Speak Still

By Wing Lam Tong

Speak Still confronts colonial silencing by asking aloud: why do we, as speakers of English as a second language (ESL), feel estranged from the language, despite having known it since childhood? Taking the author’s bilingual experience in Hong Kong and the UK as a point of departure, the book reimagines a more inclusive sense of belonging for all through a fusing of personal narrative and cultural criticism, reclaiming silence as an interlocutor that interrupts cultural homogeneity, and opens up the time and space for subdued voices to be heard. Speak Still shows that this silence, indeed, speaks volumes.