Good writers strive for originality, and they seldom use idioms taught by our high school English teachers.

Composition writing, for many students, involves rote learning. Because most teachers themselves were students of rote teaching, there has always been a preconceived notion of learning idioms by heart. Many idioms, with time, has become a formula for writing essays.

The difference between the use of cliché and creative writing, of course, is best appreciated by reading works by good writers. One of the novels I have recently finished

I haven't always known to ask the big questions about depression, or try to understand why some people had suicide and some had so much things worth living for. When my wife and I watched the bittersweet monologue play Every Brilliant Thing last night, we found a canonical "keep going" or  magical "keep writing."

Not long after a mother's suicide attempt, her daughter (or son, in the original and many other versions) makes a list of all the brilliant or joyful things worth living

Struggling for breath and beds during the dreadful pandemic five years ago, little did Dave Jones know how NHS would be able to handle the crisis. The intensive care unit consultant in Wales posted a tweet, "The NHS reminds me of a hippopotamus. It might sometimes appear slow, maybe a bit bloated and somewhat unresponsive. But my god, this last week or so has shown that like a hippo, it can move bloody fast and have some awesome power when it needs to."

As a doctor, I'

Stories of marginalised populations should be told and not silenced. The lesson from their experience is the importance of handling social vulnerabilities.

Between the Mountain and the Sky is a true story of orphaned children in war-torn Nepal. It's sad to hear the story of Juntara, a miniature Nepali Celine Dion who, in a matter of five years, turned into a blind Ray Charles. Juntara sang the most beautiful songs in the echoey Himalayan amphitheatre, but could not see anything except flashes of light at around the age

Not many of us are capable of running ultramarathon race. But everyone in Hong Kong should watch the documentary film, Four Trails , which captures our city's legendary endurance event where runner complete all four iconic trails, the MacLehose, Wilson, Hong Kong, and Lantau.

I have never run a marathon, let alone an ultramarathon. That's fine. If we spend all our time regretting that we aren't young anymore, or we haven't achieved finishing an ultramarathon race, we lose the opportunity