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PHOTOGRAPHS BY WONG WEI-HIM

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1 photograph by Wong Wei-him in archival pigment print on fine art paper\n(in 2 different sizes):30 x 45 cm, Open Edition / 40 x 60 cm, Edition of 20 
 
Selected as the main image of the 2023 Collection of Essays of Reimagine Hong Kong, photographer Wong Wei-him captured an intriguingly-shaped cloud floating over Victoria Harbour towards the western end of Hong Kong Island. Taken in the beginning of the city’s political event in 2019, this photograph coincidentally embedded a prophetic message. Metaphorically, in both Chinese and English, clouds and gloomy weather predict that “storms” would come not only in terms of meteorology. 
 
As Hong Kong’s social unrest escalated to an unprecedented level soon after this photograph was taken, the former British colony suffered from COVID-19 for three years immediately after the protests ended. Although the image depicts the anxious mood and uncertainties before the “storms,” writer Jia Jia finds the cloud as a symbol of renewed hope while Hong Kong is reimagined by every citizen when the storms leave.

Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong (May 2019). Cover photograph of 2023 Collection of Essay

1 photograph by Wong Wei-him in archival pigment print on fine art paper\n(in 2 different sizes):30 x 45 cm, Open Edition / 40 x 60 cm, Edition of 20 
 
This photograph, taken near the Hang Fa Chuen MTR station, was paired with the essay “Go Up.” Capturing the back of two middle-aged couriers carrying a piece of furniture toward a typical housing estate tells the story of Hong Kong’s property regime. With the MTR station named after the real estate, Hang Fa Chuen is the “last” private multi-block estate towards the eastern end of Hong Kong Island. 
 
As the working-class men walk up the steps, the image depicts those Hong Kong citizens who may never be able to afford to buy their own homes. Desperate to “上樓,” translated into “go up,” applicants typically wait up to six years in Hong Kong before moving into a high-rise public housing estate unit. As Jia Jia writes on the socioeconomics and cultural symbols of the world’s most expensive property market, the image and essay title imply a double meaning. Hong Kong’s “asset class” are always hungry for prices and the market to “go up.” When property owners and public housing applicants benefit by “going up,” Jia Jia, with his ideas and suggestions, reimagines Hong Kong real estate as no longer being a “zero-sum game.”

Hang Fa Chuen, Hong Kong (November 2017). Paired photograph of essay 'Go Up' 

This photograph was taken by Wong Wei-him primarily for Jia Jia. It shows the writer’s hand carrying a chicken pie in a tiny old tea restaurant on Spring Garden Lane in the middle of Wan Chai. The author uses chicken pie, usually a much larger one baked for sharing in a British kitchen, as a metaphor to describe Hong Kong’s aggregate housing needs. 
 
In this essay, Jia Jia wrote about his childhood memories of his favourite chicken pie, which is no longer available at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Around the time when this photograph was taken, he was writing another essay on Hong Kong’s new wave of localism, when citizens conjure a “collective memory” of nostalgia. As the writer critically examines the cultural heritage, he finds a new passion in visiting different tea restaurants to re-experience the city’s urban fabric and juxtapositions. As he carries readers from the former colony’s colonial history to its post-war new identity and popular culture in later chapters, Jia Jia argues that all Hong Kong citizens have been co-creating Hong Kong as “outsiders.” This photograph denotes him looking at Hong Kong’s housing “pie” and cultural identity as an outsider.

Wan Chai, Hong Kong (March 2023). Paired photograph of essay 'Chicken Pie'

1 photograph by Wong Wei-him in archival pigment print on fine art paper\n(in 2 different sizes):30 x 45 cm, Open Edition / 40 x 60 cm, Edition of 20 
 
This photograph was taken near the pinnacle of Victoria Peak and the former site of Mountain Lodge, a “summer retreat” owned by the British colonial government for former Hong Kong governors. Jia Jia considers this photograph a “perfect match” for his profound theory on Victoria Peak based on meticulous examinations of its history. By challenging simplistic generalisations and stereotypes using historiography, he uses multiple dimensions to draw readers’ attention to the misconceived narrative of allegedly the world’s most expensive area. 
 
Jia Jia revealed the area’s origins with Mountain Lodge being a dilapidated sanatorium that failed and closed soon after it was opened in 1862 as he drew parallelism between the area’s continuous “ups and downs” and Hong Kong’s economic roller coaster rides. With the title “No Staff and British,” he highlighted the old colonial law forbidding Chinese people to live on the Peak. At the same time, it has always welcomed many middle-ranked British government officials and corporate staff until today. 
 
The photograph shows “Mount Austin,” a twelve-block housing complex with townhouses and apartments as small as 700 square feet. It provides a compelling depiction for the essay’s narrative, given the Peak’s tendency to look more crowded than is usually perceived. Its owner is not the only Chinese property tycoon who could afford to live in a single landed house on the Peak but prefers to live in another area. Instead, the site was typically built into a complex for leasing to expatriates at prices not higher than Mid-levels. The precise location is ironic when it is supposed to be Hong Kong’s best spot, physically and symbolically. This valuable real estate is the ultimate proof of “the Peak” as a passé phenomenon based on unjustified conferrals instead of constitutionalism.

Victoria Peak, Hong Kong (February 2021) . Paired photo of essay 'No Staff and British'

1 photograph by Wong Wei-him in archival pigment print on fine art paper\n(in 2 different sizes):30 x 45 cm, Open Edition / 40 x 60 cm, Edition of 20 
 
“Pyramid Scheme” was written just before the twenty-fifth anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China. Like other citizens, Jia Jia revisits his childhood memories of the 1980s and 1990s, known as Hong Kong’s “golden era.” His nostalgia involves Britain, as the period represented the last days of colonialism and eight years when he was a student there. The author introduces discourses relating to Hong Kong’s cultural identity that he dives deep into in later chapters. He discusses cultural semiotics, socioeconomics, and wealth distribution by analysing the British monarchy, aristocracies, and castles.
 
The writer further analyses the seatings of coliseums and theatres, as well as Shakespeare, with references to philosophy, in presenting notions of the inevitable deconstruction and reversal of “pyramids,” symbolising wealth, power, and cultural dogmas. This photograph was taken especially for this essay as Wong Wei-him discovered pyramids in cemeteries around Hong Kong. Built along hillsides, the image suggests a phenomenon that echoes the city’s lack of land and living spaces and unique cityscape, which the author has written in other essays. 
 
Contrasting typically huge flat grounds of cemeteries in other cities, the author leads readers to wonder if prices of “spaces” and “positions” for dead people are like theatre seatings and if height is linear. The photograph and this essay also echo the discussions on individuals’ wealth and fame. With several references to characters in the essay “Name Drop,” this photograph pairing provokes readers to think about human legacies, superstitions, and spirituality.

Chinese Christian Cemetery (June 2023). Paired photograph of essay 'Pyramid Scheme'

1 photograph by Wong Wei-him in archival pigment print on fine art paper\n(in 2 different sizes):30 x 45 cm, Open Edition / 40 x 60 cm, Edition of 20 

Delivery Method	Physical
Special Features	N/A
Author	Jia Jia
Photographer	Wong Wei-him
Publisher & Distributor	Nowhere

PHOTOGRAPHS BY WONG WEI-HIM

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