This essentializing xenophobia has come to be a defining factor in the relationship between the two sides of the Shenzhen River and, paradoxically, it has complicated the pro-democracy (and anti-Beijing) discourses and activism rejuvenated in the wake of the SARS crisis.

Less gloriously however, the main measure taken to alleviate the economic meltdown caused by SARS, namely the option for Mainland citizens to visit the territory on individual visas, lead to medicalized vocabularies and imageries reminiscent of epidemics being used in relation to the growing number of Mainland Chinese in Hong Kong, who are seen as pathogens that corrupt an otherwise healthy social body. The unparalleled shutdown of Hong Kong in 2003 due to SARS and the subsequent atomization of society into quarantined segments, paradoxically led to the emergence of an active political community in the territory, as manifested in the pro-democracy marches that have grown into major events since then. In Hong Kong, the fear of infecting agents has always resonated with a fear of other people, quarantine has mirrored exclusion, whilst epidemiological, racial and cultural contamination have shared the same language. The city has a subjectively internalized history of epidemics and of representations in the colonial era as an infected land that needed to be conquered from nature, disease and oriental habits in order to be made healthy, modern and profitable.

Nevertheless, it departs from and remains strongly connected to an exploration of the events that affected Hong Kong in the spring of 2003: the most significant airborne epidemic in recent years, the SARS crisis, coupled with the tragic death of pop figure and pan-Asian icon Leslie Cheung. As a touring exhibition, it shifts its center of gravity under the influence of magnetic forces in each location on its itinerary. Hong, Im Heungsoon, Rustam Khalfin, Kim Kyungman, Kim So Youn, Takiji Kobayashi, Irene Kopelman, Firenze Lai, Lam Qua, Jeonglok Lee, Lee Kit, Len Lye, Ma Liuming, Fionnuala McHugh, Moe Satt, Josef Ng, Pak Sheung Chuen, Lygia Pape, Para/Site Art Criticism Class 2003, Jina Park, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Adrian Wong, Ming Wong, Ricky Yeung Sau-churk, Yi Chong-jun, Samson Young, Zuni Icosahedron/Mathias Woo & Edward LamĬurated by Cosmin Costinas and Inti GuerreroĪ Journal of the Plague Year was first shown at Para Site, Hong Kong during the summer of 2013. Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11–20h (11–21h on 24 September & 29 October), open September 1Īi Weiwei, Bernd Behr, Natalia Sui-hung Chan, Oscar Chan Yik Long, Yin-Ju Chen, George Chinnery, Megan Cope, Dung Kai-cheung, Larry Feign, Katsushika Hokusai, James T.

A journal of the plague