Lindsay Varty

Lindsay Varty is a public speaker and author of local best-seller Sunset Survivors, a coffee-table book exploring Hong Kong's last traditional artisans and their vanishing trades. Her background in journalism and her deep love for the city she grew up in, inspired three years documenting the lives of bamboo bird cage makers, villain hitters, knife sharpeners and more. Her work capturing these living memories has been highly acclaimed and featured across global platforms such as CNN, BBC, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, China Daily and was even adapted into a documentary film.

Lindsay has given two TEDx talks on the themes of disappearing culture and life as a Third Culture Kid and continues to speak regularly at local schools and societies such as the Royal Geographical Society and Asia Society Hong Kong as well as at internationally recognised literary festivals such as the HKILF and Hong Kong Book Week.

In addition to Sunset Survivors, her published works include Hong Kong Slang, a humorous guide to Cantonese colloquialisms, and Welly the Wild Boar, a local children's book which introduces readers to the city’s favourite street food.

Beyond writing, Lindsay spent eight years playing professional rugby for Hong Kong at international tournaments where she was fortunate enough to have time to explore different countries and cultures, feeding her passion for local identity and cultural preservation.

Through her immersive tours and storytelling, she aims to help people discover and fall in love with the city’s hidden history so they’ll feel motivated to protect it. She anchors her work in Baba Dioum’s guiding line: “In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.”