Another Day in Hong Kong
"A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller," – Paul Lee
I woke up on my last day in Hong Kong eager to embrace the oppressive humidity and explore all the nooks and crannies in Sheung Wan, the Central and Western Districts. Unfortunately, it was a Wednesday afternoon, and my plans failed to align with the pulse of a city that comes to life at night, so I did the next best thing and took a journey through the abundantly vibrant Asia Art Archive. With one of the most valuable growing collections of material on the recent history of art from Asia, freely available on their website and onsite library, the Asia Art Archive builds tools and communities to collectively expand knowledge through research, residency, educational programs, and publications. In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell declared: “Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past," and the exhibition on view took a unique view on this, pinpointing the collective history in a single day.
As detailed on the Asia Archive site: In 1990, the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s Exhibition Department invited residents from all over Hong Kong to photograph the people and events of their daily life within a 24-hour period. Three months later, these photographs, representing first-hand experiences of Hong Kongers, were collected and exhibited as One Day in Hong Kong.
Thirty-three years later, using research on Hong Kong art histories as a framework, Asia Art Archive organized “Another Day in Hong Kong”, raising the question: Given that a record of a day in the future was able to be documented, can we similarly reconstruct a day that has already passed? Compiling statistics on all the dates in their database, a median day was identified: October 19, 1996. Just another ordinary day.
The archive interviewed over a hundred individuals from Hong Kong’s art community regarding their recollection of this particular day. Countless insignificant things and trivial matters happen on any given day. Our researchers’ greatest pleasure is encountering these so-called “trivial matters” absent from records in mainstream history. These “trivial matters” allow opportunities for identifying with the life of another time and place, infusing history with humanity.
Through archives, personal memories, imagination, as well as artistic interventions, this exhibition aims to trigger fresh perspectives on art and history, allowing us to get closer to this one day in Hong Kong.
This exhibition was a beautiful reminder that life is a collection of single days strung together, each offering a fresh start and the potential for change. What makes a day truly significant is not its duration but the choices we make within that time frame. Our lives are a continuous cycle of learning and growing; each day is a chapter in our personal story. We are all connected by simply living and being here together, specifically in societies that are more driven by the collective, such as Eastern cultures; the ties we have to each other's well-being in our daily choices is felt even more profound.
Additionally, it served as a powerful testament to the importance of archival work in preserving our collective histories. Archives are the custodians of our society, crucial for preserving and making accessible the voices of those who may have been marginalized or felt insignificant in their time. Their memories, captured on a single day, now form part of an exhibition that celebrates and categorizes the organic and mechanical solidarity we must all uphold as a society. It's a reminder of our collective responsibility to ensure we are not lost to time.
* Another Day in Hong Kong was curated by Anthony Yung and Hazel Kwok, in collaboration with Isabella Chan, Aki Kung and Leah Lam. Site Link