Kings’ Inscriptions hypnotic old and new Chinese calligraphy
Contemporary interpretations of traditional Chinese calligraphy
Blessings to Hong Kong, Gold paint on purple water-resistant fabric, Lee Yun Woon
Kings’ Inscriptions through Chinese calligraphy
A king is commemorated, and his deeds celebrated, and made known throughout the ages through the art of Chinese calligraphy.
Langya Terrace Inscription, Ink on paper, ink rubbing, horizontal scroll, Collection of Fung Ping Shan Library, The University of Hong Kong
Since the earliest days of China, emperors have inscribed their messages on monumental steles [upright stone slabs with writing cut into them] in public spaces.
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Years later, following the invention of paper, their devotees made rubbings of their inscriptions to carry the words far and wide.
In our contemporary era, it is the art and inscriptions of self-proclaimed kings, such as the King of Kowloon and Hong Kong graffiti artist Frog King, among others, that capture our imagination.
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These works are now celebrated in Kings’ Inscriptions, a unique joint exhibition organised by the University Museum and Art Gallery at Hong Kong University together with Oi! Gallery in Fortress Hill.
Inscription on the Mausoleum of the Ming Emperor, Ink rubbing album, Collection of Prof Li Yui Ching
The exhibition, the second in the Archaic Curator Series, pairs a group of rubbings, images, and albums of ancient Chinese calligraphy and inscriptions with a set of newly commissioned contemporary works by seven artists from Hong Kong and overseas.
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Dr Sarah Ng, curator of the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG), aims to introduce traditional Chinese calligraphy to a broader audience. “It is the first time that contemporary artists have been invited to contribute, and be paired with, traditional inscriptions and rubbings.
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Visitors range from the local community who want to enjoy the artspace at Oi!, to those who attend the exhibition at UMAG and are more focused on the art itself.”
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Oi!, a space for community and contemporary art, occupies the renovated 1908 former home of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, now a Grade II historic building. Kings’ Inscriptions is one of the first shows at its newly expanded Oi! Glassie building.
3 Chinese calligraphy inscriptions related to kings, ancient and modern
UMAG, established initially as the Fung Ping Shan Library in 1932, was re-conceived as an art museum in 1953.
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There, pieces from the traditional oeuvre, along with work by an additional contemporary artist, give further depth and perspective to the concept of kings’ inscriptions.
The exhibition is anchored by three Chinese calligraphy inscriptions related to kings, ancient and modern.
The First Emperor of China: The Stele of Mount Yi and its Rubbings
“The first king to be introduced in the exhibition is the most important,” explains Dr Ng. “The very term emperor begins with him.”
Qin dynasty Stele Inscriptions Album, Collection of Fung Ping Shan Library, The University of Hong Kong
Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BC), the first ruler of a united China, established the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC). The stone Stele of Mount Yi, located on a mountaintop in Shandong, commemorates the first patrol by Qin Shi Huang.
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To create inscriptions like this, a famous calligrapher would ink the words, while a specialist stonecutter did the cutting; Qin Shi Huang’s stele was the earliest stone engraving on Mount Yi, and it was said to have been written in seal script by the counsellor-in-chief Li Si.
Qin Shi Huang’s stele
The original stele was lost, but a recut originally erected in Chang’an was made by Zheng Wenbao in the year 993, based on a hand-traced copy now housed in Xi’an Beilin Museum.
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Because few people visit the remote Mount Yi, ink rubbings of the stele began at least as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907).
Stele of Mount Yi, Yuan Dynasty Edition (Detail)
Dr Ng says, “The original function of inscriptions was this: to deliver a message to everybody, using a tough, durable material to do so; it is costly to cut something into stone, so people tend to believe it is true. Then, starting from the Sung dynasty, from around 992 onwards, they began to make official rubbings to create an album. Or people might make rubbings as a collectable.”
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Most rubbings are done in black and white. But for special occasions, or to commemorate a newly cut stone, the more costly vermilion versions were done.
Kings’ Inscription Exhibition
One such vermilion rubbing, taken in the twentieth century, is on display at the UMAG exhibition.
Rubbings can be showcased at full size or folded into an album.
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For the Inscription on Mount Tai from the Tang dynasty, whose monumental original stands nearly eight metres tall, the album rubbing captures just two characters per page.
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Rubbings are also taken of epitaphs on mausoleums, like the ink rubbing album taken from an inscription on the Mausoleum of the Ming Emperor in Anhui province, written by Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398).
Inscription on Mount Tai from the Tang Dynasty Ink rubbing album
Exiled Child Kings in Hong Kong: The Sung Wong Toi Inscription Rock
The next is a piece of local history in Hong Kong. Legend has it that in the thirteenth century AD, the child king Zhao Shi of the late Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) and his younger brother Zhao Bing fled the Mongol invaders and visited Hong Kong to hide on a hill in Kowloon City.
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This made them the only kings ever recorded in history to have visited Hong Kong. Later, local villagers engraved Sung Wong Toi on a boulder on the hill where the kings hid, to remember them.
Sung Wong Toi Inscription Rock, Ink rubbing
While the exact age of the rock is unknown, it claims to have been repaired at least as long ago as the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
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In the twentieth century, due to the expansion of the Kai Tak Airport, the Sung Wong Toi Inscription Rock was relocated to the current site of Sung Wong Toi Garden; even today, the new MTR station also bears this name.
