Gabriel Tsang
Native name曾繁裕
Birth nameTsang Fan-yu
Birth datec. 1988
Birth placeHong Kong
Education
OccupationWriter · Scholar · Film critic
Years active2021–present

Gabriel Tsang Fan-yu (; born c. 1988) is a Hong Kong writer, scholar, and film critic. He published his first novel Stand in 2010 while he was in university, and continued to write romance novels while working as a secondary school teacher before pursuing a PhD in comparative literature at King's College London. He is currently an assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University and a member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, contributing film reviews to The News Lens.

Early life and education

Tsang was born in 1987 or 1988,[1] and grew up in Tai Po.[2] He described his academic results as "poor" except for Chinese, in which he scored an A in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination.[3] He began writing poetry to pursue a female classmate in Form 4,[1][3] entering a writing contest co-hosted by Sing Tao Daily to attract her attention.[4] To his unexpectedness, he won the championship, although his classmate had already started dating someone else.[1][3] He discovered his passion for writing after the contest and began writing diaries and proses.[5] He initially aimed to study Chinese at Hong Kong Baptist University, but due to insufficient A-Level grades, he instead studied business administration at City University of Hong Kong.[1][3] He described himself as "not too interested" about business but remained passionate about writing during university, participating in various writing competitions.[3] He wrote his first novel Stand while he was on exchange to Nanjing University in his third year and published in 2010.[3] After graduation, Tsang taught at a secondary school and served as a writer-in-residence, during which he wrote the romance novels Low-Level Love and Silent Desire and Nothingness, inspired by his personal experiences as a teacher.[6][7] He then pursued a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in comparative literature at the University of Hong Kong and King's College London respectively.[7][8]

Career

Following the completion of his doctoral thesis, Tsang authored an AI-themed romantic sci-fi novel, Love in the Era of Post-human, inspired by the AlphaGo versus Ke Jie chess match,[9] and he published the novel in 2018.[10] Dung Kai-cheung, reviewing for Ming Pao, praised the novel's innovative approach of "attempting to explore a robot's perspective, imagining its thought processes and even emotional world";[11] while Lam Suet-ping of Fleurs des lettres described it as a "literary experiment" that "approached the world from a different angle, showcasing the phenomena beyond human limits".[12] After earning his PhD, Tsang taught at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou for several years, before returning to Hong Kong to teach at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2021.[3][6]

In 2022, he published Three, a short romance stories and essays collection.[3][6] Cheng Din-ho of P-articles praised the collection's exploration of love as more "pure" than his previous novels, noting the recurring tropes that run throughout the book emphasize "patience and tolerance in love".[13] In 2023, Tsang received the Award for Young Artist (Literary Arts) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards.[14] He joined the Hong Kong Film Critics Society around 2024 and contributed film reviews to The News Lens.[15] He also published Chinese Educated Youth Literature: Ambivalent Bodies and Personal Literary Histories, a scholarly study on 1980s Chinese youth intellectuals, in 2024.[16] He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at HKBU,[10] teaching prose writing and Hong Kong literature.[4]

Bibliography

YearTitleOriginal titlePublisher
2010Stand日日Red Publish[3]
2012Low-Level Love低水平愛情[7]
2014Silent Desire and Nothingness無聲的愛慾與虛無Wheatear Publishing
2018Love in the Era of Post-human後人類時代的它們Spicy Fish Cultural Production[10]
2022Three三[13]
2024Chinese Educated Youth Literature: Ambivalent Bodies and Personal Literary HistoriesRoutledge[16]

References

  1. ^ 梁凱婷 (28 August 2023). "【創作之路】追女仔孕育創作　浸大年輕作家曾繁裕奪新秀獎" (in Chinese). Hong Kong Economic Times. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  2. ^ Tsang, Gabriel. "未曾失格，同是負累──評《博士淪落人》" (in Chinese). Fleurs des lettres. No. 25. Archived 14 October 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 February 2026.
  3. ^ 鄧穎欣 (28 August 2023). "好讀熱點｜浸大年輕學者奪文學藝術新秀獎　貼地寫詩講社會故事" (in Chinese). HK01. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  4. ^ 蔡健行 (28 August 2023). "浸大學者曾繁裕︰AI難滿足創作求真" (in Chinese). Sing Tao Daily. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  5. ^ "浸大中文系老師︰AI創作故事缺真實感 難取代人類" (in Chinese). am730. 28 August 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  6. ^ "寫作從經歷與想像出發" (in Chinese). Discover HKBU. Hong Kong Baptist University. 28 August 2023. Archived 1 January 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 February 2026.
  7. ^ 王鼎煌 (28 August 2023). "為暗戀女神撰文 無心插柳成作家" (in Chinese). Wen Wei Po. Archived 17 March 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  8. ^ "Gabriel F. Y. TSANG, Prof" (in Chinese). Hong Kong Baptist University. Archived 9 October 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 February 2026.
  9. ^ "「它太完美，我看不到希望。」－－專訪《後人類時代的它們》作者曾繁裕" (in Chinese). Fleurs des lettres. No. 15. Archived 7 December 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  10. ^ 譚梓瑤 (3 November 2023). "書與人生：AI愛在「後人類」時" (in Chinese). Ming Pao. Archived from the original on 4 February 2026. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  11. ^ Dung, Kai-cheung (7 March 2019). "董啟章專欄：後人類時代的我們" (in Chinese). Ming Pao. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  12. ^ Lam, Suet-ping. "人類如何想像後人類？—— 評《後人類時代的它們》" (in Chinese). Fleurs des lettres. No. 14. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  13. ^ 鄭淀濠 (29 June 2024). "愛慕頭髮與人妻的好人——評論香港作家曾繁裕的短篇愛情小說" (in Chinese). P-articles. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  14. ^ 王玥晨 (28 June 2023). "香港藝術發展獎｜認識當代後起之秀 延續本地藝術發展" (in Chinese). HK01. Archived 2 September 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  15. ^ "五位浸大人獲香港藝術發展獎表揚" (in Chinese). Campus Digest. Hong Kong Baptist University. 26 June 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2026.
  16. ^ "新書試閱：知青的面貌 寫書的拼勁" (in Chinese). Ming Pao. 26 February 2025. Archived 22 March 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 February 2026.