Kurt Tong describes the series as a photographic exploration of his own heritage and ancestry, and how it relates to the socio and geopolitical history of Hong Kong.
The Queen, The Chairman and I was made over four years across three continents.
Drawing on Tong’s Chinese, Hong Kong and British connections, the exhibition combines new large-scale photographs, alongside heirloom photographs and rare colour film footage from the 1940s.
By doing so, Tong uncovers his family secrets, revealing the impact of political and economic forces on individual people.
Tong’s paternal grandfather was a deckhand who arrived in Hong Kong from Shanghai after the fall of the last imperial Chinese dynasty in 1911, lured by better job prospects in the relatively stable British colony.
His mother’s family were landlords in Southern China, Tong believes they “came to Hong Kong to escape certain death at the hands of Mao’s advancing Communist armies.”
Tong grew up in Hong Kong, singing the British National Anthem throughout his school years. He came to the UK to continue his education only returning to Hong Kong in 2012.
Tong says: “I traced the history of my family in a bid to find out how two of the most influential people in history, Queen Victoria and Chairman Mao, affected my family.
“Giving equal importance to new photographs, found photographs and writing, this project reconnects me with the Hong Kong of the past,” Tong says, “through the recollections of my extended family, humanising the political and social upheaval that took my family to Hong Kong and eventually to the United Kingdom.”
Coinciding with Chinese New Year on 28 January 2017, this will be the first time the project has been shown in its entirety.
Central to the exhibition is a contemporary Chinese teahouse installation where visitors are invited to drink tea, read Tong’s artist book, and share their own family stories.
This exhibition is part of Views from China, a six month programme of exhibitions at Impressions focusing on Chinese culture.
Kurt Tong’s The Queen, The Chairman and I is on show at Impressions Gallery from 16 December 2016 to 18 March 2017.
