Many of my works relate to political issues, but that’s not necessarily the case for all of them. I am
always interested in joining closer distance relationship of this history and the social position, social
issues with the distance of art.
And Tian-An-Men incident is an interesting topic actually to go into asking Hong Kong people’s
identity and the value of democracy. What kind of society Hong Kong people want always brings up
many interesting questions. But it has been quite … actually to talk about Tian-An-Men incident
among many different aspects …. No matter the society or even artists. In my generation also not so
many people have … If artists talk about the Tian-An-Men incident in their art, sometimes the
imagination is just … as I first said … it is a tragedy …
I want to think about how to relate … how to relate to the spirit that the students at that time, fighting
for the social reform, this spirit for the better social change. Now, as the young people also in Hong
Kong, can we echo with this spirit? Among my work, I sometimes relate to this thinking and in
„Cycling to the square“, this project, I use this symbol of a bicycle because „bicycle“ for me is a
symbol for the students of that time.
Every student used to have a bicycle from the university to Tian-An-Men square and also a kind of
symbol for independence and „you can go everywhere“. But when we talk about Tian-An-Men
incident, there has always been some negative symbol like tank, soldier, blood. So, I think to use this
symbol to discuss this issue and my artistic concern relates to the concept of ‒ as I would say ‒
„community-plus-activism“. So, activism is: I have an idea, I want to link other people and maybe we
can cooperate and we can do something together, take action.
It is about your life and how it affects the other people your community around. So, your daily life is
important and how to make it as kind of activism. This is important. So, Tian-An-Men incident also, I
have this concern and how to link up people around and make an action together, make it happen
in a community.
And maybe from this small change we form a small community and this small community can affect
a bigger community and generate a big discussion.
I make that open call, I think it is actually a re-enactment of the history. In the open call we asked
everyone during the day of June 4 ‒ the Tian-An-Men incident anniversary ‒ to dress up like the
students of that time and take the bicycle from Woofer Ten to the Victoria Park where the
candlelight ceremony is held every year. So, you create a little piece of history in the city and
together we go past through the city and remind people of „we still care about this issue“ and the
spirit of the students at that time.
And also, I would think this, firstly, it’s like a collective performance and secondly, I also focus on … I
am concerned about how the participants feel.
Because some tell me after they joined this action, they feel a kind of sense of togetherness, you
know, and joining hands together. „What is your experience during this action if you pass through
the city, what is the feedback from the normal people, the people on the street? Did they support
you or didn’t they like you talk about this issue?“ It is actually maybe related to the feelings of the
students at that time.
Some young people in my generation, maybe they care about this issue, Tian-An-Men incident –
although they were quite young at that time, just children of a few years. But they don’t have many
different ways to participate in memorizing this incident. So, maybe this is one of the platforms that
young people can participate in.
