4); Hua Yunqing 花赟清 (BSocSc 2016); Wang Xinyi 王馨怡 (BA Year 3); Yang Demeng 楊德萌 (BA year 2);  Wei Ziwei 魏子薇 (BA year 3); Zong Yiyao 宗毅遙 (BA(UrbanStud) Year 2); Chen Chen 陳晨 (BSocSc Year 3); Wei Yuxi 魏雨夕 (BA(UrbanStud) Year 4); Chen Dongni 陳冬妮 (LLB Year 4)

A sharing from Zhu Yiqing, founder and first Chief Editor of Praya, on the magazine’s website:

當我還是個對大學生活充滿幻想的無知少年的時候，我曾經去到一位老文青案前諮詢他大學都能幹嘛。

號稱大學期間過得頗為精彩還勾搭上如今夫人的老文青從滿桌檔裡抬起頭，拿眼睨我：“你辦本兒雜誌唄。”

我問：“我辦雜誌，誰給我寫東西啊？”

答曰：“幾個好朋友寫一寫不就得了。”

我深知文學青年們，即使是老文學青年，也都頗有幾分文人的傲嬌彆扭脾氣；這聽來甚不走心的回答一定是暗示我要問得更深入和謙卑。於是我沐浴著書桌對面挑剔的目光硬著頭皮繼續問道：“那我寫了，給誰看啊？”

當年風流倜儻的江南才子如今有點兒謝頂的中學語文教師對我說：“你們寫好了之後就藏著掖著，萬萬不可主動給人看，有眼風掃來，必得一把捂住，待他自己好奇湊過來，你們就算大功告成。”

當下我乾笑了兩聲轉移了話題。

如今我是個重症拖延症加社交平臺依賴患者，每天在人人微信上花去一大部分精力和本來就不長的醒著的白晝；那種淹沒在他人的雞毛蒜皮之中的感覺令人精疲力竭又欲罷不能。幾十字的狀態往往不能給我什麼有用的資訊；我只是需要確認自己還參與在這個熟人朋友們組成的世界之中。

然而這對於即時資訊的依賴卻使人日復一日感到孤獨。

孤獨不一定是獨來獨往與世隔絕；也可能是身處人聲鼎沸的地方，卻沒人願意靜下來思考。

於是在忙亂的生活中，我偶爾想到老文青說的，幾個好朋友寫一寫，給感興趣的人看一看。港大能夠叫“雜誌”的東西不少，但不是過於側重政治訴求而忽視了對生活其他方面的關注，就是充斥著求職資訊面試寶典，清湯寡水沒一點兒滋味。至少對於內地生來說，我們缺乏一份用心的雜誌，一份有內容的深度和文字的質感，忠誠記錄我們和他人在香港存在痕跡的雜誌。即使在香港，生活也不是只有面試，實習，趕DDL (deadline)，以及像個過客一樣匆匆來到又匆匆逃離。

雜誌為雙月刊，名《海旁》，乃因堅尼地城海旁曾為眾有志青年喝酒談天之地。主要設置“本期主題”“雜談”“討論板塊”三部分；創刊號主題為“世上每個人都特別有意思”，意在記錄和發掘我們都認識的同學們不為人知的記憶或生活的一面；雜談自由組稿，包括遊記，散文，小說和影評等，均出自港大內地生之手。討論版本期話題為香港的晚睡問題，不同背景的人們用親身經歷說明香港如何顛覆我們的作息習慣。

自有辦雜誌這個想法以來，歷經數月，拖了無數DDL (deadline)，終於在今日下決心寫個前言。翻看創刊號的稿件，雖然仍有諸多的遺憾，但至少不浮躁不媚俗，每篇文章都有讓人看下去的理由；我感覺這是個令人還算滿意的開始。想起那個已經好久沒見，都快要不惑之年的的老文青對我說過的話，當時覺得他一定是在耍我；如今卻明白，他所講的，大概是所謂文字的安靜。一個能夠靜下來寫東西和讀東西的人，一定不會是孤獨的；何況那些文字彙集在一起，還可能是一個你從來未曾瞭解的，香港和港大。

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