Looking back, things have been a string of chance happenings and coincidences. A Sunday supplement, a hefty 20-page spread, first greeted readers of Ming Pao in the latter half of 2002. The catchwords for this section were inspiration and leisure reading ; the goal was to deliver a pleasurable and enjoyable reading experience. Only that few would have guessed the year ahead would be a roller-coaster ride. The beginning Twenty pages is a vast expanse of a literary sea to the readers, and a handsome investment for the paper. Helen Lai Translated by Lam Wei-yin Agnes I worked as a news journalist who sideline in writing people profiles and features. As a journalist, I strove to achieve clarity, balance and neutrality in the selection of facts and opinions presented; the journalist is an invisible observer who stays completely out of the picture. Not for writing supplements though. Each of those columns is graded by its readability fun, entertaining and even an air and a columnist has to distinguish himself by injecting into his writing a unique perspective and aura, an attitude. But the challenge doesn t stop there. While pushing the envelope of column writing, he must be bold and innovative, tilting hard-core social issues into soft-core journalism for mass readership. Yet, with the news cycle getting shorter and shorter, little room s left for in-depth coverage and complex details. And I thought to myself, wouldn t it be nice to offer urbanites the opportunity to sit down on a leisurely Sunday morning, trading head-line scanning for well written, well edited social columns with for a change? And wouldn t it be the perfect opportunity to purge the brain of excess and confusing information and reignite the passion for learning? It was obvious that this city had more than its share of shopping guides and not enough quality art and culture supplements that put people at their 142 143
heart. This sentiment became concrete and crystallized over the events leading to and after the mass demonstration against the National Security (Article Plate 1 Visual/Textual City, arranged in a threecolumned grid. 23, Basic Law) Legislation in 2003. When Apple Daily hit the newsstand in 1996, the pages of local newspaper never looked the same again. Given increasing prominence, visuals and graphic illustrations and the impact they create define what makes a page tick. When we were envisioning the supplement using visuals as a reference point, a bold, ground-breaking attempt of all Hong Kong newspapers started to take shape in our heads a brand-new Visual Zone which would devote entirely to creating a visual feast. The task initially fell on the editorial team, who created a mosaic or collage from life and news snapshots taken by the team of photojournalists. I was faintly aware of a secret yearning buried deep inside, waiting to unleash the many possibilities embedded within those images. Still things were a bit of a blur. It wasn t long before our brainchild got people talking. Thanks to the acquaintances made with arts and cultural workers, many of them fresh art graduates turned freelancers, we began to experiment gracing the column with art works in their signature styles, thereby creating a discursive interactivity between texts and visuals. While infusing fresh energy into the pages, the new approach was also an interesting source of stimulation and inspiration for the readers. Soon the Visual/Textual City column was born, playing host to the visual columns of seemanho, the art criticism class of Para/Site Art Space, illustrator KY Chan and Pak Sheung-chuen. An array of colours, images and illustrations, in the stead of words, illuminate the space of these columns, painting sights, sounds, hopes and desires of the city. Chancing on Pak Sheung-chuen Then SARS hit the city one year, striking fear into people, who were donning surgical masks everywhere they went. For a seemingly endless time, there hadn t been the faintest sign of light at the end of the tunnel. Then at the lowest ebb there came a glimmer of hope: the number of new cases dropped significantly, the World Health Organisation lifted its warning against travel to Hong Kong As if a stone had been lifted off their chests, locals began flocking to the country
Plate 2 The 171 items spotted by Pak Sheung-chuen during his journey from Mong Kok to the Lion Rock Country Park; published on 25 May 2003. 144 145
Plate 3 Pak Sheung-chuen took the street for the first time on 1 July 2003. On the following day, he alone tracked the same rally route minus the half a million protestors; published on 6 July 2003.
Plate 4 Faces that Tsang Tak-ping Keith met and committed to memory at the rally on 1 July 2004; published on 4 July 2004. 146 147
to bask in the fresh air and sunshine. While discussing the theme for the week, we caught wind of an exhibition organized by Para/Site 1 based on the theme of SARS and learned from its curator Leung Po-shan Anthony of 3692, an art work by Chinese-born artist Pak Sheung-chuen. A fine work of art etches itself into the memory of the beholder, I came to realize. It s an example I would probably return to time and again. It s a work of simplicity: plastic films that the artist Pak Sheung-chuen collected from public housing estates, the type used to cover mouthpieces of the intercom units and other frequently touched surfaces that are replaced or sterilized at regular intervals, a hygiene precaution that started with SARS and became a standard procedure during all subsequent flu seasons and outbreaks. One could not help but notice the unmistakable dents left on the plastic films, revealing the frequently used digits that make up the security code. The sight of it sparks a surge of emotions. When SARS struck, people were so paranoid about infection and cleanliness that the once stringently enforced security and safety concerns just went out the window. The work speaks volumes of vulnerability. Sensitive, dainty, simple and concise, it invites self-reflection and introspection brought on by a collective experience. We re trying to sum up the SARS experience this week and were wondering if you could contribute something, I asked Pak. I could give it a try, Pak responded Plate 5 Kwan Sheung-chi s adlike image entitled Flâneur, the vagrant s home, published in May 2005; on the left is Law Chi-kwong, who got on a bike and pedalled among the heavyweights of the road in Tin Shui Wai. Published on 22 May 2005, the two columns make interesting comparative reading.
