The present article takes a microlevel approach to the situation by focussing on a group of NNS scholars in one location, Hong Kong. By means of indepth interviews, the purpose of this study is to begin to develop an understanding of how this group of Cantonesespeaking Hong Kong scholars perceive themselves as writers of academic articles in English. The article is part of a broader, multimethod approach to studying the issue of writing for publication in English from the Hong Kong perspective. It was conducted in parallel with a quantitative survey, text analysis, interviews with journal editors, and analysis of correspondence with editors. The method used for this study, however, is indepth interviews with Hong Kong nonnative writers. Specifically, the focus is on the disadvantage the NNS writers feel themselves to be at vis-vis their nativespeaking peers, a striking feature of the interview data that was collected.