Like her mentor, the late celebrated Hong Kong author PK Leung, Natalia completed her PhD studies at the University of California, San Diego, which has given her a leg up in terms of visibility and familiarity with the North American academic community. Without writing overtly political verse, her poems engage directly with the current turmoil in Hong Kong (and broader China) politics and society. Apart from her university work, she is the guest anchor of Radio Hong Kong's Performing Arts program. Her recent publications in Chinese include Flying Coffin, which received the 9th Biennial Award for Chinese Literature (Poetry) in 2007, and Butterfly of Forbidden Colors: The Artistic Image of Leslie Cheung, which received the Hong Kong Book Prize as well as the 2008 "Best Book of the Year" award.