Plate 6 The cover of Sunday Life as an artist statement. In the end of 2006, Justin Wong gave a full retrospective on images gracing the front pages that year; published on 31 December 2006. with his standard reply. A few days later, his email reached my inbox with an attachment, The 171 Items Dotted the Road from Mong Kok to the Lion Rock Country Park, a grid composed of many photographs. 2 Inspired by a news story, the work encapsulates a collective aura: how frolickers descended on the country in droves for the fresh air and left behind a park strewn with rubbish. Charting the course from Mong Kok train station, his camera picked up one object after another left behind or lost on the roads, including a lame beggar lying prostrate. The column hit a social nerve. Its unconventional expression, coupled with holistic concepts, put people in awe. That Pak could have pulled off a work, despite being constrained by a set theme and a short timeframe, was a testament of his profound introverted consciousness and astute worldly awareness. Equally worth savouring is his 1 July Series; the unexpected turnout for the first 1 July demonstrations in 2003 saw half a million Hong Kong people marching on the government headquarters, many of them drenched in sweat under the summer sun. On the following day, Pak followed the same rally route and produced a timeline of his lone walk for comparison. The result was a historical roadmap of the 1 July demonstrations. Another year saw Pak plastering the streets with yellow cloth to collect footprints of the protestors. Conveying the messages of 1 July, these fabrics were then torn into yellow ribbons and brought to Beijing by the artist himself to tie along the streets of Tiananmen Square. 3 This, among his other works, have been reported in the press. 148 149
Plate 8 Snapshots of conservation activists at Star Ferry, captured by Tse Chi-tak who joined the protestors in his personal capacity as a social photographer; published on 29 July 2007.
Plate 7 Justin Wong s work again made the front page: in the artist s hands, the survey on the students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong about their erotic fantasies became one on Good Students ; published on 13 May 2007.December 2006. And so Visual Zone has morphed into a platform that marries editorial subjects and artistic expressions. Sometimes it features Pak; other times, some other artists. Our editorial guidelines, if any, are a brief description of the theme, or related news feeds; the artists are given free artistic rein. Breathing freshness, creativity, vibrancy and youth into the supplement, this art in print became a signature of Sunday Life which we rather conspicuously attempted to appeal to the readers. To the artists themselves, the supplement serves as a space for expression and a portal to the wider society where individual artistic styles begin to take shape through public exhibition. 1+1>2 A work of art transcends time and space, providing readers unique experiences at different times of viewing. Sunday Life is laid out in such a way that abstract art concepts are interspersed with thematic interviews and criticism to provide a context for reading the exhibited works. To the readers, Sunday Life not only marks the beginning of the process of experiencing art, but 150 151
it also inspires imaginative recognition on one end and a sensible collision of thoughts on the other, by inviting compared and contrasted readings on the materials under the weekly theme. That is to say we ve achieved the 1+1>2 effect. Plate 9 Launched to mark the supplement s makeover, Ching Chinwai Luke s bedsheetraising ceremony lifted the curtain on the Hijacking playground series; published on 2 September 2007. Here s an example, a rather unsettling one. Sunday Life published on 22 May 2005 featured the breaking news of the week as the cover story: a mother run over by a container truck while riding her bicycle to work in Tin Shui Wai. The tragedy raised concerns over city planning and wider social issues confronting the new town of Tin Shui Wai. On the front page was a drawing by a child from Tin Shui Wai: a goldfish in a bowl. In an attempt to experience first-hand the daily threats of mingling with these heavyweights of the road, Law Chi-kwong, member of the Commission of Poverty, was invited to join our reporters on a bike ride, pedalling around a world very different from his own. In a contribution of his own, artist Kwan Sheung-chi s ad-like image entitled Flâneur, the vagrant s home is no glossed-over marketing stuff for some high-end property. At the centre of it is the image of the artist dragging a cardboard box up the familiar pale pink stairs of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, a social underworld banished to darkness, a sign of homelessness. At the centre of the imperceptible link between the ride and the vagrant s
Plate 10 The collaboration Helen Lai built over time with Justin Wong gets translated into the cover design. The theme for this issue is Catch phases ; published on 27 April 2008. Plate 11 Ching Chin-wai Luke found himself at the centre of a heated debate. His 1 June 2008 article, 19 Years Later Square, was criticized by the management of the Times Square for wilfully associating the Yue Minjun Art Exhibition held at its premises with the June Fourth Incident. Ching s response to the management s request of correction was later published in Mingpao on 8 June. 152 153
Plate 12 Pak Sheung-chuen had the LegCo oaths of office written on lettuce leaves and ate them too! Published on 3 October 2004.
