一講農曆七月，大家淨係識數禁忌。但係香港潮人盂蘭勝會做足一個月，二〇一一年列入第三批國家級非遺。佢真正講緊嘅嘢，同驚完全冇關係。Mention the seventh lunar month and people recite the taboos. But Hong Kong's Chiu Chow Yu Lan festival runs the whole month and joined the third national intangible cultural heritage list in 2011. What it is actually about has nothing to do with fear.
Journal二〇二六年中秋係九月二十五號，長週末。大坑舞火龍一連三晚。一家人可以去邊、做咩，同埋去到現場問啲乜。Mid-Autumn 2026 falls on 25 September, into a long weekend. The Tai Hang fire dragon runs three nights. Where to go, what happens, and what to ask once you are standing there.
Journal二〇二六年重陽係十月十八號，三日連假。拜山之外仲有登高、菊花同重陽糕。點解上山嗰兩個鐘係全年最好嘅傾偈場合。Chung Yeung 2026 falls on 18 October, into a three-day weekend. Beyond the grave there is the climb, the chrysanthemum and the cake. Why those two hours of walking are the best conversation of the year.
Journal二〇二六年九月二十五號，香港過中秋，韓國過秋夕，日本過十五夜，越南過中秋節。同一個月亮，同一個晚上。但係每個地方留低咗嘅，係唔同嘅一忽。On 25 September 2026 Hong Kong has Mid-Autumn, Korea has Chuseok, Japan has Jugoya, Vietnam has Tet Trung Thu. Same moon, same night. Each place kept a different piece of it.
Journal二〇二六年重陽係十月十八號。每年上山，一家人企喺塊碑前面。碑上面個名，我哋記得一清二楚。佢把聲，冇人記得。Chung Yeung falls on 18 October 2026. Every year the family climbs up, cleans the grave and stands in front of the stone. We remember the name on it exactly. Nobody remembers the voice.
Journal二〇二六年中秋係九月二十五號。呢一晚可能係全年唯一一次三代人同時喺同一間屋。月餅下個禮拜就冇晒，嗰晚仲有一樣嘢可以留得低。Mid-Autumn falls on 25 September 2026. That dinner may be the only night all year when three generations are in the same room. The mooncakes are gone by the following week. Something else does not have to be.
Journal相片留得低樣，錄音留得低把聲，但係分開嚟，兩樣都會慢慢冇晒意思。點解要加埋一齊，先至叫得做記得返一個人。A photograph keeps the face, a recording keeps the voice, but each alone slowly loses its meaning. Why the two only work as a whole person when they are kept together.
Journal用AI，攞幾秒錄音就整到一個已經過身嘅人嘅把聲，再叫佢講任何嘢，呢件事道德上有冇問題？我哋嘅立場，同點解我哋唔會咁做。Using AI to recreate a dead person's voice from a few seconds of audio, then making it say anything at all, raises a real ethical question. Here is our position, and why we will never build this.
Journal《破.地獄》以一個做喪禮嘅道士做主角，破紀錄成為香港史上最賣座嘅香港電影。呢套戲點解咁打動人，同我哋做緊嘅嘢，其實講緊同一件事。The Last Dance follows a Taoist funeral ritual master and broke Hong Kong box office records for a local film. Why it resonates so deeply, and why it is telling the same story we are.
Journal好多人以為整咗 photobook 就等於留低咗回憶。其實兩樣嘢做緊完全唔同嘅工作。呢篇講清楚分別，同埋幾時應該揀邊樣。A photo book and a memory book do two different jobs. What each one keeps, what each one loses, and when to choose which.
Journal誠實比較：StoryWorth 靠寫、Remento 靠講，兩個都係美國服務、英文為主。KIORY 係為講廣東話嘅香港家庭而做。StoryWorth works by writing, Remento by speaking, both in English, from the US. KIORY is built for Cantonese-speaking families in Hong Kong. An honest look at who each one suits.
Journal問題簿、網上訂閱、私人代筆、長輩故事書：香港留低父母故事嘅幾種做法，每種大約幾錢，分別喺邊，冇人肯直接講嘅我哋講。Question journals, online subscriptions, private ghostwriting, and voice books: what each way of keeping a parent’s story roughly costs in Hong Kong, and what the differences buy you.
Journal送畀父母嘅禮物之中，最難買嘅係佢哋唔會買畀自己嘅嗰樣。母親節、父親節、生日、過年都啱用嘅一個答案。The hardest gift to buy a parent is the one they would never buy themselves. One answer that works for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays and New Year.
Journal由一段WhatsApp語音，到一本可以攤喺枱面嘅書，中間發生咩事。From a WhatsApp voice note to a book you can leave on the table, here is what happens in between.
Journal錄低咗係第一步。但係手機、雲端、記憶卡，全部都唔係為咗留三代而設計。Recording is the first step. Phones, cloud accounts and memory cards are not built to hold anything for three generations.
Journal一家人分開兩三個地方之後，最快斷嘅唔係聯絡，係故事。走之前有一件事，值得排喺清單前面。When a family splits across two or three countries, the first thing to break is not contact. It is the stories.
Journal好多長輩對某啲年頭一個字都唔講。呢篇講點樣尊重佢嘅沉默，同時唔好連其他嘢都失埋。Many elders will not say a word about certain years. How to respect that without losing everything else along with it.
