May Fung

Part of ...Will Be Televised: Video Documents From Asia. As Hong Kong readies for the inevitable change of governance in 1997, these young artists contemplate their shared history and present anxiety. Poised on the cusp of a great change, these artists mix their ambiguous feelings towards the British colonial past wit nostalgia for a national identity. The expected return to the "motherland" of China takes on an ominous cast in the light of the Tiananmen Square events. The eclectic mix of style and rhetoric that characterizes this compilation reflects the myriad of influences that besiege this international center, a crossroad of culture and controversy whose next location in history has yet to be determined. Works: Image of a City by May Fung and Danny Yung; Group Exercise by Victor Chan and Kuan Punleong; Diversion and TV Game of the Year by Ellen Pau; She Said Why Me by May Fung.

This video juxtaposes scholar Ackbar ABBAS’s text on identity politics with images of Hong Kong throughout the decades before the 1997 handover, including the 1967 riots and the 1989 parade in support of the Tiananmen Square protesters. As quoted from the narration, ‘Only something that's about to disappear becomes an image’.

A woman travels, blindfolded, from an ancient countryside temple to a bustling city. Her surroundings change, but her sense of unease lingers. The director uses a distinctively female perspective to combine the past and present. Made in December 1989, the film expresses a sense of anxiety permeating Hong Kong during that time.