Inscription about Sung Wong Toi in Kowloon (Chinese Version), Ink rubbing, Collection of Hong Kong Baptist University Library
Dr Ng and the team commissioned a new rubbing of that stone by a specialist, an involved process that begins with adhering the rubbing medium to the stone.
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The full-size result is on display at UMAG. Visitors to either location can understand the full procedure in a video produced for the exhibition.
The King of Kowloon: Street Artist and Claimant to the Throne
The third kingly inscriptions anchoring the exhibition are the street writing of the self-proclaimed “King of Kowloon”, Tsang Tsou Choi (1921-2007).
Untitled, 20th Century, Marker on paper, Tsang Tsou Choi (King of Kowloon), Collection from the King of Kowloon Culture and Art Foundation
When reviewing his ancestral belongings, Tsang claimed to have learned about his family’s ownership of Kowloon.
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After a car accident near Sam Shan Kwok Wong Temple in Ngau Chi Wan, he began to write graffiti on the streets, stating that he was an imperial descendant and that the land of Kowloon was his family’s property.
Tsang Tsou Choi “King of Kowloon”, writing text on a bridge pillar, Photo courtesy of Lau Kin Wai
From this street writing, the moniker “King of Kowloon” arose. His body of work, primarily presented in the format of a classic Chinese genealogy, meticulously records the lineage of Chinese kings within his family.
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“His is a collective memory rather than a real king,” says Dr Ng. “He positioned himself among other global royalty, including the Emperor of Vietnam and Queen Elizabeth II.”
Untitled, 20th Century, Marker on paper, Tsang Tsou Choi (King of Kowloon), Collection from the King of Kowloon Culture and Art Foundation
Dr Ng points out, “Therefore, we have three perspectives: the real king, the kings in trouble, and the fake king.”
Inscriptions, Rubbings and Kings: Contemporary Interpretations
The King of Kowloon’s public manifestos brought about a powerful, unexpected legacy: he is now revered as the founder of Hong Kong graffiti art.
Inscription on Mount Longjiao from the Tang Dynasty, Ink rubbing, Collection of Prof Lee Yun Woon
Kwok Mang Ho, a contemporary graffiti artist known as the Frog King, considers himself to be his spiritual successor.
According to his personal statement, the Frog King’s installation at UMAG incorporates Chinese calligraphy, printed ink rubbings and collage, to “proclaim my royal identity and aspire to achieve lasting recognition through my name.
Calligraphy and Printed Ink Rubbings for the Ultra-space Frog Utopia, Kwok Mang Ho (Frog King), Installation
Texts can record personal stories, as well as unite a nation and its people, allowing the transmission of history and culture to future generations.”
Other contemporary pieces in Kings’ Inscriptions build on the written work of these three kings, and their successors, from a variety of viewpoints.
Dragon – Phoenix, 2023, Ink on paper, Leong Lampo
Dragon • Phoenix, a modern painting with a contemporary style by Leong Lampo, plays with the traditional concepts of heaven and earth in Chinese cosmology – represented, respectively, by a circle and a square.
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The piece incorporates a rhythmic cursive Chinese calligraphy blended with an ink structure that combines squares and circles; the dots represent the genetic material of DNA.
Variant Character Inkscape, Ink on paper, Lee Wing Ki
To produce Variant Character Inkscape, Lee Wing Ki scanned and archived the “variant characters” from a 1955 lexicon published by the Chinese Character Reformation Committee of the People’s Republic of China, which were banned from printed publications in the country as of the following year.
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These variant characters were then combined digitally and reprinted as abstract inkscapes, to re-imagine the replacement of the characters as a continuous work in progress.
Variant Character Inkscape (Detail), Ink on paper, Lee Wing Ki
As a Chinese artist living abroad, Yeung Yuk Kan used the monoprint technique to create a printed porcelain sculpture, Eastern Echo Series.
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The monoprint on the porcelain objects is inspired by the ink rubbings of Chinese calligraphy inscriptions from the Qin dynasty cliffs, while the text arose from a personal collection of meaningful words from the artist’s family and friends
Eastern Echo Porcelain, Hand-built, hand-painted and monoprint porcelain, Yeung Yuk Kan
In a reinterpretation of the album format of black and white rubbings, Tso Cheuk Yim has composed a new poem that also forms the title of the artwork, Under the Lion Rock.
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It adopts the style of Chinese calligraphy used on the Gwanggaeto Stele and is framed in the conventional form of an album as a response to the traditions of Chinese culture.
Under the Lion Rock, 2023, Ink on paper, Tso Cheuk Yim
However, it is presented as a three-dimensional work, unfolded and upright.
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The youngest and oldest artists of the exhibition developed their work in a black-and-white format that draws from traditional styles but in each case holds a deeper meaning.
Mottos of The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2023, Ink on paper, Lee Yun Woon
Lee Yun Woon, who graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong half a century ago, has created a work at UMAG that presents calligraphy bearing the mottoes of the two universities titled Mottos of The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Leung Kwan Kiu, who was born in Hong Kong and graduated with a PhD from the Royal College of Art, London in 2018, has presented a triptych, I love You, inspired by Chinese calligraphy but in the medium of oil on canvas.
I Love You, Oil on canvas, Leung Kwan Kiu
The exhibition recalls that rubbings are a fundamentally participatory form of art. Both locations include an educational corner available to people who would like to try their own rubbings.
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By weaving together ancient Chinese history, Hong Kong’s local history, and the collective memory of our community, the exhibition connects the past and the present, China and the world.
Text Jan Lee / Photos Jan Lee and Cammy Yiu
