Dr Shawn Shao Dong, Assistant Professor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences and Programme Leader of the Master of Arts in Creative Writing programme, has won many accolades lately. His first selected short story collection, named Air Guitar (空氣吉他), was published last summer and was quickly shortlisted on the “Searchlight Selection” (探照燈好書) monthly book list of Chinese and foreign fiction in August. Organised by Tencent Holdings Limited and China Literature Limited, the list was compiled through a vote by the industry. The book was also shortlisted for the “Best Chinese Books of the Year 2022” (2022文學報年度好書榜), by Wen Xue Bao (文學報) in Shanghai.

Air Guitar is the first selected short story collection by Dr Shao. Based on his teenage life in his hometown, as well as his observations and imagination during the 10 years after his arrival in Hong Kong, he fabricated nine “air” stories, which satirise modern people's lives in a world of pretentiousness, lies and second-hand experience. Although all the stories revolve around daily matters and situations, the author expressed his feelings and portrayed love, affection and friendship in a sincere way, which makes his stories resonate with readers.

Another of his short stories, The Story of Yu Lan (盂蘭記), was published in Literature and Art of Guangzhou (廣州文藝), a literary magazine, at the end of 2022. It was selected by the Research Institute for Literature by Taiwan, Hong Kong and Overseas Chinese Writers (南京大學台港暨海外華文文學研究中心) as one of 10 short stories in the list of “Good Works of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Overseas Chinese Literary Short Fiction Published in Mainland China in 2022” (2022年中國大陸發表/出版的台港澳暨海外華文文學短篇小說好作品).

Dr Shao loves literary creation. He has won first prize in the Global Contest in Chinese Creative Writing and the Lin Yutang Literary Awards, as well as the Hong Kong Youth Literary Award. His works are not only creative, but also express his unique views on modern life and are highly recommended by cultural circles.