Journal呢兩年香港送走咗一批塑造過呢個城市嘅演員同歌手。佢哋留得低，係因為有人錄過。Hong Kong has lost a run of the performers who shaped it. What survives of them survives because somebody recorded it.
Journal香港電影記低咗一個時代嘅樣、聲同節奏。但係入面冇你屋企。你屋企嗰個版本要你自己拍。Hong Kong film preserved the look, sound and rhythm of an era. Your family is not in it. That version has to be filmed by you.
Journal謝賢七月離世，享年八十九歲。全香港都留得低佢把聲，因為佢做咗七十年演員。大部分人嘅父母冇。Patrick Tse died in July at 89. His voice is completely preserved, because he spent seventy years on camera. Almost nobody's parents have that.
Journal爸媽嗰代人，乜都唔缺，淨係缺一樣嘢：有人肯坐低，聽佢哋講故仔。Your parents' generation genuinely doesn't need more things. What they don't have is someone sitting down to listen.
Journal記性會老。有時因為年紀，有時因為認知障礙症、腦退化症。呢啲故事，總有一日冇人記得點講。Memory fades, sometimes with age, sometimes with dementia or Alzheimer's. These stories don't wait for a convenient time.
Journal台灣二〇二六年一月正式成為超高齡社會，用咗七年。同一段路，德國行咗三十六年。Taiwan became a super-aged society in January 2026, and it took seven years. Germany took thirty-six.
Journal失去咗父母嘅人，最掛住嘅通常唔係大場面。係最日常嗰啲聲。People who have lost a parent rarely miss the big occasions. They miss the most ordinary sounds.
Journal大部分坊間相冊用膠裝、酸性紙、染料墨。三樣加埋，就係一本廿年後開始爛嘅書。Most consumer photo books use glue binding, acidic paper and dye ink. Together that is a book which begins failing in about twenty years.
Journal慳、捱、唔好蝕底人哋、有事自己頂。呢啲香港家庭嘅價值觀，冇一條係講出嚟教嘅。Thrift, endurance, never being taken advantage of, handling your own problems. None of it is ever taught out loud.
Journal由《阿飛正傳》嗰一分鐘，到《花樣年華》埋在牆窿嘅秘密，王家衛一直影緊一樣嘢：人點樣試圖留住已經過去咗嘅嘢。From the minute in Days of Being Wild to the secret sealed in a wall in In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai keeps filming one thing: people trying to hold on to what has already gone.
Journal今年最意外嘅一齣戲，用僑批講一個家族嘅故事。而僑批呢種家書，二〇一三年入咗聯合國嘅世界記憶名錄。This year's surprise hit is built on qiaopi, the letters overseas Chinese sent home. Those letters entered UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2013.
Journal「講下你以前啲嘢」冇人答得到。呢十條問題，設計畀香港長輩，問完會停唔到口。"Tell me about your life" is unanswerable. These ten are built for Hong Kong elders and tend to open the floodgates.
Journal香港有幾十萬潮州後代。潮州話、盂蘭勝會、拜神嘅規矩，好多都靠上一代口傳，冇文字版本。Hong Kong has a large Teochew population. The dialect, the rituals, the festival, the rules at the table: almost all of it passes by mouth, with no written version.
Journal香港有一代人喺徙置區同公屋長大。佢哋嗰種生活方式已經冇咗，而記得嘅人開始老。A generation of Hong Kongers grew up in resettlement blocks and public estates. That way of living is gone, and the people who remember it are getting old.
Journal想幫爸媽整本書，坊間有自傳出版、有紀念冊、有相冊。分別喺邊，邊種先啱你屋企？Ghostwritten autobiographies, memorial albums, photo books, oral history. Which one does your family actually want?
Journal香港人講自己屋企嘅來歷，通常得一句「阿爺嗰陣由鄉下落嚟」。而嗰句後面，藏住成個家族嘅開頭。Most Hong Kongers can say "my grandfather came down from the village." Behind that sentence is the beginning of the entire family.
Journal父親節送禮最難嘅一種爸爸：乜都話唔使，乜都唔講。其實佢唔係冇故事，係冇人問過。The hardest father to buy for is the one who says he doesn't need anything and never talks about himself. He is not out of stories. He was never asked.
Journal幾乎每個香港家庭都有一個裝住舊相嘅餅乾罐。問題係，識得叫出裏面每個人名字嘅，通常淨係得一個人。Almost every Hong Kong family has a biscuit tin of old photographs. Usually only one person left can name everyone in them.
Journal二〇二五年，香港六十五歲以上人口有一百七十九萬，佔全港四分之一。三十年前只係一成。In 2025 Hong Kong had 1.79 million people aged 65 and over, a quarter of the population. Thirty years ago it was one in ten.
Journal好多香港家庭，孫仔聽得明阿嫲講嘢，但係答唔返。語言就係咁樣，一代一代咁薄落去。In many Hong Kong families the grandchild understands every word the grandmother says, and answers in English. That is how a language thins out.
Journal每個人都有一句想問阿爸阿媽嘅說話，留返「第日」先問。問題係，第日冇寫喺日曆上面。Everyone has a question they're saving for someday. The problem is that someday isn't written on any calendar.