Yi Shu or Isabel Nee Yeh-su (born 25 September 1946) is a popular

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

writer. She is the younger sister of

Ni Kuang Ni Cong (30 May 1935 – 3 July 2022), courtesy name Yiming, better known by his pen name Ni Kuang (also romanised Ngai Hong, I Kuang and Yi Kuang), was a Hong Kong-American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote over 300 Chinese-language ''w ...

. She has used other

pen names A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity whi ...

, including Rose (玫瑰), Mui Fon (梅峰), Lok Hon (駱絳), and Luk Kwok (陸國).

Childhood

Yi Shu, whose home town is

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

, was born in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

in 1946. She has five elder siblings and one younger brother. Her pet name was A-mei and her siblings would call her "Xiao Mei Tao". She arrived in

with her younger brother when she was five. After graduation from Kiangsu and Chekiang Kindergarten and Nursery, Yi Shu studied at Sir Ellis Kadoorie Primary School and

Ho Tung Technical School For Girls Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to: People Language and ethnicity * Ho people, an ethnic group of India ** Ho language, a tribal language in India * Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam * Hiri Mo ...

(later known as

Hotung Secondary School Sir Robert Ho Tung Bosman, (22 December 1862 – 26 April 1956), also known as Sir Robert Ho Tung, was a businessman and philanthropist in British Hong Kong. Known as "the grand old man of Hong Kong" (), he was knighted in 1915 (Knight Bachel ...

). She was a studious pupil who received two distinctions and two credits in the

HKCEE The Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE, 香港中學會考) was a standardised examination between 1974 and 2011 after most local students' five-year secondary education, conducted by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment ...

examination. In 1964, Yi Shu completed her studies in her secondary school; her schoolmistress gave her a comment: "''She was touchy, emotional, and easy to get into a lather…''" Consequently, her mother renamed her Ni Rong (倪容) (容 literally means "to tolerate"), in the hope of Yi Shu could become more calm and generous.

Writing career

She had been a journalist of the ''

Ming Pao ''Ming Pao'' () is a Chinese-language newspaper published by Media Chinese International in Hong Kong. In the 1990s, ''Ming Pao'' established four overseas branches in North America; each provides independent reporting on local news and colle ...

'' at the age of 17 after graduation from her secondary school. When she was 27, she went to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

to study

Hotel Management ''Hotel Management'' magazine is a trade publication produced by Questex, LLC. History and profile The magazine ''Hotel Management'' was established in New York in 1922 by Ahrens Publishers. It absorbed or merged with various other hotel managem ...

. She had been the wait staff department supervisor of a hotel in Taiwan (1977), PR manager of the now demolished

Furama Hotel The Furama Hotel () was a 33-storey hotel in Central, Hong Kong, located at 1 Connaught Road Central. The site is now occupied by the AIA Central office building. History The Furama Hotel was designed by Eric Cumine Associates and built for th ...

in Central, Hong Kong (1978), a top official of the Government Information Services in Hong Kong, as well as a

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. Now, Yi Shu has migrated to Canada, continuing with her writing career. Her novels are mainly romance novels set in modern-day Hong Kong. She is also an essayist as well. Organised by the

Hong Kong Arts Development Council The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) is a statutory body in Hong Kong tasked with development of the arts in the territory. The ADC was created in 1995, under the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Ordinance, Chapter 472, replacing t ...

(HKADC), the 15th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards was held on 30 Oct 2021. Yi Shu was one of the recipients of the Award for Outstanding Contribution in Arts, for her keen observation and insights are expressed in her works such as novels, short proses and profiles. Hong Kong Ars Development Council. 2021-05-30

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yi, Shu 1946 births Living people Hong Kong screenwriters Chinese dramatists and playwrights Hong Kong journalists Hong Kong women journalists Chinese women journalists Hong Kong novelists Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Screenwriters from Shanghai Chinese women short story writers Short story writers from Shanghai