Annotation

The Novel Weekly covered a wide range of topics, among them various fiction genres, poetry and classical poetry. Its classical Chinese writings included selections of ci, prefaces and zawen (miscellaneous writings). Its news coverage featured sections titled ‘Translated Foreign News’, ‘Headlines from Hong Kong’ and ‘Headlines from Guangzhou’, alongside political reviews. Other articles offered updates and reviews of Cantonese and other operas, and photographs of opera stars. Cantonese ballads and ‘dragon boat songs (longzhou)' could be found in nearly every issue. 

Another highlight was the publication of writings written in English, which can't be found in other publications. Up until Issue 17, when the magazine underwent an editorial revamp, articles introducing authors and works from the West appeared at the back of the magazine. As well as translations, among the pieces which appeared were discussions of English place names and proverbs. Though more serious pieces were rare, one article discussed how to write a good piece of literary criticism, and another, attributed to Wm. P.C. Ng, looked at academic writing.

Some pieces of The Novel Weekly’s short fiction written in vernacular Chinese are of the highest quality, particularly in their handling of inner conflicts with subtle yet nuanced depictions of their characters’ psychology. Also noteworthy are several articles, poems and zawen that feature Hong Kong as their backdrop. Though few in number, they represent an early example of local sensitivity rarely seen in writing from the period.