In May I traveled to Hong Kong to be a part of this exhibition at Parasite Gallery.
Many Thanks to Inti, Cosmin, Trevour & Qinyi at Parasite for putting together a fantastic and important show and looking after us.
Para Site proudly presents A Journal of the Plague Year. Fear,
ghosts, rebels. SARS, Leslie and the Hong Kong story - curated by Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero.
Starting from the
events that affected Hong Kong in the spring of 2003, the exhibition
traces the different narratives, historical backgrounds as well as the
implications of these events in relation to the contemporary culture and
politics of Hong Kong and the world.
The city has a subjectively internalised history of epidemics and of
representations in the colonial era as an infected land that needed to
be conquered from nature, disease and oriental habits in order to be
made healthy, modern and profitable. These narratives culminated with
the identification of the bacillus causing the plague during an epidemic
in Hong Kong in 1894, in Para Site's current neighbourhood. This
discovery contributed to a dubious association of the disease with Asia
and heightened the "yellow peril" scares in Europe and America at the
time. In Hong Kong, the fear of infecting agents has always resonated
with a fear of other people, quarantine has mirrored exclusion, whilst
epidemiological, racial and cultural contamination have shared the same
language.
When the city became the epicenter of the most significant airborne
epidemic in recent years - the SARS crisis of 2003 - the unparalleled
shutdown of the city and the atomisation of society in quarantined
segments led to an unexpected shift in the political awareness of the
Hong Kong citizenry. Just after the end of the epidemic, record numbers
of people turned out to protest against a new internal security law
imposed by Beijing, causing its shelving and, more importantly, the
emergence of an active political community. After that moment, the image
of a de-politicised and soullessly pragmatic commercial hub could not
anymore tell the whole story about Hong Kong.
Less gloriously however, the main measure taken to alleviate the
economic meltdown caused by SARS, the option for Mainland citizens to
visit the territory for the first time on individual visas caused
another major shift in the identity of the city, and its relationship to
Mainland China. Medicalised vocabularies and imageries reminiscent of
epidemics have been used in regard to the growing number of Mainland
Chinese in Hong Kong, seen as pathogens corrupting an otherwise healthy
social body and as milk formula sucking locusts. Again, an epidemic
becomes the backdrop of paranoia and hate, but the fear of the Chinese,
of their vast numbers and uncivilized habits, is now harboured by fellow
Chinese rather than by the self-content Europeans of the last plague
visitation a century ago. This essentialising xenophobia has come to be a
defining factor in the relationship between the two sides of the
Shenzhen River, and paradoxically has complicated the pro-democracy (and
anti-Beijing) discourse and activism, rejuvenated in the wake of the
SARS crisis.
These ambivalences in the identity of Hongkongers are reflected in
the figure of Leslie Cheung, the hugely iconic figure, actor and singer
who committed suicide at the height of the SARS crisis by jumping off
the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, in Central Hong Kong. His shocking death at
the darkest hour of the darkest times in recent memory played its part
in the mobilisation of Hongkongers, who turned out in huge numbers for
Leslie's funeral, ignoring the health warnings in effect at the time.
Gor Gor's ("Big Brother" in Cantonese - as Leslie has been known) life
and career have contributed to forging a strong sense of identity for
Hong Kong culture, in spite of his queer and often contrarian persona.
The versatility of the roles he played reflected (and arguably enhanced)
the versatility of the city's identity over the past decades, before
and after the handover. And his ghostly presence continues to do so.
The exhibition aims to navigate through these disparate though
interconnected narratives and to contribute to a critical discussion
about Hong Kong's recent history with the help of works by local and
international artists, as well as of pop cultural artifacts and archival
documents. It is curated by Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero.
Para Site Art Space is financially supported by Springboard Grant
under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The content of this programme does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
