Explore mokfai

1. Project Title:  三世書  (Three Generations' Certificates )

2. Ideology

 Over the past century, does the necessity of seeking the identity of “Hongkonger” still valued? Especially amiding the deterritorialization and reterritorialization from territory connection and population mobility between mainland China and Hong Kong.

3. Methodology

 The artwork is executed using ballpoint pen on wooden panels, presented in the format of a horizontal triptych. It appropriates compositional strategies and multiple-perspective elements from traditional Chinese ink landscape painting, inviting the viewer on a visual journey through its depicted scenery. The spatial arrangement references the scroll format of "Travelers Among Mountains and Streams" (金碧峰圖卷) by Northern Song dynasty painter Fan Kuan (范寛). By employing these altered tools and materials, the artist aims to disrupt the conventional dichotomy between playfulness and elegance, while simultaneously bridging cultural, geographical, and temporal divides.

4. Contents

 In terms of content, the piece narrates three distinct stories of mainland Chinese migration to Hong Kong across different historical periods, using figures, settings, and topographies as narrative devices. These include the urban legend of the "Braided-Hair Girl" (辮子姑娘) from the 1970s, the infamous 1980s criminal Yip Kai-foon (葉繼歡), one of those "Long Arm of the Law" (省港奇兵), and the contemporary phenomenon of approximately 16,000 cross-border students. In a further nod to literati painting traditions, the artist incorporates humorous textual inscriptions, playfully affirming the value and identity of being a "Hong Konger".

5. Context 

 The definition of "Hong Kong identity" has been continuously reshaped in response to historical developments, government population policies, political shifts, and socio-cultural disruptions. Following the Second World War and the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the 1950s and 1960s witnessed the formation of rural communes and the subsequent outbreak of widespread famine across mainland China. This led to a mass influx of refugees into Hong Kong. In response, the Hong Kong government implemented the “Touch Base” policy from November 1974 to October 1980, which was ultimately replaced on October 23 of the same year by the more stringent “immediate arrest and repatriation” policy, aimed at curbing the rapid rise in population.

 After the 1997 Handover, the 1999 "Ng Ka Ling" (吳嘉玲) right of abode case marked the first instance in which the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress exercised its authority to interpret the Basic Law. Following the SARS epidemic in 2003, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government signed the "Individual Visit Scheme" with the mainland, leading to a significant increase in the number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong. 

 Over the past decade, interactions between Hong Kong and the mainland have undergone complex and often contentious transformations. These include the rise of parallel trading, escalating political tensions stemming from social movements, the deterioration of Hong Kong–mainland relations, the steady increase in quotas for mainland students in local universities, the growing population of cross-border schoolchildren, and the expansion of talent admission schemes targeting mainland residents.

 The artwork was created against the backdrop of this evolving, cross-generational process in which the very meaning of being “Hong Konger” is perpetually negotiated and redefined.