Cover for Our Story: Beauty in Troubled Times Photo: CFP

Leung Fung-yee Photo: CFP

Hong Kong writer Leung Fung-yee published the first book in her new series Our Story in the Chinese mainland this week, bringing her fans a double set of surprises: Not only is this the first book she has published in 15 years, it is also a novel about politics and history, a very different direction from her previous romance novels.

"People like to ask, among all my books, which I like the most. This is a difficult question… But I would like to say that Our Story is my favorite now, because it was 'born' while I'm so old," said Leung at a press conference for the new book on Monday in Beijing.

Luanshi Jiaren (Beauty in Troubled Times) is the first book in Liang's Our Story trilogy. Initially published in Hong Kong last year, the book tells stories set between 1949 and 1959 in the mainland and Hong Kong.

Using heroine Gui Yuxin's experiences as the basic storyline running throughout the entire book, the novel tells smaller stories involving a big family and two couples. Through characters with political backgrounds, the story reflects the political and economic landscape of Hong Kong and even a newly founded China during that period.

A story that holds a shadow of the author and the history of her family, the new book intricately blends details of the characters' lives into big historical events, displaying Leung's memory and thoughts about this historical time period and her understanding of work, love and human nature.

The book marks a big turn from her previous works which were mainly love stories set in the world of finance.

"I've been wanting to write a series of novels set against the history of Hong Kong from 1949 to 20 years after its return to China, in order to tell the story of the people of Hong Kong during that 70-year period," said Leung.

"Our Story is a book about history and society, and reflects the circumstances in Hong Kong and Hong Kong's attitude toward the mainland throughout history that we otherwise would not know about," said Zhou Xuanlong, vice editor in chief at the People's Literature Publishing House, the publishing house behind the mainland edition.  

Leung revealed that the woman pictured on the novel's cover is actually her mother, a beautiful woman who exemplified the traditional female virtues of Chinese women. "I tried to use models for the cover, but they didn't inspire me. Then it occurred to me that my mother was a great beauty during that time."

Born in 1949, Leung is a renowned writer and entrepreneur. Famous for her financial industry-based novels, she first began to write in 1989. Since 1992, she has published more than 20 books in the mainland through the People's Literature Publishing House. During the 1990s, many of her novels were adapted into TV series that proved very popular in the mainland.

Leung chose to stop writing after finishing Financial Storm in 1998. "I decided to stop because I felt what I was writing was too similar. There were no breakthroughs, and it was difficult to reflect the society of Hong Kong so soon after its return in 1997," she explained. "I needed to focus on business at that time as well."

However, in a rare move for a writer, two years ago, Leung announced in Beijing that she would begin writing her last trilogy. She explained that she made the announcement in order to give herself some pressure. "Writing a new novel at such an age after a 15-year break feels quite risky to me. Like an elderly pregnant woman giving birth to a baby. It's quite risky," Leung said at the conference.

The book proved more difficult than she had imagined since she had chosen to include historic events into the storyline. "I work quickly on financial novels because I have an abundance of material to draw on from my experiences. But I needed to read and do research for this book because it is about history," she said, adding that she had to spend 40 days locked up in a room in Vancouver in order to finish it. 

A Hong Kong native, Leung also talked about the present Occupy Central movement, a subject that she intends to cover in future books. 

"It disturbs the peaceful lives of Hong Kong people. The purpose behind the movement is clear: They just want to disrupt Hong Kong so they can disrupt the whole of China... I cannot understand such movement, neither can I forgive it."