home lies a fascinating set of possibilities to ponder and explore. It gradually occurred to us that this platform for the arts has achieved something close to the voice of the common man: the works are an artist s response to social issues, the interesting, eye-catching images an invitation to a beautiful spectrum of associations. We decided to take a step forward and used these works of art on the covers, as an artist statement, a voice. Back in the days when the supplement was published in a tabloid-sized format, we also experimented with serializing a column in text boxes on the corners of consecutive pages, compelling the reader to turn the page as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Social impact What it comes down to is that an artist, like a media worker, wants to make a difference. I believe that Sunday Life, ebbing and flowing over the many Sundays since 2003, has planted more than a handful of good seeds of civil rights consciousness. Besides featuring Pak Sheung-chuen, two other resident artists also contribute works: Ching Chin-wai Luke and Justin Wong. Capturing and nurturing the public imagination for newspapers, the satirical touches and distinguished style of Wong s comics have earned the artist approving nods at various press awards. Ching s behavioral art project, Hijacking playground launched amid the post-star Ferry preservation movement, was a sprouting seed in the fight for social accessibility of public spaces Hijacking playground is a weekly series that aims at hijacking a public space where pedestrian access is closely guarded. Each operation was meticulously planned and executed by the geared up Ching, whose action aimed to facilitate contemplation of the publicness of public places. His column marked an important milestone of our makeover in September 2007. In hijacking the first public space, the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai, Ching and a group PIP School students performed their own flag raising ceremony with bedsheets. The operation ended with the party being removed from the square by security guards; still, successive hijacking operations were being staged throughout the year. When the Yue Minjin exhibition 4 graced the Times Square in Causeway Bay in 2008 on the eve of June Fourth, Ching again took up his pen and wrote a review 5 in which he announced an upcoming hijack operation in commemoration of June Fourth. 6 Its release was met with outrage from the Times Square management, 7 foreshadowing the string of protests staged by civic groups against privately controlled pseudo-public space. 8 154 155
Art as a newspaper language The newspaper as an art platform is not without its constraints, tangible or otherwise. To begin with, all published works are two-dimensional. As a vehicle for information distribution, a newspaper prides itself in functionality and communication capability. Newspaper readers are habitual skimmers and a newspaper is discarded as soon as it is read. Therefore in presenting and documenting the conceptual art of Pak Sheung-chuen, or the behavioral art of Ching Chinwai Luke, it is important that the visual layout maximizes aesthetic appeal without sacrificing easy reading and quick comprehension for the average reader. But old habits die hard. The reader, particularly the textual reader, needs a lot of persuasion to read outside the box; some simply fail to grasp the visual narrative. In spite of all these difficulties, this platform turned a new page in the press. And I m confident that readership and audienceship will grow hand-in-hand with the increasing recognition of the importance of art to the social and economic life. As the platform administrator, I also have the privilege of being the first reader and audience. I lost count of the moments when I was totally transfixed by a click of the emailed images. Like many incidents, the episode of Longhair Leung Kwok-hung refusing to swear the oath of office at LegCo may have long faded away, if not because of the anecdote of Pak Sheungkuen gobbling down the lettuce leaves on which the oaths were written in Chinese ink, all because of the impact it has initially struck on the beholder. I heard the lettuce leaves gave Pak a bout of diarrhea. Helen Lai is the editor of Sunday Life, Ming Pao
1 A time like this...zeiten wie diese, an exhibition in response to the SARS outbreak co-presented by Hong Kong Arts Centre, Goethe-Institut Hong Kong, Para/Site Art Space and Art in Hospital, was held at Para/Site between 20 25 May 2003 2 Published on page D5, Ming Pao, 25 May 2003. 3 A Present to the Central Government by Pak Sheung-chuen, July 2005. 4 Yue Minjin Art Exhibition, Open Piazza, Times Square, 27 May to 15 June 2008. 5 19 Years Later Square by Ching Chin-wai Luke, published on P04 and P05 in Ming Pao. The article also appeared at Inmedia (Hong Kong) under the title of Commemorating June 4 at Times Square, http:// www.inmediahk.net/node/1000156. 6 Move June Action 2008: In Memory of June Fourth was organized by the Asian People s Theatre Festival Society on 4 June 2008. Participants included local artists Mok Chiu-yu, Auyeung Tung, Ko Siu-lan, Sanmu, Keith Tsang, Wen Yau, Yuenjie and Sally Ng; Yoyoyogasmana from Indonesia, Zhang Yiwang from Tianjin and Chen Mu from Guizhou, China, and Alastair MacLennan from the UK. 7 In the 3 June 2008 letter written to Ming Pao, Ling Yuen-ting, general manager of the Times Square, criticized Ching Chin-wai Luke s article 19 Years Later Square for wilfully and inappropriately associating the Yue Minjun Art Exhibition held at the Times Square with the June Fourth Incident, and that it was suspected of an intent to instigate readers to take part in an unauthorized activity. 8 Editor s note: For more details, see the article Visual Arts and Public Space Issue under the section entitled Public Issues in Hong Kong Visual Arts Yearbook 2008. 156 157