WEBVTT

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- Hi everyone, my name is Linda Codega.

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I use they/them pronouns,
and I am a journalist for io9

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and I'm here with Chloe Gong.

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- Hello.

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- [Linda] Hello.

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- So excited.

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- I'm excited that you're here too.

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Can you tell us a little bit
about what it is that you do?

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Why are you here?

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- I'm here, well, I actually
just snuck into the building.

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- Yeah we did actually, that's true.

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- I climbed the gates.

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There was an alarm blaring after me,

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and I'm not supposed to be here.

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- Honestly, I think that
that's probably the best way

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to sort of make yourself known in any sort

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of like literary sense.
(Chloe laughs)

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- That's how you break into any industry.

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That's, yeah,

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that's how I broke in.
- Literally,

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physically breaking in.
- Yes, yes.

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But,
- I agree.

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- pre-break in, I'm an author.

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I wrote the bestselling
"Secret Shanghai" series

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in young adult, and now I
have my upcoming adult debut.

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- Yeah, can you tell us a little bit

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about "Immortal Longings?"

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- I absolutely can.

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(Linda laughs)

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"Immortal Longings" is
the first in a trilogy.

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It is inspired by "Antony
and Cleopatra," and--

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- [Linda] The Shakespeare play.

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- The Shakespeare play, yes.

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And it takes its setting inspiration

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from the Kowloon Walled City,
which stood in Hong Kong

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from the '60s to '90s
before it was torn down.

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Oh, I love that walled city.

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Again, it wasn't a great place.

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I love it in that it was
such a beautiful, dense,

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terrible place of just
human spirit after all

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of the institutions
around them let them down.

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- It's like a massive
apartment building, right?

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- It is close to that, but
there is space in between.

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So the Kowloon Walled City came about

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because it was a Chinese enclave

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within Hong Kong while
it was British territory.

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So Chinese police couldn't get in,

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and British police didn't
want to get in, right?

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So everyone kind of
flocked into the enclave

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and it got denser and denser and denser,

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but they couldn't build outward

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because there was only a
certain amount of space

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that they could stay inside

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and so things just became so
cloistered and claustrophobic

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and became what we now know
as the Kowloon Walled City.

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It was at one point the
densest place in the world.

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The photographs and the videos
that have come out of it is,

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you know, insane to look at.

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And it just, it feels like such a place

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where there were stories, right?

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Because the people living in it,

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the conditions were terrible,
but it was still life.

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They found happiness and
hope in it all the same,

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there were always kids
playing on the rooftops,

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even though it was very dangerous

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and they could have fallen to their death

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at any moment.
- At any time.

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- Yeah.

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- They could break it.

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- They could, they could have.

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- Break out.

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- Yeah.

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But it was a great, I think,
setting that I really,

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really wanted to work in,

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so when I got the idea
for this, I was like,

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this is the inspiration point.

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My name is Chloe Gong.

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This is my book, "Immortal Longings."

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It is coming out July 18th,

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and you can find it in any
good bookstore near you

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or you can find it online
and order it to your house.

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(laid back lofi music)