The moon has been a predominant image in different cultures. More than one thousand two hundred years ago, Li Po imagined the moon and his shadow as his drinking companions. For John Keats, the moon is a symbol of perfection and transcendence. In one of the poems by Emily Dickinson, “The Moon was but a Chin of Gold,” the moon’s identity shifts from body part to flower to weathervane, indicating the cosmic indifference to the capriciousness of phenomena, as if echoing Su Shi’s apprehension, expressed in his classical poem “Prelude to Water Melody,” about the ceaseless waxing and waning of the moon. The otherworldliness embodied by the moon often encapsulates our projection of desires, dreams, home-sickness, alienation, melancholy, and mystery.

In this Second Issue of The Kaleidoscope Chronicle, we would like to explore the undertones of the moon in this contemporary era with the theme “Under a Hong Kong Moon—Chronicles of the Unseen.” There has been so much that is underexplored and very rich in texture in this adventure with the moon, and you can see how the writers in this issue shape and reshape the texture of the moon in this city. You can read poems which anchor memories from childhood prayers to a mother “somewhere near the moon,” and a fable of a monster who chooses devotion over survival under the moon’s warning gaze. There are short stories about a clock tower speaking directly to the moon as the sole witness to its lost purpose, a daughter recounting her mother’s exacting lessons about womanhood with Chang’e surfacing as the mother’s solitary divinity, and a young witch whose uncontrolled magic under the moon leads to her abandonment but somehow Hogwarts promises her a space where she no longer feels like dust. You can also taste in the creative non-fiction pieces how the moon is experienced as a steady, undemanding presence which witnesses fleeting friendships, or how the moon revolves at its own pace, mirroring a journey toward self-acceptance.

I sincerely hope that in this issue you will also find your own unseen chronicle. Whether the moon appears to you as a witness, a mirror, or a quiet companion, may its light illuminate something long felt but never named.

Belle Ling
April 2026